Christian views
Though Christian views of Jesus vary, it is possible to describe a general majority Christian view by examining the similarities between Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and certain Protestant doctrines found in their catechetical or confessional texts.[55] This view, given below as the Principal view, does not encompass all groups which describe themselves as Christian, with other views immediately following.
Principal view
Christians predominately profess that Jesus is the Messiah (Greek: Christos; English: Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament,[56] who, through his life, death, and resurrection, restored humanity's communion with God in the blood of the New Covenant. His death on a cross is understood as the redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's salvation and the atonement for sin,[57] which had entered human history through the sin of Adam.[58]
They profess Jesus to be the only Son of God, the Lord,[59] and the eternal Word (which is a translation of the Greek Logos),[60] who became man in the incarnation,[61] so that those who believe in him might have eternal life.[62] They further hold that he was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit in an event described as the miraculous virgin birth or Incarnation.[63] In his life Jesus proclaimed the "good news" (Middle English: gospel; Greek: euangelion) that the coming Kingdom of Heaven was at hand,[64] and established the Christian Church, which is the seed of the kingdom, into which Jesus calls the poor in spirit.[65] Jesus' actions at the Last Supper, where he instituted the Eucharist, are understood as central to communion with God and remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice.[66]
Christians also predominately profess that Jesus suffered death by crucifixion,[67] descended into Hell (variously understood as either the place of eternal punishment or place of the dead),[68] and rose bodily from the dead in the definitive miracle that foreshadows the resurrection of humanity at the end of time,[69] when Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead, resulting in election to Heaven or damnation to Hell.[70]
The nature of Jesus was theologically articulated and refined by a series of seven ecumenical councils, between 325 and 681 (see Christology). These councils described Jesus as one of the three divine hypostases or persons of the Holy Trinity: the Son is defined as constituting, together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, the single substance of the one God.[71] Furthermore, Jesus is defined to be one person with a fully human and a fully divine nature, a doctrine known as the Hypostatic union[72] (an articulation not accepted by Oriental Orthodoxy, see Nestorianism, Monophysitism and Miaphysitism). In defense of Jesus' divinity, some apologists argue that there is a trilemma, or three possibilities, resulting from Jesus' reported claims that he is the one God of Israel:[73] either he is truly God, a liar, or a lunatic—the latter two dismissed on the basis of Jesus' coherence.[74]
Alternative views
- See also: Nontrinitarianism
Current religious groups that do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity include the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and Jehovah's Witnesses. Non-Trinitarian groups from history included Unitarians, and from antiquity, Arians.
Latter-day Saints theology maintains that the Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct beings, though all eternal and equally divine, who together constitute the Godhead. Though described as one God in purpose," each play different roles: the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body, the Father and Son possess distinct, perfected, bodies of flesh and bone. The Book of Mormon records that the resurrected Jesus visited and taught some of the inhabitants of the early Americas after he appeared to his apostles in Jerusalem.[75] Mormons also believe that an apostasy occurred after the death of Christ and his apostles. They believe that Christ and the Heavenly Father appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820 as part of a series of heavenly visits to restore the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They believe Jesus (not the Father) is the same as Jehovah or Yahweh of the Old Testament. See Jesus in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus to be God's (or Jehovah's) son, but rather than being God himself, Jehovah's Witnesses believe he was the same divine created being as Michael the Archangel, and that he became a perfect human to come down to earth.[76] They view the term "Son of God" as an indication of Jesus' import!ance to the creator and his status as God's only-begotten (unique) Son,"[77] the "firstborn of all creation,"[78] the one "of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things."[79] Lastly, they believe that Jesus died on a single-piece torture stake, not a cross.[80]
Others believe that the one God, who revealed himself in the Old Testament as Jehovah, came to earth, taking on the human form of Jesus Christ. They believe Jesus is Jehovah, is the Holy Spirit, and is the one Person who is God. Examples of such churches today are Oneness Pentecostals and the New Church.
