Jesus Christ
The name Jesus is simply the name "Joshua" translated first into Greek, then English. The name Jesus almost always refers specifically to Jesus of Nazareth, also known as Jesus Christ and accepted by Christians as the Son of God. The historical importance of Jesus is memorialized by the modern calendar, which sets the year one to the traditional year of his birth, although modern historians generally place the actual date of his birth between 7 and 4 B.C.
The life of Jesus is recorded in the Bible in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Gospel account includes many details of his infancy until about age twelve, then falls silent until Jesus approaches John the Baptist at the river Jordan and prepares to embark on a ministry that is traditionally held to be three years in length. After a period of fasting and temptation in the desert, he gathered to himself twelve disciples and went up and down the countryside of Judea and Samaria healing the sick, working other miracles, and preaching a reformed Judaism that emphasized the spirit over the letter of the Law. Near the end of his ministry he raised Lazarus from the dead, confronted the religious authorities in Jerusalem, and was subsequently crucified by Pilate, at the instigation of the Sanhedrin, for being an agitator. Despite his tomb being sealed and guarded by Roman troops, after three days Jesus appeared, alive, to as many as five hundred people.
Other people in the Bible named "Jesus"
The author of Ecclesiastius, a book which Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians consider deuterocanonical, but Protestants place in the Apocrypha, is known as Jesus of Sira.
The Historical Jesus
Occasionally someone denies the existence of Jesus, but few scholars take this seriously. Tacitus, the Roman historian, wrote about Jesus in A.D. 115[1], and Josephus, a Jewish historian who did not believe in Jesus' divinity, wrote about him. [2].
