Jesus of Nazareth (c. 5 BC/BCE – c. 30 AD/CE), also known as Jesus Christ or simply Jesus, is the central figure of Christianity, which views him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God (in the concept of the Trinity, he is God [as] the Son), who came to provide humankind with salvation and reconciliation with God by his death for their sins. Note however that not all groups that identify with Christianity are Trinitarian, and not all Nicene-based groups believe that he is the Son of God and God incarnate who was raised from the dead. Although Jesus' teachings were first addressed to the Jewish people, Judaism gives Jesus no distinctive status and categorically rejects claims of Jesus as the messiah.

The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, though some scholars believe texts such as the Gospel of Thomas are also relevant.

Critical Biblical scholars and historians believe that the New Testament is useful for reconstructing Jesus' life. Most agree that Jesus was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and healer, that he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire.

Academic debate continues regarding the chronology, the central message of Jesus' preaching, his social class, cultural environment, and religious orientation. Critical scholars have offered competing descriptions of Jesus as a self-described messiah, as the leader of an apocalyptic movement, as an itinerant sage, as a charismatic healer, and as the founder of an independent religious movement. Most contemporary scholars of the historical Jesus consider him to have been an independent, charismatic founder of a Jewish restoration movement, anticipating an imminent apocalypse.[citation needed] Other prominent scholars, however, contend that Jesus' "Kingdom of God" meant radical personal and social transformation instead of a future apocalypse.

Christians traditionally believe that Jesus was born of a virgin,:529-532 performed miracles,:358-359 founded the Church, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven,:616-620 from which he will return.:1091-1109 While the doctrine of the Trinity is accepted by most Christians, a few groups reject the doctrine of the Trinity, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural. Most Christian scholars today present Jesus as the awaited Messiah and as God, arguing that he fulfilled many Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

Judaism rejects assertions that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh. In Islam, Jesus (Arabic: عيسى‎, commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets, a bringer of scripture, the product of a virgin birth, and a worker of miracles. It also teaches that Jesus ascended bodily to heaven without experiencing death at the crucifixion. Islam and the Baha'i Faith use the title "Messiah" for Jesus, but do not teach that he was divine.

"Jesus" (pronounced /ˈdʒiːzəs/) is a transliteration, occurring in a number of languages and based on the Latin Iesus, of the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs), itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yĕhōšuă‘, Joshua) or Hebrew-Aramaic יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšûă‘), meaning "Yahweh delivers (or rescues)". "Christ" (pronounced /ˈkraɪst/) is a title derived from the Greek Χριστός (Christós), meaning the "Anointed One", a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Messiah).:274-275

A "Messiah," in this context, is a king anointed at God's direction or with God's approval, and Christians identify Jesus as the one foretold by Hebrew prophets.

Scholars generally conclude that Jesus was born sometime between 7-2 BC/BCE and died sometime between 26-36 AD/CE.

There is no contemporary historical evidence demonstrating the date of Jesus' birth. The common Gregorian calendar method for numbering years, in which the current year is 2010, is based on an early medieval attempt to count the years from a point of reference — namely, Jesus' birth — which Dionysius Exiguus placed, either mistakenly or intentionally, sometime between 2 BC/BCE and 1 AD/CE. The Gospel of Matthew states Jesus' birth occurred during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC/BCE, but also with the intimation that Jesus may have been as much as two years old when Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, and therefore that he may have been even older at the time of Herod's death. The Gospel of Luke similarly points to Jesus' birth as having occurred during the reign of Herod the Great (i.e., sometime between 37 and 4 BC/BCE), but the author of Luke also describes the birth as taking place during the first census of the Roman provinces of Syria and Iudaea, which is generally believed to have occurred in 6 AD/CE. Most scholars generally assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC/BCE. The historical incompatibility of Luke's chronology for the birth of Jesus, as well as the silence of the Pauline Epistles and the Gospels of Mark and John with respect to the nativity, have been suggested as evidence that the birth traditions contained in Matthew and Luke are historically unverifiable or even possibly fictitious.[citation needed]