Introduction
Jesus of Nazareth (Hebrew: Yeshua ha-Notzri—Greek: Iēsous ho Nazōraios) was born circa 6–4 BC (3758–3755 in the Hebrew calendar) in the Roman client state of Judea. His mother, Mary, was a young woman whom the angel Gabriel visited to announce Jesus' virgin birth and the arrival of a new Messiah. His adoptive father, Joseph, was a tradesman (Greek: tektōn; G5045), working in stonemasonry and carpentry. Mary was a virgin of about fifteen years when Jesus was born. He was born on December 25th, a date attested by early church leaders such as Euodius of Antioch (d. c. AD 64–69), Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170–c. 235), and Julius Africanus (c. AD 180–c. 250). Circa AD 204, Hippolytus wrote:
The first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, was December 25th, a Wednesday, while Augustus was in his forty-second year, but from Adam, five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty-third year, March 25th, Friday, the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls (Commentary on Daniel 4.23.3).
The gospels list four brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude (Matt. 13:55–56; Mark 6:3)—along with some unnamed sisters. Jesus' brothers doubted his messianic identity before the resurrection (John 7:3–5). However, they all believed once they saw Jesus among the apostles following the resurrection (Acts 1:14). James went on to serve as the leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13–21, 21:17–18). He also wrote a letter that mirrored Jesus' teaching (James 1:1). Jude also wrote an epistle, calling himself the "brother of James" (Jude 1:1). In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul called James "the Lord's brother" (Gal. 1:19).
In the gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke, his genealogy featured ancestry on both paternal and maternal sides, linking to David, the renowned king of Israel (Matt. 1; Luke 2). This bloodline proved that Jesus was the legitimate heir to Israel's ancient monarchy, which was a problem for the ruling client king, Herod (r. 37 BC–AD 4)—although half Jewish—was appointed by the Romans and had no royal lineage. Because of this perceived threat, Herod told his soldiers to murder every boy who was two years old or younger (Matt. 2:16–18). Matthew contrasted the illegitimate rule of not only Herod with Jesus but also Caesar Augustus (r. 27 BC–AD 14). Whereas Augustus fortified the Roman Empire through a brutal military campaign known as the "Roman Peace" (Latin: Pax Romana), Jesus came to bring God's kingdom through peaceful means—ironically, as an infant.
Jesus the Jew
The ethnonym "Jew" refers equally to the religion of Judaism, the ethnic tribe of Judah, and the political boundaries of Judea. In short, this means a Jewish person has a religious and ethnic heritage starting in the eastern Mediterranean. Jesus himself was from Judah (Matt. 1:2–3), the leader of Israel's twelve tribes, whom the scriptures assign the Messiah (Matt. 2:6; Heb. 7:14, 8:8; Rev. 5:5). In the introduction of his account, Matthew summarized Jesus' ancestry, saying:
Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah (Matt. 1:17).
Jesus' heritage is impressive, as it goes back to the beginning of the Jewish people, starting with God's covenant with Abraham. Matthew highlighted the number fourteen because this was the mathematical value of David's name in Hebrew: 4 + 6 + 4 (ד ו ד) = 14.
Luke was the only evangelist of the four (i.e., Matthew, Mark, and John) to mention Jesus' childhood. However, this was merely one event when Jesus was twelve years old and stayed at the temple for three days without his parents' knowledge. During this time, Jesus sat down with Israel's teachers, asking them questions and offering good responses (Luke 2:41–51). In context, their families expected each Jewish boy to learn about the scriptures between ages five and twelve. When they finished learning, the family celebrated their status as a "son of the commandment" (Hebrew: bar mitzvah; H1274, H4687) and their transition from childhood to adulthood. Part of this education was the memorization of a passage. Unlike the other Jewish boys, Jesus could interpret the text instead of merely recalling the words.
Before Jesus started his ministry, the devil tempted him three times in the desert over forty days (Luke 4:1–13). These temptations alluded to the same ones the ancient Israelites failed in. However, Jesus overcame these trials: 1) He was satisfied with God's sustenance for him, unlike the Israelites who complained about eating manna instead of meat, and 2) Jesus declined the prospects of fame, fortune, and money in leading a revolt against the Roman Empire and becoming its Caesar. The Israelites were treacherous in their yearning for Egyptian wealth instead of being content with God's blessing (Exod. 16:3); 3) In his third temptation, the devil asked Jesus to test God by throwing himself from the steepest pinnacle of the temple. However, the theme here is not suicide but the sin of trying God (Deut. 6:16). The faithless Israelites tested God's patience when they quarreled with Moses until he demanded God to provide water (Exod. 17:1–3). They did not believe God would take care of them. The devil was right about God sending his angels, but he distorted the context of Psalm 91:11. When Jesus decided to obey God, the angels did come to serve him. Luke intended to show Jesus as the faithful Israel who follows God, unlike the Israelites who broke their covenant with him.
