Jesus was a real Jewish person who lived in Israel around 2000 years ago. He gathered disciples and his ministry involved preaching, teaching, and healing people. He challenged Jewish traditions and authorities, which ultimately led to his crucifixion. His followers came to believe he had risen from the dead and went on to establish Christianity. Jesus taught using parables and emphasized compassion for all people. Accounts of his life and teachings were written decades later and form the basis of the Christian New Testament.

1. Jesus
Who was he?

2. Jesus
• Was a real person
• Was a Jew
• Was probably born during the reign of Herod
around 6 BCE
• Was brought up in the Judaic faith
• Was baptised by John

3. • Gathered disciples
• His ministry included preaching, teaching, healing
• Welcomed outcasts from the community
• Was crucified by Pontius Pilate
• His followers believed he had risen from the dead.

4. Jesus said…
• That he was the ‘Son of Man’, a special title Jews
knew from the writings of the prophet Daniel.
Spoke of having a unique relationship with God .
• Reinterpreted the Law and scriptures.
• Reminded the people of the spirit of the Law rather
than being legalistic about it. E.g. healed the sick on
Shabbat (Sabbath).

5. People thought….
• That Jesus was a kind person
who loved to mix with the
social out-castes e.g. poor, sick,
prostitutes, disabled.
• That Jesus was a troublemaker
who stirred up divisions in the
Jewish faith.
• That Jesus was a menacing but
powerful political force.
• That Jesus was crazy and his
following would eventually
diminish

6. Who liked Jesus?
• His first and most committed followers
were fellow Jews – possibly disciples of
John the Baptist
• He appealed to the sick (healing)
• He appealed to the poor (blessed are the poor)
• He appealed to the socially unacceptable (spoke to prostitutes
and did not judge)

7. didn’t like Jesus?
• People who saw him as an
extreme (but likable) cult
figure.
• Political leaders (Romans)
who didn’t want a trouble
maker amongst the people.
• Religious leaders who found Jesus’ teachings
undermined the basics of Judaism.

8. Teachings
• Jesus often used stories called parables to teach
• A parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that
illustrates a moral or religious lesson.
Parable of the mustard seed
Matthew 13: 31-32

9. The prodigal son
In “The prodigal son”, found in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells
the story of a man who has two sons.
The younger demands his share of his inheritance while
his father is still living, and goes off to a distant country
where he “squandered his property in dissolute living”and
eventually has to take work as a swine herder. There he
comes to his senses, and determines to return home and
throw himself on his father's mercy. But when he returns
home, his father greets him with open arms, and hardly
gives him a chance to express his repentance; he kills a
"fatted calf" to celebrate his return.
The older brother becomes jealous at the favoured
treatment of his faithless brother and upset at the lack of
reward for his own faithfulness.
But the father responds:
“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother
of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and
has been found.” Luke 15:31-32,

10. The good Samaritan
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is
a famous parable appearing only in
the gospel of Luke (10: 25 – 37).
This parable is told by Jesus in order to
illustrate that compassion should be
for all people, and that fulfilling the
spirit of the law is just as important
as fulfilling the letter of the Law.
Jesus puts the definition of neighbour
into an enlarged context, beyond
what people usually thought of as a
neighbour

11. THE GOOD SAMARITAN – video clip

12. What happened to Jesus?
• He was executed by the Roman government after
being arrested by the Jewish authorities and found
guilty of blasphemy. He was crucified on a wooden
cross, a very common way to execute criminals those
days.
• He was in his early 30s.
•Many of his followers deserted
him in the end but a number of women
followers stayed with him to the end.
•Soon after, his followers began to preach
that Jesus had risen from the dead.

13. The Outcome
• Some Roman officials and Jewish leaders were glad to be rid of him
• Many of his Jewish followers were distraught at his death
• They began to preach that Jesus
was the Christ, the Messiah.
• Other Jews did not accept that Jesus was their Messiah and
continue to await the Messiah today.

14. How do we know about
these events today?
• The ‘canonical’ Gospels – known as Matthew, Mark (the
earliest Gospel), Luke and John.
• The Gospels were written anonymously and were given their
titles later by the writers’ communities.
• Their accounts were written 70 to 100 years after Jesus’ death

15. GOSPELS
• In the Gospels are things which
Jesus said and did.
• In the Gospels we can learn
something of the writers’ own community
• Gospels were written in light of the Easter event
(Christ’s death and appearances)

16. Good news
• Gospel is a particular literary genre. It means "Good News" and is
not history as we know it but rather the writers put together the
stories they knew in a particular way to tell the story of Jesus, and to
portray Jesus in a particular way for a particular audience. All the
stories were written in light of Jesus death and resurrection.
• For example: Matthew wrote for a predominantly Jewish audience
so there are many more references to the Hebrew Scriptures, and
his genealogy has strong links to Abraham.
• Luke, on the other hand, writes for a Gentile (non-Jewish) audience
so he makes reference to a variety of ethnic and socio-economic
groups e.g. Samaritans. His genealogy goes back to the ‘beginning of
time' emphasising his inclusion of the ‘whole world’.
• These writers wrote with purpose and intention

17. The Quest for the
Historical Jesus
• Movement which tried to look behind the Gospels; behind the
Easter event to discover what Jesus actually said and did.
• Found that we can “know” very little.
• Is this more truthful?

18. Paul
• Had been a Rabbi
• Wrote heaps of letters to different established church
groups giving them advice on theological matters
e.g. Philippians, Corinthians, Ephesians etc.1 and 2
Thessalonians earliest writings in NT
• Was a missionary - traveled around preaching the gospel
- the good news of Jesus
• Believed that his mission was to be to non-Jews but often
began his preaching in the synagogues.

19. After that…
• 400 CE the council of
churches puts all the New
Testament gospels and
letters together and includes
the ancient Jewish
scriptures.
• The Bible as we know it is
formed!
• This was called the
Canonisation of the Bible.
=

20. Jesus outside the Christian
Scriptures
• Gnostic/non-canonical
gospels e.g. Gospel of
Thomas, gospel of
Mary, gospel of Judas
• Greco/Roman
literature e.g. Pliny,
• Jewish historian
Josephus