Other early views
Various early Christian groups and theologians held differing views of Jesus. The Ebionites, an early Jewish Christian community, believed that Jesus was the last of the prophets and the Messiah. They believed that Jesus was the natural-born son of Mary and Joseph, and thus they rejected the Virgin Birth. The Ebionites were adoptionists, believing that Jesus was not divine, but became the son of God at his baptism. They rejected the Epistles of Paul, believing that Jesus kept the Mosaic Law perfectly and wanted his followers to do the same. However, they felt that Jesus' crucifixion was the ultimate sacrifice, and thus animal sacrifices were no longer necessary. Therefore, some Ebionites were vegetarian and considered both Jesus and John the Baptist to have been vegetarians.[81]
In Gnosticism, Jesus is said to have brought the secret knowledge (gnosis) of the spiritual world necessary for salvation.[82] Their secret teachings were paths to gnosis, and not gnosis itself. While some Gnostics were docetics, other Gnostics believed that Jesus was a human who became possessed by the spirit of Christ during his baptism.[83] Many Gnostics believed that Christ was an Aeon sent by a higher deity than the evil demiurge who created the material world. Some Gnostics believed that Christ had a syzygy named Sophia. The Gnostics tended to interpret the books that were included in the New Testament as allegory, and some Gnostics interpreted Jesus himself as an allegory. The Gnostics also used a number of other texts that did not become part of the New Testament canon.
Marcionites were 2nd century Gentile followers of the Christian theologian Marcion of Sinope. They believed that Jesus rejected the Jewish Scriptures, or at least the parts that were incompatible with his teachings.[84] Seeing a stark contrast between the vengeful God of the Old Testament and the loving God of Jesus, Marcion came to the conclusion that the Jewish God and Jesus were two separate deities. Like some Gnostics, Marcionites saw the Jewish God as the evil creator of the world, and Jesus as the savior from the material world. They also believed Jesus was not human, but instead a completely divine spiritual being whose material body, and thus his crucifixion and death, were divine illusions. Marcion was the first known early Christian to have created a canon, which consisted of ten Pauline epistles, and a version of the Gospel of Luke (possibly without the first two chapters that are in modern versions, and without Jewish references),[85] and his treatise on the Antithesis between the Old and New Testaments. Marcionism was declared a heresy by proto-orthodox Christianity.
Montanists in the 2nd century and Sabellius in the 3rd century taught that the Trinity represented not three persons but a single person in three "modes."
Islamic views
In Islam, Jesus (known as Isa in Arabic, Arabic: عيسى), is considered one of God's most-beloved and import!ant prophets and the Messiah.[86] He is one of five messengers (rusul), and one of the five "Resolute" prophets. The Hadith states that Jesus will return to the world in the flesh following Imam Mahdi to defeat the Dajjal (an Antichrist-like figure, translated as "Deceiver"),[87] though some Islamic scholars regard these traditions as unreliable and false.[88][89][90] . As in the Christian nativity accounts, the 7th-century Qur'an holds that Jesus was born without a biological father to the virgin Mary, by the will of God (in Arabic, Allah). He is referred to as Isa ibn Maryam (English: Jesus son of Mary), a matronymic, as he had no biological father.[91] In Muslim traditions, Jesus lived a perfect life of nonviolence, showing kindness to humans and animals (similar to the other Islamic prophets), without material possessions, and abstaining from sin.[92] Islamic belief also holds that Jesus could perform miracles, but only by the will of God.[93]
Muslims, however, do not believe Jesus to have divine nature as God nor as the Son of God. The Qu'ran warns against believing that Jesus was divine.[94] Muslims believe that Jesus received a gospel from God called the Injil in Arabic that corresponds to the Christian New Testament, but that parts of it have been misinterpreted over time so that they no longer accurately represent God's message (See Tahrif).[95]