Jesus, King of the Jews
In the same way, Jesus revealed his humanity in the context of Judaism; he also showed his divinity. When Moses asked for the divine name at the beginning of the Israelites' exodus, God told him, "I AM WHO I AM" (Exod. 3:14). This is the Tetragrammaton, a Greek word describing the four Hebrew consonants יהוה that spells out the phrase Yahweh (YHWH; H3068). This context is essential to know when reading the seven "I Am" statements of Jesus:
I am the bread of life (John 6:35–51).
I am the gate of the sheep (John 10:7–9).
I am the good shepherd (John 10:11–14).
I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25).
I am the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6).
I am the true vine (John 15:1).
Each statement refers to God's character. Jesus is the bread of life in the same way the Father gave manna—the bread of angels—to the Israelites (Ps. 78:25). He offers light to the world just as God preserved the oil for the temple's menorah after the desecration of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 175–164 BC), a Greek king of Syria who tried to enforce Hellenization onto the Jewish people (1 Macc. 4:36–50 Common English Bible). The festival of Hanukkah (H2597, "Dedication;" cf. John 10:22) celebrates the successful Maccabean revolt, which stopped Antiochus from building a graven image of himself and conducting pagan sacrifice. As the good shepherd, Jesus contrasted himself with Judea's religious leaders, who sold out their people to the Romans to gain money and privilege, much like the Hellenistic Jews who allied themselves with Antiochus against their fellow Jews. The Hellenists and the Sanhedrin each were, "The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it" (John 10:12). Jesus is the gate, the security for God's people, and our salvation because he laid down his life for us so that we may live (John 10:7–18). For this reason, the early Christians described their movement as "the Way" (e.g., Acts 9:2), from Jesus' claim to be "the way and the truth and the life."
Jesus' most important "I Am" statement was, "Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I Am!" (John 8:58). Compared to the primary seven, this one was overtly blasphemous in the minds of the Judean religious leaders. While the other "I am" statements were implicit, this claim to not only be older than Abraham (John 8:53–57) but also the direct use of God's name was unheard of. Even Jews today refuse to spell out any form of it. Instead, they use alternative spellings such as "L–rd" or "G–d." The Jewish leaders who anticipated the Messiah could not fathom this man using the divine name. Incidentally, the Hebrew variation of "Jesus"—Yeshua (H3442, "God saves")—features an abbreviated version of Yahweh. In response, the religious leaders picked up stones to kill Jesus for his apparent blasphemy. Jesus intended this obvious claim to divinity to set off the events leading to his crucifixion.
Jesus' earthly ministry focused on the inauguration of God's kingdom. This reality makes him a king, which is why Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judea, ironically had the title JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS nailed above his head on the cross (Matt. 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19). However, the kingdom of heaven is not of this world, but from God's will. Just as the "church" (Greek: ekklēsia; G1577) is a group of people united in Christ, the kingdom features the subjects who recognize God's authority. In his Pentecost sermon, Simon Peter informed his Jewish compatriots that Jesus had ascended to heaven and shared power with God (Acts 2:14–36). David foresaw this when he wrote, "The LORD says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'" (Ps. 110:1; Acts 2:34–35).
Trilemma: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord
In Mere Christianity, British apologist C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) wrote:
I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, spit at him and kill him as a demon, or fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that he was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God (pp. 55–56).
Commentators refer to this as the "Lewis trilemma," a three-part christological problem in which the author intended for his readers to pick only one of the three options: 1) Was Jesus a liar? 2) a lunatic? 3) or the Lord? Many of his contemporaries identified him as a "teacher" or "rabbi," including even the Judean religious leaders (e.g., Matt. 12:38; John 3:2). That said, the New Testament was not written because Jesus was simply a good teacher. Hillel (c. 110 BC–c. AD 8) was also a "good teacher" in the first century, a rabbi whom Jews still read today.
Conclusion
Finally, the "Lewis trilemma" leads us to Jesus' main question for everyone who follows him: "Who do you say I am?" (Matt. 16:15). As Christians, we repeat what Simon Peter declared: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). It is on this foundational bedrock that Jesus builds his church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. He gives us the keys of heaven's kingdom; whatever we bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Truthfully, the "rock" is Peter's confession, as well as the apostles who serve as the foundation of Christendom (Matt. 16:18–19; Eph. 2:20). This is why it is vital to teach paleo-orthodoxy, acknowledging our roots in apostolic succession (see "Paleo-Orthodoxy & Succession"). Jesus is neither a liar nor a lunatic; he is the Lord.
Prayer
Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the universe; in your tender love for us, you sent your Son to take upon himself our nature and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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