Chapter 8: Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ of Christianity

Phenomenology of World Religion

Chapter 18

Jesus of Nazareth - Foreword

There are also many things which Jesus did, that if they should be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain all the books that would be written. Saint John the Apostle/Evangelist

Introduction to Chapter Eight

Before I begin the complex examination of the historical and spiritual character known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Christ, I would like to inform the reader that scripture passages quoted come from the King James Version of the Holy Bible, unless otherwise noted. I do this because I feel that re-translated scriptures and text from the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments have corrupted its meaning. It is like whispering a phrase in a circle of friends and by the time it reaches back to the originator, it is out of context. The Holy Bible is an anthology of texts, Hebrew in origin and later written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Middle English and many other languages, totaling to about 80 languages and dialects.

Chapter 4: Hebrews: Ancient Historians - Part A

Of the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism is the oldest of the other two major monotheistic religions – Christianity and Islam; except in the case of Zoroastrianism. Christianity really an extension of the story of the Hebrews because the founder and his disciples were Jewish.

Hebrew Sacred Texts

The Hebrew, actually what the language is known as are the Jewish people, have a strong belief in one true God who is the creator, ruler of this world and the entire universe who knows everything and sees everything. He has revealed the sacred laws of Jews in the Torah and has chosen Hebrews (Jews)  and those that follow those laws and preserves the Torah and history has come to know them as the Chosen People or as Mohammed, the founder/prophet of Islam called them: “The People of the Book".   But the first issue to discuss refers to that holy book, the sacred texts of Judaism and use it in the proper terminology used to describe the 38 books that make up the Hebrew Canon (Bible),  referred to as the Old Testament. However, this is not entirely true and has been a point of a theological discussion and argument since the inception of Christianity and Islam. And as mentioned in the title page, archaeology has been a significant aid in constructing the past in human history, and validating what scholars and historians have written about in the course of examining theological history and philosophy.
The Hebrew Scriptures are: (1) Genesis, (2) Exodus, (3) Leviticus, (4) Numbers, (5) Deuteronomy, (6) Joshua, (7) Judges, (8) Ruth, (9) First Samuel, (10) Second Samuel, (11) First Kings, (12) Second Kings, (13) First Chronicles, (14) Second Chronicles, (15) Ezra, (16) Nehemiah, (17) Esther, (18) Job, (19) Psalms, (20)Proverbs, (21) Ecclesiastes, (22) Song of Solomon, (23) Isaiah, (24) Jeremiah, (25) Lamentations, (26) Ezekiel, (27) Daniel, (28) Hosea, (29) Joel, (30) Amos, (31) Obadiah, (32) Jonah, (33) Micah, (34) Nahum, (35) Habakkuk, (36) Zephaniah, (37) Haggai, and (38) Malachi. The Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books are not in the Hebrew Bible, but can be found in the Catholic and Protestant bibles. The New Testament concerns Jesus of Nazareth, his life and his teachings, and is not found in the Hebrew Canon.