Muslims also do not believe in Jesus' sacrificial role, and the Qur'an, as commonly understood, states that Jesus was not killed on the cross. Islam also does not accept any human sacrifice for sin.[96] Regarding the crucifixion, the Qur'an is against the Jews who claimed "we slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God," and categorically states that "yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them."[97][98] Some muslims writers like Ahmed Deedat have elaborated the Quranic verse in the light of the Bible[99]. However, the Muslim tradition completes the statement of the Qur'an: Some traditions say Christ was replaced by a double, and according to others it was Simon of Cyrene or one of the Apostles (Judas).[98] The denial of crucifixion is viewed as Jesus's [representing faith] triumph over his executioners [representing forces of evil and adversity].[98] However certain Muslim scholars and some Ismaili commentators have interpreted the relevant verse differently: "the Jews intended to destroy the person of Jesus completely; in fact, they crucified only his nasut, his lahut remained alive" or that "The Qur'an is not here speaking about a man, righteous and wronged though he may be, but about the Word of God who was sent to earth and returned to God. Thus the denial of killing of Jesus is a denial of the power of men to vanquish and destroy the divine Word, which is for ever victorious."[98][100]
Ahmadiyya views
The Ahmadiyya Movement (a movement that originated in Islam during the 19th Century, with a small number of followers but now numbers around 10 million) believes that Jesus survived the crucifixion and went to Kashmir, where he died as a prophet under the name of Yuz Asaf (whose grave they identify in Srinagar, India).[101]
Judaism's view
Judaism holds the idea of Jesus being God, or part of a Trinity, or a mediator to God, to be heresy.(Emunoth ve-Deoth, II:5) Judaism also holds that Jesus is not the Messiah, arguing that he had not fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah.[102]
The Mishneh Torah (an authoritative work of Jewish law) states:
- Even Jesus the Nazarene who imagined that he would be Messiah and was killed by the court, was already prophesied by Daniel. So that it was said, "And the members of the outlaws of your nation would be carried to make a (prophetic) vision stand. And they stumbled" (Daniel 11.14). Because, is there a greater stumbling-block than this one? So that all of the prophets spoke that the Messiah redeems Israel, and saves them, and gathers their banished ones, and strengthens their commandments. And this one caused (nations) to destroy Israel by sword, and to scatter their remnant, and to humiliate them, and to exchange the Torah, and to make the majority of the world err to serve a divinity besides God. However, the thoughts of the Creator of the world—there is no force in a human to attain them because our ways are not God's ways, and our thoughts not God's thoughts. And all these things of Jesus the Nazarene, and of (Muhammad) the Ishmaelite who stood after him—there is no (purpose) but to straighten out the way for the King Messiah, and to restore all the world to serve God together. So that it is said, "Because then I will turn toward the nations (giving them) a clear lip, to call all of them in the name of God and to serve God (shoulder to shoulder as) one shoulder" (Zephaniah 3.9). Look how all the world already becomes full of the things of the Messiah, and the things of the Torah, and the things of the commandments! And these things spread among the far islands and among the many nations uncircumcised of heart. (Hilkhot Melakhim 11:10–12)[103]
Reform Judaism, the modern progressive movement, states For us in the Jewish community anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior is no longer a Jew and is an apostate. (Contemporary American Reform Responsa, #68).[104]
According to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after 420 BC/BCE, Malachi being the last prophet, who lived centuries before Jesus. Judaism states that Jesus did not fulfill the requirements set by the Torah to prove that he was a prophet. Even if Jesus had produced such a sign that Judaism recognized, Judaism states that no prophet or dreamer can contradict the laws already stated in the Torah, which Judaism states Jesus did. (Devarim 13:1–5)[105]
Buddhist views
- Further information: Christianity and Buddhism
