Jesus Christ
Jesus is the man whose teachings started the Christian religion.
Jesus is also called "Jesus Christ" or "Christ". The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew/Aramaic name "Yeshua," from Yehovah-shua, meaning "God saves." The word Christ comes from the Greek word christos and means "to mark on the head with oil" or "the anointed one." In Jesus' country this was done to show that a person was a king or a great leader. The Hebrew/Aramaic term Moshiach, from which we get the word "Messiah," also means "the anointed one."
The stories about Jesus are in the New Testament of the Bible. No one else wrote about Jesus during his life, so there are many things we do not know about him. Some people say we cannot be sure that he was a real person - maybe people only made stories about Jesus later.
The Bible stories say that Jesus lived during the time of the Roman Empire in the country that is now Israel. The stories say that he was born while his mother and father were travelling, and they had to stay in a barn where the animals lived. Christians remember the day that he was born as the holiday of Christmas.
When Jesus grew up, he travelled around the country teaching by telling interesting stories. He taught that people should love God and try to help each other.
Many people said that Jesus could do miracles. They said that he created food and wine, healed sick people, and even made dead people alive again.
When Jesus began to become famous, he went to the city of Jerusalem. The Roman government there was afraid that he wanted to become the king of the country and take it over, so they killed him by nailing him to a cross and leaving him without food or water. This was a common way for the Romans to kill criminals.
After Jesus died he was buried in a cave. After a few days, his friends looked into the cave, and Jesus' body was gone. After this his friends said that they had seen Jesus alive again. People believed that Jesus had returned to life. Christians remember this day as the holiday of Easter.
Christians believe that Jesus was really God in the form of a man - this is actually what "Christian" has come to mean. Christians say that Jesus emphasized that he was the Son of God, flesh and Spirit in one body. They believe that we should believe in Jesus and try to live in the way He taught. They believe that Jesus death enables man to be forgiven by God for their sins (wrongdoings) and that those who are forgiven will get to live forever with him in heaven.
There is no special word for people who follow Jesus without believing he was really God. Muslims consider Jesus (under the name Isa) to be the second-last Prophet, and Muhammad to have been the very last Prophet. They do not think either of them "were God" or divine. Many people who call themselves Christians actually believe more or less what Muslims believe on this point. This does not however make them Muslims.
Finally, many people accept Jesus as a moral example without any connection to a God. Mohandas Gandhi said "I am a Muslim, and a Hindu, and a Christian, and a Jew" although he was born a Jain. He worked hard in his life to make all of the followers of all these religions respect each other. This is how many people see Jesus too - that he tried to get Jews and Romans to make peace, and not judge women or criminals so harshly. If he died just to prove that their judgement was unfair, without being God, then, some people think that makes him even more heroic.
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