70 Fun Facts About Jesus

According to the Gospels, in which town was Jesus born?

Only those two Gospels describe the birth at all; both place it during the reign of Herod the Great, which puts it around 6 to 4 BC.

The Magi presented the infant Jesus with gold, frankincense and what third gift?

Matthew never says how many Magi there were; the tradition of three comes from the number of gifts.

After the Magi left, Herod ordered the killing of all boys around Bethlehem up to what age?

An angel had already warned Joseph in a dream to take the family to Egypt until Herod died.

In Luke's account, why did Joseph and Mary travel south from Nazareth to the town where Jesus was born?

Caesar Augustus decreed it while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and Joseph went because he was of the house of David.

Luke says the newborn Jesus was laid in a manger for what reason?

The Greek word is katalyma, a guest room or lodging, rather than a commercial inn.

How old was Jesus when his parents found him among the teachers in the temple, in Luke's only childhood story?

They had travelled a day toward home before noticing he was missing, and he asked them why they had not looked in his Father's house.

According to Luke, roughly how old was Jesus when he began his public ministry?

His death is usually dated to AD 30 or 33, giving a ministry of one to three years depending on the Gospel followed.

The people of Nazareth referred to Jesus by which trade?

The same passage names his brothers as James, Joseph, Judas and Simon, and Jesus remarks that a prophet is without honour in his own town.

John the Baptist, who baptised Jesus in the Jordan, is described as eating what?

He wore camel's hair with a leather belt, and at the baptism a voice from heaven said 'You are my Son, whom I love'.

How long did Jesus fast in the wilderness before being tempted?

The three temptations were to turn stones to bread, to leap from the temple's highest point, and to worship the devil for all the kingdoms of the world.

Which two brothers were casting a net when Jesus called them to become 'fishers of men'?

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were called next, mending nets in their father's boat.

Which of the apostles is described in the Gospel lists as a tax collector?

The list also includes two named Simon and two named James, plus Judas Iscariot last.

According to John's Gospel, Jesus's first miraculous sign took place at a wedding in which village?

He had six stone jars used for ceremonial washing filled with water, and the banquet master found it had become wine.

In John's feeding of the crowd, the boy carried two small fish and how many barley loaves?

Twelve baskets of leftovers were collected afterward, and it is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels.

Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, had been in the tomb for how many days?

He lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha, and the story contains the shortest verse in many English Bibles, 'Jesus wept'.

Of the ten lepers Jesus healed in Luke 17, only one came back to thank him. What was he?

Jesus told him 'your faith has made you well', a pointed remark since Samaritans and Jews were bitter rivals.

When Peter was asked about the temple tax, where did Jesus tell him he would find a four-drachma coin?

The same chapter describes the Transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah appeared beside Jesus on a high mountain.

Which three disciples did Jesus take up the mountain to witness the Transfiguration?

His face shone like the sun, and Peter offered to put up three shelters for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

In the parable, the man beaten by bandits was travelling from Jerusalem to which city?

A priest and a Levite passed by on the other side; the Samaritan poured oil and wine on the wounds and left two denarii with the innkeeper.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, what job did the son take after squandering his inheritance?

He was so hungry he longed to eat the pigs' pods; on his return his father killed the fattened calf, to the older brother's fury.

In the parable of the lost sheep, how many sheep does the shepherd leave behind to search for the one?

Luke pairs it with the parables of the lost coin and the Prodigal Son, all told in answer to Pharisees grumbling that Jesus ate with sinners.

The Sermon on the Mount opens with the Beatitudes. Who, according to Jesus, 'will inherit the earth'?

The same sermon contains the Lord's Prayer, the golden rule and the parable of the wise man who built his house on rock.

The prayer that begins 'Our Father in heaven' is found in the Sermon on the Mount in which Gospel?

Luke has a shorter version in a different setting; Mark and John do not record it at all.

Nicodemus, the Pharisee told he must be born again, later helped bury Jesus by bringing what?