Buddhists' views of Jesus differ, since Jesus is not mentioned in any Buddhist text. Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama[106] regard Jesus as a bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the welfare of human beings. Both Jesus and Buddha advocated radical alterations in the common religious practices of the day. There are occasional similarities in language, such as the use of the common metaphor of a line of blind men to refer to religious authorities with whom they disagreed (DN 13.15, Matthew 15:14). Some believe there is a particularly close affinity between Buddhism (or Eastern spiritual thought generally) and the doctrine of Gnostic texts such as The Gospel of Thomas[107]
Hindu views
Hindu beliefs about Jesus vary. Many in the Surat Shabd Yoga tradition regard Jesus as a Satguru. Swami Vivekananda has praised Jesus and cited him as a source of strength and the epitome of perfection.[108] Paramahansa Yogananda taught that Jesus was the reincarnation of Elisha and a student of John the Baptist, the reincarnation of Elijah.[109] Mahatma Gandhi considered Jesus one of his main teachers and inspirations for nonviolent resistance, saying "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."[110]
Bahá'í views
The Bahá'í Faith considers Jesus, along with Muhammad, the Buddha, Krishna, and Zoroaster, and other messengers of the great religions of the world to be Manifestations of God (or prophets), with both human and divine stations.[111] In their divine station Bahá'ís view them in essential unity with each other and with God, and in their human station they view them as distinct individuals.[111] Thus, in the Bahá'í view, Jesus incarnates God's attributes, perfectly reflecting and expressing them.[111] However, the Bahá'í view rejects the belief that the essence of God was perfectly or completely contained in Jesus or any other human body, since Bahá'í scripture emphasizes the transcendence of the essence of God.[111] Jesus is believed to be the "Son of God" though not literally a biological son. The title "Son of God" in the Bahá'í view is seen as entirely spiritual and shows the close relationship between him and God.[112]
Bahá'ís accept Jesus as the Messiah foretold in the Jewish Scriptures. They believe though that their messenger, Baha'u'llah is the symbolic return of Christ expected during the last days.[113] In the Bahá'í view religion is progressively revealed by God through messengers/prophets, and the messengers from God are all the spiritual return of the messengers before them.[113]
Mandaean views
Mandaeanism regards Jesus as a deceiving prophet (mšiha kdaba) of the false Jewish god of the Old Testament, Adonai,[114] and an opponent of the good prophet John the Baptist, who is considered a great teacher in Mandaeanism.
Other views
The New Age movement entertains a wide variety of views on Jesus. Some New Age practitioners (such as the creators of A Course In Miracles) claim to go so far as to trance-channel his spirit. However, the New Age movement generally teaches that Christhood is something that all may attain. Theosophists, from whom many New Age teachings originated (a Theosophist named Alice A. Bailey invented the term New Age), refer to Jesus of Nazareth as the Master Jesus and believe he had previous incarnations and is presently one of the Cosmic Masters of the Ancient Wisdom (deities responsible for governing the planet Earth).
Many writers emphasize Jesus' moral teachings. Garry Wills argues that Jesus' ethics are distinct from those usually taught by Christianity.[115] The Jesus Seminar[116] portrays Jesus as an itinerant preacher (Matthew 4:23), who taught peace (Matthew 5:9) and love (Matthew 5:44), rights for women (Luke 10:42) and respect for children (Matthew 19:14), and who spoke out against the hypocrisy of religious leaders (Luke 13:15) and the rich (Matthew 19:24). Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers and a deist, created the Jefferson Bible entitled "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" that included only Jesus' ethical teachings because he did not believe in Jesus' divinity or any of the other supernatural aspects of the Bible.
Philosopher and atheist Bertrand Russell saw Jesus' teachings and values as surpassed by other philosophers; Russell writes 'I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to History. I think I should put Buddha and Socrates above Him in those respects.'[117] Friedrich Nietzsche saw Socrates and Jesus as foundational to Western culture and criticized them both. He considered Jesus' concern for the weak to be a reversal of noble morality and accused Christianity of spreading the concept of equal rights for all, which he opposed.[118]
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