Big Screen Rome - Amazon Web Services

governed the province from ad 15 to 26. His successor was Pontius Pilate,
who served as prefect of Judaea from ad 26 to 36. Pilate’s prefecture was
marked by several violent uprisings, and as the supreme magistrate of
Judaea, he was responsible for the execution of hundreds of Jews accused
of inciting rebellion, including Jesus of Nazareth.
The chronology of events surrounding the birth, life, and death of Jesus
of Nazareth is a vexed issue, where different strands of evidence do not
form a neat timeline, but seem to correspond approximately to the years
6 bc–ad 30. The main sources of information for the life of Jesus are the
theological texts known as the Gospels, the first four books of the New
Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Most scholars believe that
the first three Gospels, called the “synoptic” books because of their general
narrative unanimity and textual similarities, were composed around ad 70,
while the fourth book, the Gospel of John, appears to be an independent
work of a somewhat later date (Funk, 155–6). The authors of the Gospels
most likely inherited information and stories from witnesses to events in
the life of Jesus, and used them to produce theological treatises, written in
Greek, for the early Christian movement during the last decades of the
first century.
Matthew and Luke narrate the tale of the nativity, the birth of Jesus,
born to Mary and Joseph of Nazareth, a small town in the region of
Galilee, in the northern territory of Palestine. The Gospel of Matthew
records that Jesus was born “in the days of King Herod” (2:1), which
would suggest a date sometime before the spring of 4 bc. Matthew also
describes the visit of the Magi, or wise men, who were led by a brilliant
star (2:1–6); that one was named Balthasar originates from later Christian
tradition of the medieval Latin Church. The Gospel of Luke relates the
familiar Christmas story of the Roman census ordered by Caesar Augustus
under the governor Cyrinus, which compelled the journey of Mary and
Joseph to Bethlehem (2:1–5). Though one of the most debated chronological
issues in the Gospels, most scholars agree with the identification of
Cyrinus as Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (ca. 45 bc–ad 21), the governor of
Syria, who organized the taxation of the new prefecture of Judaea shortly
after it was annexed by Augustus in ad 6. The question arises whether
Luke is referring to this well-known historical census, or to an earlier
undocumented enrollment taken perhaps around the time of Herod’s death
before his territory was divided among his heirs.
The four Gospels recount the years of Jesus’ public ministry, which
Luke says began when he was “about the age of thirty years” (3:23), or
approximately ad 26–7. Jesus performs many miracles and healings
BEN-HUR (1959) 67