His night-time conversation is where John 3:16 appears; he helped Joseph of Arimathea with about 75 pounds of the spices.

Zacchaeus, the short chief tax collector, climbed what kind of tree to see Jesus?

After Jesus invited himself to dinner, Zacchaeus promised half his goods to the poor and fourfold repayment to anyone he had cheated.

On what animal did Jesus ride into Jerusalem on the day now called Palm Sunday?

The crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and Luke says Jesus wept over the city as he approached it.

When Jesus drove the merchants out of the temple, he accused them of turning a house of prayer into what?

John's Gospel adds the detail that he made a whip out of cords to drive out the sheep and cattle.

For how many pieces of silver did Judas Iscariot agree to betray Jesus?

He later threw the coins back into the temple and hanged himself, and the priests used the money to buy a potter's field.

In whose house in Bethany did a woman anoint Jesus with expensive perfume shortly before his arrest?

Jesus said she had done it to prepare him for burial, and that the story would be told wherever the gospel was preached.

At the Last Supper, Jesus warned Peter that he would disown him three times before what happened?

Peter swore he never would; a few hours later he denied Jesus three times in the high priest's courtyard.

In which garden did Jesus pray 'may this cup be taken from me' before his arrest?

Judas identified him there with a kiss, and one of the disciples cut off the ear of the high priest's servant.

Who was the high priest before whom Jesus was tried after his arrest?

False witnesses testified against him there before he was handed to the Roman prefect in the morning.

Which Roman governor sentenced Jesus to crucifixion after washing his hands before the crowd?

Luke adds that he first sent Jesus to Herod Antipas, who was in Jerusalem for the festival, and the two became friends that day.

Which prisoner did Pilate release to the crowd instead of Jesus?

The soldiers then dressed Jesus in a scarlet robe and a crown of thorns before leading him out.

A man from which North African city was forced to carry Jesus's cross?

Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service on the way to Golgotha, 'the place of the skull'.

According to John, Pilate's notice on the cross was written in Aramaic, Latin and which third language?

The Latin version, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, is why crucifixes carry the letters INRI.

The Gospels say darkness came over the land while Jesus hung on the cross, from noon until what hour?

At his death the temple curtain tore in two from top to bottom.

The cry 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani' from the cross means what?

It is one of several Aramaic phrases the Gospels preserve in Jesus's own words, along with 'Talitha koum' and 'Abba'.

Which member of the Jewish council provided his own new tomb for Jesus's burial?

The chief priests then had a guard posted at the tomb and the stone sealed.

In John's Gospel, whom did Mary Magdalene mistake the risen Jesus for outside the tomb?

She recognised him only when he spoke her name; Luke elsewhere notes that seven demons had once come out of her.

Two disciples walking to which village recognised the risen Jesus only when he broke bread with them?

They had walked and talked with him for miles without knowing who he was.

Which apostle refused to believe in the resurrection until he could see the nail marks for himself?

A week later Jesus appeared and invited him to touch the wounds, which is where 'doubting Thomas' comes from.

In John's final chapter, how many fish did the disciples haul in after casting on the right side of the boat?

Afterwards Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved him, once for each denial, and told him 'Feed my sheep'.

According to Acts, over how many days did the risen Jesus appear to his followers before ascending?

He was taken up from the Mount of Olives, and the apostles then chose Matthias by lot to replace Judas.

The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew Yeshua, a short form of Yehoshua. What does it mean?

'Christ' is not a surname but a title, from the Greek christos, 'anointed one', a translation of the Hebrew mashiakh.

In which work does Josephus mention James as 'the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ'?

That short passage is accepted as genuine by nearly all scholars, unlike the longer Testimonium Flavianum, which shows signs of later Christian editing.

According to Luke, which angel told Mary she would conceive and bear a son?

The same angel's greeting to Mary, 'Hail, full of grace', became the opening line of the Hail Mary prayer.

