 | History of the Roman Catholic Church: Encyclopedia II - History of the Roman Catholic Church - Prologue: The ministry of Jesus of Nazareth c. 4 BC – AD 33
History of the Roman Catholic Church - Prologue: The ministry of Jesus of Nazareth c. 4 BC – AD 33
The Roman Catholic Church was founded on the person and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, known as Jesus Christ, "Christ" meaning the same as "Messiah". Jesus was a carpenter from the region of Galilee and observed the Jewish faith. Roman Catholicism thus considers itself a successor religion to Judaism with the Christian God and the God of the Jews seen as one and the same.
Some suppose that Jesus, when twelve years old, experienced a revelation in Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, realizing that he was the Son of God. This is an interpretation of the episode recounted in Luke's Gospel (Luke 2:41-50): when found there after being missing for three days, he responded to his mother's complaint with a question translated as either "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" or "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?"
When Jesus was about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23), he left the town of Nazareth and began a ministry of preaching and miraculous healing. In his preaching, he called for repentance (Mark 1:15), presenting God as a loving Father always ready to forgive. He also called on people to imitate the goodness and love of God towards all. He gained a following of people who saw him as a Rabbi, and in some cases wondered if he could be the Messiah; but he provoked the opposition of the religious leadership, who saw his teaching as contrary to traditional doctrine and practice, and felt that his hints about his own personal identity were blasphemous.
The final days of Jesus occurred in Jerusalem when Jesus was approximately in his mid 30s. Arrested by the Sanhedrin and charged with blasphemy, Jesus proclaimed himself the Messiah to the Sanhedrin, and he was handed over to authorities of the Roman Empire, who ruled the region as Iudaea Province, and who sentenced him to death after much persuasion from Jewish authorities. So began the Passion of Christ where Jesus was scourged, beaten, and crucified.
Some of his followers were convinced that, three days after Jesus died, he rose from the dead and sought them out. To Simon Peter, Jesus had earlier stated that he would entrust to him the keys to Heaven and that upon the rock of Peter he would found his Church. The Roman Catholic Church sees its history as beginning at this point, with Saint Peter as the first Pope.
History of the Roman Catholic Church - Key Dates
- c. 4 BC: Jesus of Nazareth is born in the town of Bethlehem. Church doctrine states that Jesus was the son of the Virgin Mary and that his father was the Holy Spirit, making Jesus the Son of God.
Although the calculations of Dionysius Exiguus put the birth of Jesus in the year that in consequence is called AD 1, history places his birth more likely some time between 6 and 4 BC.
- c. AD 30: Major preachings of Jesus, such as the Sermon on the Mount. The teachings of Jesus were later spread by several Apostles, and formed much of the material of the Gospels.
- c. AD 33: Jesus of Nazareth is crucified by Roman Empire authorities after Jewish leaders in Jerusalem accuse Jesus of blasphemy. He is believed to have been raised from the dead by God three days later, and to have instructed his followers to baptize and form disciples who would constitute his Church, with Saint Peter as its leader, a position that passed to the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope.
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