Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea sometime around 6 b.c. (the currently accepted date of Jesus' birth corrects the error of a sixth-century monk who established the Western calendar). Virtually all data about the life of Jesus come from the first four books of the New Testament, called the Gospels (gospel means "good news"). The accuracy of the gospel accounts is a matter of debate, but most medieval philosophers believed that the gospel records were not only essentially trustworthy but also actually inspired. Therefore, to understand medieval thought, it is especially necessary to understand something of the life of Jesus as presented in the Bible.

JESUS' EARLY LIFE

According to two of the Gospels (Matthew and Luke), Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary--a young woman engaged to a carpenter by the name of Joseph. According to Matthew, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Egypt while he was still a small child to avoid Jesus' death at the hands of King Herod of Judea. Following Herod's death, the family settled in the northern Palestinian town of Nazareth in the province of Galilee. Apart from one temple visit in Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve (recorded in Luke), nothing further is found in the New Testament about Jesus' life until he began his adult ministry.

When Jesus was about thirty years old, John the Baptist began preaching that the "kingdom of heaven" was near. John lived an ascetic life in the wilderness and called on Israel to repent from its evil ways, return to God in good faith, and be baptized in order to express and begin a new life of repentance. Jesus left Nazareth and came to be baptized by John in the Jordan River. As Jesus was coming out of the water, the Spirit of God descended upon him; and a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Following a period of intense personal struggle with the Devil, Jesus began his public ministry in Galilee. For the next one to three years Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, and preached the kingdom of heaven. A number of people followed Jesus as he traveled, including twelve specially chosen by him to be his disciples.

Jesus' preaching focused on the reality of God and the importance of other people, summarized in the "two greatest commandments": to love God deeply and to love one's neighbor heartily. In loving God, Jesus advocated moving beyond mere formal or ritual observance and being open to a divinely given "rebirth" that would change the person completely. As Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus, this rebirth could be received by believing in Jesus. As for love of neighbor, in the Parable (or Story) of the Good Samaritan, Jesus urged an expansion of the concept of neighbor beyond race, nation, or religion to include anyone in need. Perhaps the most impressive collection of Jesus' teachings is found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel.

JESUS' DEATH AND RESURRECTION

Pisano's pulpit in the Siena Duomo, Italy shows the crucifixion.

After one to three years of teaching in Galilee, Jesus and his followers moved south to Jerusalem where he was soon arrested and put to death by crucifixion. The religious leaders in Jerusalem objected to Jesus' claims to a special relationship to God. With the help of one of Jesus' own disciples, Judas Iscariot, they arrested Jesus, charging him with blasphemy. Following conviction by a religious court, Jesus was handed over to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who condemned him to death by crucifixion. Three days after his death, Christians believed, Jesus rose bodily from the grave and appeared first to Peter and to some of his women followers, then to his eleven remaining disciples, and finally to a large group of followers. After forty days of further teaching, Jesus ascended into heaven, from which he will one day come again to judge all human beings, determining their eternal destiny. This is a bare outline of essential Christian faith--the Credo (literally "I believe") or creed of the medieval Western and now worldwide church.

Christendom's main book is a collection of writings called the New Testament. Although many people today might take exception to at least the supernatural elements in New Testament texts, every one of the medieval philosophers, with the exception of the Jewish and Islamic thinkers, believed the Gospels to be, as we say, the "gospel truth."