Before we consider the significance of the titles by which Jesus is called in the New Testament, we shall look at what is known about his life. The gospels which are our main source of information are not like modern biographies, concerned to give all the details possible about someone's life. Rather, they are interpretations of how the Good News of God's reconciling work was carried out in Jesus Christ. The gospels were not written until a number of years after the death of Jesus when those who had known him in his lifetime were getting old, or had died, or had been scattered to various places. Each writer selected what was most important to him about Jesus and his work. They all set out to give an account of how what Jesus did and said revealed the will of God to those whom he met, so that they might learn of the new relationship to God which was possible for them. Each gospel writer wrote in his own way and in passing, said something about how Jesus lived. His ministry of preaching, teaching, healing may have lasted for three years and it is with this stage of his life, which ended in his death, that the gospel writers are mainly concerned. We know little about his earlier life.

Jesus was born while the Jewish ruler, Herod the Great, was still living, and while the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar ruled the Roman Empire of which the Jewish territory was a small part. We cannot be certain of the year, still less of the month and day. His birthplace was in the south of the country, in Bethlehem, although the home of Joseph and Mary was in the north, in the town of Nazareth, in Galilee.Galilee was a district of mixed population, of both Jews and Gentiles.

As Joseph was a craftsman, a carpenter, Jesus followed that occupation; in Mark 6:3 he is referred to as the carpenter. We know that it was the strict custom of the Jewish people to teach their sons about the Jewish Law and religion and Jesus would have had the traditional synagogue schooling. His mother tongue was Aramaic, but when he read from the scrolls in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4: 16-20) it would have been in the ancient Hebrew. He probably understood Greek which was used where there was a mixed population.

According to Luke 3 :23, Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry of preaching, teaching and healing after a period of fasting in a lonely desert place during which the experience of the Temptation helped him to realize how he should carry out his ministry. As the Temptation took place after he had accepted baptism from the religious reformer, John the Baptist, it is possible to suggest a date for the beginning of Jesus' ministry. According to Luke 3: 1, John the Baptist began to preach and baptize people in the fifteenth year of the rule of the Roman Emperor Tiberius who succeeded Augustus Caesar. It is not entirely clear what Luke's date means in relation to our calendar as Tiberius began to take power several years before Augustus died. Luke could be referring to A.D. 28 or to an earlier date, around A.D. 26. We shall take A.D. 28 as probable but not certain.

Jesus began to travel around the country on foot. He spent some time in his home district of Galilee but then moved into other areas. He lived very simply and had no home of his own. He attracted a lot of attention as he had the gift of healing as well as preaching; large crowds followed him not only to hear what he had to say but also in the hope that he would heal those who were ill. He associated with all kinds of people including those who were outcasts from the Jewish society. He gathered a group of disciples around him, mostly men from Galilee; Simon bar Jona, a fisherman, became their spokesman and was renamed 'Rock' by Jesus.

Jesus soon ran into trouble with the scribes and Pharisees, the recognized religious teachers, who disapproved of the way in which a man who was a religious preacher associated with all kinds of people. Jesus also shocked the scribes and Pharisees by things that he did and said, and some of them began to see him as a serious threat to their rigidly organized religion (John 11:46-48). Opposition to him reached its climax when he and his disciples went to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast, probably in the year A.D. 30. He was acclaimed as Messiah by a crowd when he entered the city. The popular understanding of the Messiah's task was that he would lead a rebellion against the enemies of the Jews and destroy them, as he manifested the rule of God over the world. He was arrested just before the Passover and the Jews who were opposed to him put pressure on the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate to order his execution on the grounds that Jesus was a danger to law order. Pontius Pilate was in office from A.D. 26-36 and was responsible for keeping order in the province of Judaea. Jesus was executed as a criminal, by crucifixion, and his disciples fled. He died on a Friday, just before the Jewish Sabbath began at 6 p.m. on Friday evening. The time of year was during late March or early April, when the Jewish Passover was always celebrated.

On the third day after his death and hasty burial, he appeared alive to some of his followers, after the tomb in which his body had placed was found empty. His followers were totally convinced that had been restored to life from death by God's power. Before he finally left them he promised them the power of the Holy Spirit of God which would transform them and their lives. This transformation is record in the Book of Acts.

Jesus left no written teachings behind him. The powerful, transforming faith of his followers was spread first by their preaching and teaching until circumstances arose which made it desirable to write down what was believed about Jesus.