Luke dates the Annunciation to the sixth month of whose pregnancy?

Elizabeth was Mary's relative, and her son John the Baptist would later baptise Jesus in the Jordan.

On what date do most Western churches keep the Feast of the Annunciation, nine months before Christmas?

When Dionysius Exiguus introduced Anno Domini dating in 525, he made 25 March the start of the new year, and many Christian countries kept that New Year's Day for centuries.

In Matthew's Gospel, how was Joseph told to go ahead and marry Mary and name the child Jesus?

Joseph receives every message in Matthew's account through dreams, including the warnings to flee to Egypt and later to return.

According to Matthew 2, in what kind of building did the wise men find the child?

Nativity scenes put the Magi at the manger with the shepherds, but that is an artistic convention combining two separate episodes.

How many Magi are there in Syriac Christian tradition?

The Bible never gives a number; the Western count of three simply matches the three gifts.

The names Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar for the Magi first appear in a chronicle from which century?

That chronicle was a Latin translation of a lost Greek manuscript probably composed in Alexandria about two centuries earlier.

How many days after his birth did Mary and Joseph present Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem?

That is why Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation, falls on 2 February, forty days after Christmas.

What sacrifice did Mary and Joseph offer at the Temple, the option Leviticus allowed for the poor?

The detail quietly signals the family's modest means; a lamb was the standard offering for those who could afford one.

Which elderly prophetess was in the Temple when the infant Jesus was presented?

She appears alongside Simeon, the devout man who had been promised he would not die before seeing the Messiah.

Simeon's prayer on seeing the infant Jesus in the Temple is known by what Latin name?

It is one of three canticles in Luke's infancy story, alongside Mary's Magnificat and Zechariah's Benedictus, and is still sung at evening services.

In 1614 Kepler tied the Star of Bethlehem to a Jupiter-Saturn triple conjunction in which year?

Modern calculations show the planets stayed nearly a degree apart, about two Moon-widths, so the sight would not have been especially dramatic.

The bones of the Magi are traditionally said to rest in a shrine in which city?

Marco Polo, by contrast, claimed he was shown the Magi's three tombs at Saveh, south of modern Tehran, in the 1270s.

Matthew says Herod's massacre of the children fulfilled which prophet's words about Rachel weeping?

Matthew's infancy story is built around such fulfilment quotations, presenting Jesus as a new Moses rescued from a murderous king.

Working back from the death of Herod the Great, scholars usually place the birth of Jesus in which years?

The Gospels never give a date, and the year 1 of the Christian calendar was fixed centuries later by a monk who miscounted.

The Greek word Christos, from which 'Christ' derives, is a title meaning what?

In post-biblical usage 'Christ' came to be treated as part of a name rather than an office.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels, from Greek words meaning what?

They are so alike in content, arrangement and language that they can be set side by side and compared.

Under Marcan priority, which Gospel is thought to have been written first?

Mark is usually dated to AD 60–75, with John the last of the four, around AD 75–100.

Which Roman historian mentions Christ's execution by Pilate in book 15 of his Annals?

Scholars regard the passage as authentic and as a valuable independent Roman source alongside Josephus.

In which year did Judea become a Roman imperial province governed by a prefect?

The prefect ruled from Caesarea Maritima and left Jerusalem largely to the High Priest, visiting during festivals.

By what name is Jesus most often referred to in the Quran?

Islam regards him as a messenger of God and the messiah sent to guide the Children of Israel with the Injīl.

According to Ahmadiyya belief, Jesus survived the crucifixion and died aged 120 where?

Ahmadis hold that he is buried at Roza Bal in Srinagar.

Which ancient religion revered Jesus alongside Zoroaster, Buddha and its own founder?

It was one of the earliest organised religions outside Christianity to honour Jesus as a significant figure.

Roughly how tall do scholars estimate a typical Jewish man of Jesus's time and place stood?

The New Testament gives no description of his appearance; the estimate is based on the population of the era.