When he is eight days old, Jesus is circumcised as is traditional for Jewish boys. Shepherds visit the baby and bow down in praise. Jesus is born while they are in Bethlehem. Mary and her husband, Joseph, travel to his family’s home town of Bethlehem to register in a census ordered by the Romans, who occupied the region at the time. Christianity teaches that his mother, Mary, is a virgin and falls pregnant at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible book, Micah, says ‘ But you Bethlehem… out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel…’ ‘ But you Bethlehem… out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel…’Īncient Hebrew writings, dating from hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, foretold the arrival of a Messiah who would lead his people to freedom.

Academics have used ancient Greek and Roman documents and also studied astronomical calendars to try to work out the chronology of Jesus’ life. There are non-Christian sources too, including the historians Flavius Josephus and Tacitus, who was a Roman senator.

This makes piecing together an exact timeline impossible. They do not have identical accounts of many events and they record them in a different order. Most of the information about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ comes from Bible books known as the gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He then ascended to heaven, going up into the sky in front of his followers. He appeared to more than 500 people in the weeks after his resurrection. Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus was put on trial and executed by crucifixion in around 30AD. They conspired with one of Jesus’ closest followers to have him arrested for blasphemy. He inspired and challenged the people who heard him but antagonised most of the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus’ teachings were radical and counter-cultural. Their eyewitness accounts are in the Bible. Two disciples, Matthew and John, later wrote about what happened.

Dozens of other men and women also followed him. At the start of this period, he recruited 12 men – known as disciples - to follow him. He also healed people of a huge range of illnesses. Jesus lived in Nazareth until he was about 30 when he began travelling around the area teaching people about God and urging them to change the way they lived. The family returned to their home in Nazareth in what is now northern Israel after King Herod’s death. His parents, Joseph and Mary, took him to Egypt to avoid a massacre of infant boys ordered by King Herod. It is thought that Jesus Christ was born around 4 – 6 BC in Bethlehem, about six miles from Jerusalem.

Timeline of bible books infographic