Jesus Ministry

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Explain how the context of Jesus' life and ministry impacted on his teachings. (1000 words)
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“I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as an historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very centre of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.” HG Wells.

Christianity is the name given to a religion based on the first century life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The followers of Jesus claimed that he was the Jewish Messiah, the long awaited deliverer sent to the people of Israel by God to bring hope and salvation. During that first century, the followers of Jesus broke away from Judaism, and what we now …show more content…

While all four gospels tell of Jesus’ ministry and the last three years of his life, only the Gospels of Matthew and Luke tell us of Jesus’ birth and early years. These ‘infancy narratives’ are really myths and were written to place Jesus’ ministry in a strongly Jewish context. Matthew and Luke wanted to explain that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as some of the Jews expected that the Messiah would be born in that city, the birthplace of David (c. 900 BCE), the first king of Israel and a Messiah …show more content…

This is a highly metaphorical term which could have been taken by a Jew at the time to mean the re-establishment of Judea or, as it was understood later, the Christian heaven. Persently this important tem is understood in a number of ways by Christians. Pope Benedict XVI in his book Jesus of Nazareth, states that there are ‘three dimensions’ to the Church Fathers’ interpretation of the Kingdom of God. The first is that Jesus is himself the Kingdom in person, the second is that the kingdom is ‘within you’ and the third is expressed in the relationship between the ‘Kingdom of God’ and the

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