Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was crucified on a wooden cross, then rose from the dead three days later. Christ is the Messiah fortold in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Gospels, or the first four books of the New Testament, tell the story of the life, teachings, and crucifixion of Jesus.

Birth and Early Life
The Gospel of Luke tells the story of how a virgin named Mary sees an angel named Gabriel that tells of God's plan to inpregnate her with the Son of God fortold in the Old Testament. The father of Jesus chosen was a man named Joseph.

An order of Caesar Augustus had forced Mary and Joseph to leave their homes in Nazareth and come to the home of Joseph's ancestors, the house of David, for the Census of Quirinius. After Jesus' birth, the couple was forced to use a manger in place of a crib because of a shortage of accommodation (Luke 2:1–7). An angel announced Jesus' birth to shepherds who left their flocks to see the newborn child and who subsequently publicized what they had witnessed throughout the area.

Nobody knows the exact date of Christ's birth, but the Gospel of Matthew tells that Christ's birth was under the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 B.C. Christians celebrate Christ's birth on Christmas day.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the "Wise Men" or "Magi" bring gifts to the infant Jesus after following a star which they believe was a sign that the King of the Jews had been born (Matthew 2:1–12). King Herod hears of Jesus' birth from the Wise Men and tries to kill him by massacring all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two (the "massacre of the innocents"). The family flees to Egypt and remains there until Herod's death, whereupon they settle in Nazareth to avoid living under the authority of Herod's son and successor Archelaus (Matthew 2:19–23).

Jesus' childhood home is identified as the town of Nazareth in Galilee. Except for Matthew's "flight into Egypt", and a short trip to Tyre and Sidon (in what is now Lebanon), the Gospels place all other events in Jesus' life in ancient Israel.

Only Luke tells that Jesus was found teaching in the temple by his parents after being lost. The Finding in the Temple (Luke 2:41–52) is the only event between Jesus' infancy and baptism mentioned in any of the canonical Gospels, however infancy gospels were popular in antiquity. According to Luke, Jesus was "about thirty years of age" when he was baptized (Luke 3:23). In Mark, Jesus is called a carpenter. Matthew says he was a carpenter's son, however, the Greek word used in the Gospel is "tekton" meaning "builder", which suggests he could have been an artisan of some type as well.(Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55).