Jesus

====Family====
{{See also|Brothers of Jesus}}
Many scholars agree that Joseph, Jesus' father, died before Jesus began his ministry. Joseph is not mentioned in the Gospels during Jesus' ministry. Joseph's death would explain why in Mark 6:3, Jesus' neighbours refer to Jesus as the "son of Mary" (sons were usually identified by their fathers).{{sfn|Brown|1978|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ML1mnUBwmhcC&pg=PA64 64]}}

According to Theissen and Merz, it is common for extraordinary [[Charismatic authority|charismatic leaders]], such as Jesus, to come into conflict with their ordinary families.{{sfn|Theissen|Merz|1998|p=194}} In Mark, Jesus' family comes to get him, fearing that he is mad (Mark 3:20–34), and this account is thought to be historical because early Christians would likely not have invented it.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Robert W. Funk |last=Funk |first=Robert W. |author2-link=Jesus Seminar |author2=The Jesus Seminar |title=The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus |publisher=HarperSanFrancisco |year=1998 |chapter=Mark |pages=51–161}}</ref> After Jesus' death, many members of his family joined the Christian movement.{{sfn|Theissen|Merz|1998|p=194}} Jesus' brother [[James, brother of Jesus|James]] became a leader of the Jerusalem Church.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|loc=James, St.}}

[[Géza Vermes]] says that the doctrine of the [[virgin birth of Jesus]] arose from theological development rather than from historical events.{{sfn|Vermes|1981|p=283}}
Despite the widely held view that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels drew upon each other (the so-called [[synoptic problem]]), other scholars take it as significant that the virgin birth is [[criterion of multiple attestation|attested]] by two separate gospels, Matthew and Luke.<ref>Bromiley, Geoffrey (1995) ''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'', Eerdmans Publishing, {{ISBN|978-0-8028-3784-4}}, p. 991.</ref>{{sfn|Keener|2009b|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8C2Y_HaL5W0C&pg=PA83 83]}}<ref>Donald A. Hagner, ''Matthew 1–13'' (Paternoster Press 1993 {{ISBN|978-0-8499-0232-1}}), pp. 14–15, cited in the preceding.</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0PbBz6-XcssC&pg=PA761 |page=761 |title=Christian Theology |isbn=978-1-4412-0010-5 |last1=Erickson |first1=Millard J. |date=August 1998 |publisher=Baker Publishing |access-date=4 July 2016 |archive-date=13 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913031951/https://books.google.com/books?id=0PbBz6-XcssC&pg=PA761 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Christmas – Philosophy for Everyone: Better Than a Lump of Coal |first=Scott C. |last=Lowe |publisher=Wiley |date=20 September 2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hYEngEACAAJ |page=28 |isbn=978-1-4443-3090-8 |access-date=4 July 2016 |archive-date=13 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913014940/https://books.google.com/books?id=2hYEngEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bruner |first=Frederick Dale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jZlfg1yxIEC&pg=PA41 |title=Matthew a Commentary: The Christbook, Matthew 1–12, Volume 1 |date=30 April 2004 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-1118-9 |page=41 |language=en |author-link=F. Dale Bruner |access-date=4 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913024157/https://books.google.com/books?id=5jZlfg1yxIEC&pg=PA41 |archive-date=13 September 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

According to [[E. P. Sanders]], the [[Nativity of Jesus|birth narratives]] in the [[Gospel of Matthew]] and the [[Gospel of Luke]] are the clearest case of invention in the Gospel narratives of Jesus' life. Both accounts have Jesus born in [[Bethlehem]], in accordance with Jewish salvation history, and both have him growing up in Nazareth. But Sanders points out that the two Gospels report completely different and irreconcilable explanations for how that happened. Luke's account of a census in which everyone returned to their ancestral cities is not plausible. Matthew's account is more plausible, but the story reads as though it was invented to identify Jesus as like a new [[Moses]], and the historian [[Josephus]] reports Herod the Great's brutality without ever mentioning that [[Massacre of the Innocents|he massacred little boys]].{{sfn|Sanders|1993|pp=85–88}} The contradictions between the two Gospels were probably apparent to the early Christians already, since attempts to harmonize the two narratives are already present in the earlier apocryphal [[infancy gospels]] (the [[Infancy Gospel of Thomas]] and the [[Gospel of James]]), which are dated to the 2nd century AD.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cousland|first=J. R. C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMw6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|title=Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas|date=16 November 2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-567-66817-2|language=en|access-date=17 May 2021|archive-date=9 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240309232719/https://books.google.com/books?id=rMw6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Gambero|first=Luigi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dsZzsAtggnUC&q=L.+Gambero,+Mary+and+the+Fathers+of+the+Church|title=Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought|date=1999|publisher=Ignatius Press|isbn=978-0-89870-686-4|language=en|access-date=17 May 2021|archive-date=9 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240309232541/https://books.google.com/books?id=dsZzsAtggnUC&q=L.+Gambero,+Mary+and+the+Fathers+of+the+Church#v=snippet&q=L.%20Gambero%2C%20Mary%20and%20the%20Fathers%20of%20the%20Church&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Sanders says that the genealogies of Jesus are based not on historical information but on the authors' desire to show that Jesus was the universal Jewish saviour.{{sfn|Sanders|1993|pp=80–91}} In any event, once the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus became established, that tradition superseded the earlier tradition that he was descended from [[David]] through Joseph.{{sfn|Theissen|Merz|1998|p=196}} The [[Gospel of Luke]] reports that Jesus was a [[Consanguinity|blood relative]] of [[John the Baptist]], but scholars generally consider this connection to be invented.{{sfn|Sanders|1993|pp=80–91}}<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Robert W. Funk |last=Funk |first=Robert W. |author2-link=Jesus Seminar |author2=The Jesus Seminar |title=The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus |publisher=HarperSanFrancisco |year=1998 |chapter=Birth & Infancy Stories |pages=497–526}}</ref>