User:Silence/Gospel

Birth and childhood
According to the Gospels, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Mary, a virgin, via the Holy Spirit. In the Gospels, Jesus' birth is attended by visits from shepherds who were told of the birth by angels. Magi ("Wise Men") from the East were guided by a star to his location some months later.
 * Jesus

Jesus' childhood home is represented as Nazareth in Galilee. Only one incident between his infancy and his adult life is mentioned in the canonical Gospels (although New Testament apocrypha go into these details, some quite extensively). At the age of twelve, Jesus was left behind by his parents after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On being missed, he was found "instructing the scholars in the temple".

Since the focus of each of the gospel accounts is primarily found in Jesus' later life with special emphasis on the three year period of ministry prior to the Crucifixion, it is considered likely that the childhood narratives are non-historical.
 * Historical Jesus

Jesus Christ, whom some believe was the promised Messiah, was born in Bethlehem, while Nazareth in Galilee was his childhood home.
 * New Testament view on Jesus' life

Of the four Gospels, the Nativity (birth) is mentioned only in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. Both infancy accounts support the doctrine of the Virgin Birth, in which Jesus was miraculously conceived in his mother's womb by the Holy Spirit, when his mother was still a virgin.
 * Christian views of Jesus

According to these accounts, Jesus was born while Joseph and Mary, Joseph's betrothed, were visiting Bethlehem from their native Nazareth. Mary is also commonly referred to as "the Virgin Mary" or, as Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox call her, "the Mother of God" (see Theotokos).

Details of the two accounts appear to be at variance with each other. For example, Luke reports that the parents lived at Nazareth, but, according to Matthew, they settled in Nazareth after their return from Egypt, an event that Luke does not mention. Matthew further explained that Joseph and Mary fled with the baby Jesus to Egypt after they had been warned by an angel of the Massacre of the Innocents.

Family background
Joseph, Mary's betrothed husband, appears only in stories of Jesus' childhood; this is generally taken to mean that he was dead by the time of Jesus' ministry.
 * Jesus

Mark 6:3 (and analogous passages in Matthew and Luke) reports that Jesus was "Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon," and also states that Jesus had sisters. The 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus and the Christian historian Eusebius (who wrote in the 4th century but quoted much earlier sources that are now lost) refer to James the Just as Jesus' brother (See Desposyni). However, Jerome argued that they were Jesus' cousins, which the Greek word for "brother" used in the Gospels would allow. This was based on the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition that Mary remained a perpetual virgin, thus having no biological children before or after Jesus. Luke's Gospel records that Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:36). The Bible, however, does not reveal exactly how Mary and Elizabeth were related.

Two of the Gospels (Matthew and Luke), refer to Joseph as Jesus' (foster) father. Joseph does not feature in any of the four canonical gospels, except in these childhood narratives; moreover, he does not feature in the Book of Acts, unlike Jesus' other relatives; these facts are generally taken to mean that he was dead by the time of Jesus' ministry.
 * Historical Jesus

Mark 6:3 (and analogous passages in Matthew and Luke) reports that Jesus was "Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon," and also states that Jesus had sisters. The Jewish historian Josephus and the Christian historian Eusebius (who wrote in the 4th century but quoted much earlier sources now unavailable to us) refer to James the Just as Jesus' brother (See Desposyni).

Jesus' mother was Mary. Two of the Gospels (Matthew and Luke), say that Jesus' father was God, whose Holy Spirit miraculously caused Mary to conceive, giving rise to a virgin birth, meaning that Joseph was Jesus' foster father. The other two Gospels, Mark and John, make no mention of Joseph at all, but in their first chapters refer to Jesus as the Son of God. The focus of each of the gospel accounts is primarily found in his later life with special emphasis on the three year period of ministry prior to the crucifixion; events following his baptism; his teachings and ministry; and the events leading up to his death.
 * New Testament view on Jesus' life

Mark 6:3 reports that Jesus was "Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon," and also states that Jesus had sisters. The Jewish historian Josephus and the Christian historian Eusebius (who wrote in the 4th century but quoted much earlier sources now unavailable to us) refer to James the Just as Jesus' brother (See Desposyni). However, Epiphanius argued that they were Joseph's children by his (unrecorded) first wife, while Jerome argued that they were Jesus' cousins, which the Greek word for "brother" used in the Gospels would allow. These alternatives support the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition that Mary remained a perpetual virgin, thus having no biological children before or after Jesus.

Gospels of Matthew and Luke also give the genealogies of Jesus beyond Mary and Joseph. Their accounts are somewhat different, but both Gospels agree that Jesus is a descendant of King David.

A few verses in the Gospels mention Jesus' "brothers". Some Christians argue it is not necessarily the case that "brother" must mean "child of same father and same mother". Indeed, half-brothers are called "brother" in very many human cultures throughout history and to the present day. Thus, they speculate that Joseph was likely much older man than Mary, a widower with children at the time of his betrothal to Mary, with their planned marriage being primarily a social arrangement to ensure Mary was economically provided for. This is supported by the observation that Joseph is not mentioned later in the Gospels, presumably due to his death. Some biblical scholars, particularly those who are Roman Catholic, go further, saying that in both Hebrew and Aramaic, the word for "brother" is also used to refer to cousins.
 * Christian views of Jesus

The New Testament tells little more about Jesus's childhood or young adulthood (See also Child Jesus). However, by the time he reached his 30s, the gospels all report that he had become known as a religious teacher.