Jesus Video Showcase

The Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity.http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Bible Dictionary.com Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic.See: McDonald and Sanders's The Canon Debate, 2002.Wright, N.T. The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God?Getting Beyond the Bible Wars. HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0060872616 / 9780060872618 It is traditionally divided into three parts: the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), the Neviim ("prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("writings"). Christianity recognises as canonical the books of the Tanakh'', in a different order, as the Old Testament. In Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, additional books, called the Deuterocanonical, are included, which Protestantism regards as apocryphal. All Christians also recognise the New Testament, a collection of early Christian writings that consists of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse. There exist New Testament apocrypha which have not been generally recognised.

God is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism.Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1995.

God is most often conceived of as the supernatural creator and overseer of the universe. Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the many different conceptions of God. The most common among these include omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent". These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Maimonides, Augustine of Hippo,Edwards, Paul. "God and the philosophers" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1995. and Al-Ghazali,Platinga, Alvin. "God, Arguments for the Existence of," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge, 2000. respectively. Many notable medieval philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God. Many notable philosophers and intellectuals have, by contrast, developed arguments against the existence of God.

Jesus of Nazareth (c 4 BC/BCE ? c 30 AD/CE)Sanders (1993).—also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations

Jesus is venerated as the Son of God and as God incarnate. Christians also view him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament; however, Judaism rejects these claims. Islam considers Jesus a prophet and also the MessiahAbdulsalam, M. "Jesus in Islam". IslamReligion.com. 19 February 2008. while several other religions revere him in some way.

The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels,"The Gospel of John is quite different from the other three gospels, and it is primarily in the latter that we must seek information about Jesus." Sanders (1993), p. 57.Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar (1998). The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. Introduction, pp. 1?40. ISBN 978-0-06-062978-6

though some scholars argue that other texts (such as the Gospel of Thomas) are as relevant as the canonical gospels to the historical Jesus.Levine, Amy-Jill, "Visions of Kingdoms: From Pompey to the First Jewish Revolt (63 BCE?70 CE)", in Coogan, Michael D. (ed.) (1998). The Oxford History of the Biblical World, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 370-371. ISBN 978-0-19-508707-9

Most critical scholars in the fields of history and biblical studies believe that some parts of the New Testament are useful for reconstructing Jesus' life,Funk, Robert W.; Hoover, Roy W.; and the Jesus Seminar (1993). The Five Gospels. New York: Maxwell Macmillan. "Introduction," p. 1?30. ISBN 978-0-02-541949-0Harris, Stephen L. (1985). Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. pp. 255?260 ISBN 978-0-87484-696-6Crossan, John Dominic (1998). The essential Jesus. Edison, NJ: Castle Books. ISBN 978-0-7858-0901-2Examples of authors who argue the Jesus myth hypothesis:

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*Martin, Michael (1991). The Case Against Christianity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 36?72. ISBN 978-1-56639-081-1

*John Mackinnon Robertson

agreeing that he was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and healer. They also generally accept that he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire.Brown, Raymond E. (1994). The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the grave: a commentary on the Passion narratives in the four Gospels. New York: Doubleday, Anchor Bible Reference Library. p. 964. ISBN 978-0-385-19397-9Carson, D. A., et al., pp. 50?56.Cohen (1987) pp. 78, 93, 105, 108Crossan, The Historical Jesus, pp. xi?xiii.Grant, Michael. pp. 34?35, 78, 166, 200.Paula Fredriksen, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, Alfred B. Knopf, 1999, pp. 6?7, 105?110, 232?234, 266; John P. Meier, vol. 1:68, 146, 199, 278, 386, 2:726; Sanders (1993), pp. 12?13; Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew (Philadelphia: Fortress Press 1973), p. 37.; Paul L. Maier, In the Fullness of Time, Kregel, 1991, pp. 1, 99, 121, 171; N. T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, HarperCollins, 1998, pp. 32, 83, 100?102, 222; Ben Witherington III, pp. 12?20.Though many historians may have certain reservations about the use of the Gospels for writing history, "even the most hesitant, however, will concede that we are probably on safe historical footing" concerning certain basic facts about the life of Jesus; Jo Ann H. Moran Cruz and Richard Gerberding, Medieval Worlds: An Introduction to European History Houghton Mifflin Company 2004, pp. 44?45.

Aside from these few conclusions, academic studies remain inconclusive about the chronology, the central message of Jesus' preaching, his social class, cultural environment, and religious orientation. Scholars offer competing descriptions of Jesus as the awaited Messiah,For instance Brown, Raymond E. (1979). The Birth of the Messiah. Garden City, NY: Image Books. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-385-05405-8

as a self-described Messiah, as the leader of an apocalyptic movement, as an itinerant sage, as a charismatic healer, and as the founder of an independent religious movement.

Christian views of Jesus (see also Christology) center on the belief that Jesus is divine, is the Messiah whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament, and that he was resurrected after his crucifixion. Theologian and bishop Lesslie Newbigin says "the whole of Christian teaching would fall to the ground if it were the case that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were not events in real history but stories told to illustrate truths which are valid apart from these happenings."J. E. L. Newbigin, The Gospel In a Pluralist Society. (London: SPCK, 1989), p.66. Christians do predominantly believe that Jesus is the "Son of God" (generally meaning that he is God the Son, the second person in the Trinity) who came to provide salvation and reconciliation with God by his death for their sins. Other Christian beliefs include Jesus' virgin birth, performance of miracles, ascension into Heaven, and a future Second Coming. While the doctrine of the Trinity is accepted by most Christians, a few groups reject the doctrine of the Trinity, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.

In Islam, Jesus (, commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets,Houlden, James L. (2005). Jesus: The Complete Guide. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-8011-8Prof. Dr. ?aban Ali Düzgün, "Uncovering Islam: Questions and Answers about Islamic Beliefs and Teachings", Ankara: The Presidency of Religious Affairs Publishing, 2004 a bringer of scripture, and a worker of miracles. Jesus is also called "Messiah", but Islam does not teach that he was divine. Islam teaches that Jesus ascended bodily to heaven without experiencing the crucifixion and resurrection,Compendium of Muslim Texts rather than the traditional Christian belief of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Category: File - :HolySpiritByMurillo.jpg|thumb|210px|The Holy Spirit depicted as a dove above child Jesus, painting by Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo

In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. In mainstream (Trinitarian) Christian beliefs he is the third person of the Trinity. As part of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is equal with God the Father and with God the Son.

The Christian theology of the Holy Spirit was the last piece of Trinitarian theology to be fully developed. There is also greater diversity in Christian theology of the Spirit (pneumatology) than there is in the theology of the Son (Christology) or of the Father.

:See also: Crucifixion of Jesus.

Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (of various shapes) and left to hang until dead. The term comes from the Latin crucifixio ("fixed to a cross", from the prefix cruci-, "cross", + verb ficere, "fix or do".AllWords.com)

Crucifixion was in use particularly among the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, when in the year 337 Emperor Constantine I abolished it in his empire, out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion.Encyclopaedia Britannica Online: crucifixionCrucifixion It was also used as a form of execution in Japan, of both criminals and Christians.

A crucifix (an image of Christ crucified on a cross) is the main religious symbol for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, but most Protestant Christians prefer to use a cross without the figure (the "corpus" - Latin for "body") of Christ. The term crucifix derives from the Latin crucifixus or cruci fixus (itself the past participle passive of crucifigere or cruci figere, "crucify", "fix to a cross."Online Etymology Dictionary)