Jesus



Jesus

Christology - Study of Jesus

Christology is the critical and formal theological study of the person of Jesus as the Christ, especially of the union of the human and divine natures in him and of the importance of the Christ for Christian faith. The New Testament is more concerned about the acts and words of Jesus of Nazareth than his nature. The primary question it asks is he the Messiah (the Anointed One) or not, and if so, at what point did he become Messiah? In what may be the earliest Christology of all, Peter's sermon in Acts 3:20 implies that Jesus is the Messiah designatus, the Christ appointed to return in the future. By contrast, the sermon in Acts 2:30-33 seems to say that Jesus was "made" Lord and Messiah at his Resurrection. Deeper reflection on the Christ event pushes Jesus' messianic status or its clear manifestation back ever earlier: at his baptism in the Jordan (Mark 1:10-11), at his birth (Luke 1:31-33; Matt. 1:20-23), or, as the Gospel of John has it, before Creation, when the incarnate Christ was identified with the Logos (John 1:1-14).

Jesus from different concepts

Jesus of Nazareth is recognized as the founder of Christianity; he is generally believed to have been born in Judea to a Jewish mother around 3 BCE and crucified some 33 years later. Jesus's followers, who were all originally Jews, believed that he was the Messiah (in Greek, "Christ"), the savior who was promised in prophesies of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. Christianity eventually recognized him as part of the Holy Trinity along with God and the Holy Spirit. Christians believe his death on the cross acts as an atonement for human sin and that his bodily resurrection demonstrates his power over death (O'Carroll, 1992).

Jews have never accepted these ideas. Some Jewish ...