Jesús

Jesus was not born in the year 1 or on December 25. Here’s what we know about his actual and exact date of birth

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With Jesus of Nazareth something curious happens. Few characters have been more celebrated, discussed and reviewed throughout the centuries. Today historians they usually coincide in which (although there is no material evidence of its existence) was a historical figure that can be framed in the Galilee of 2,000 years ago. However, despite all the attention he has received over the last 20 centuries, there are certain key details of his biography that remain shrouded in shadows. For example the date of your birth. And by “date” we don’t just mean the day, but also the year. When discussing, we could even question where was he born. The usual thing is to think that Jesus came into the world on December 25 in Bethlehem of Judea and that six days later humanity (at least the West or the West of Christian influence) entered into a new eraone in which history was dislocated into two stages that we still use today in the 21st century, whether we are Christians or not: the one before and the one after the birth of Christ (Anno Domini). Totally normal, right? That is, why else would we celebrate Christmas every December 25th, a word that comes from the Latin “https://www.xataka.com/magnet/nativitas” (“birth”)? And why do we talk about years BC and AD if it is not for the birth of Christ? Reality is more complicated and has some chiaroscuros. What do we know about the birth of Jesus? The answer to the previous question is very simple: little. Historians usually agree that there are basically two sources to address the topic of the birth of Jesus and both are reflected in the same work: the New Testament of the Bible. The evangelist gives us a clue Matthew. The other, Luke. The problem is not only the scarcity of information, but that both texts were written many decades after the events they narrate. To be more precise, around 80 and 90 AD, half a century after the crucifixion. Of course in the New Testament there are older texts (such as the letters of Paul or even the gospel of Mark, written around 70 AD), but they are of little use if what interests us is the childhood (and especially the birth) of Jesus. Taking into account the few references there are and the importance of the topic (we are talking about the birth of the central character of one of the most influential religions in history), it would be logical that Matthew and Luke coincide in their stories. It’s not like that. In their texts both offer us what experts call “chronological anchors”references that help us date the birth of Jesus, but those clues are scarce and do not quite fit together. What exactly do they tell us? Let’s see. “And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is the King of the Jews who has been born? For we have seen his star in the east, and we have come to worship him. When Herod heard this, he was troubled, and Jerusalem with him.’ Matthew 2:2-4 “And it came to pass in those days that an edict went out from Augustus Caesar, that all the land should be enumerated. This first enumeration was made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And they all went to be enumerated, each one to his city. Then Joseph went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be registered with Mary, his wife, who was betrothed to him, who was with child. And it came to pass that while they were there, the days were fulfilled in which she was to give birth.” Luke 2:2-7 Although it may not seem like it a priori, both passages hide a small discrepancy, as explains in Wake up Ferro Professor Javier Alonso, philologist, historian and biblical scholar. The evangelist Matthew (and Luke) tells us that Jesus was born in the time of King Herod, but then Luke specifies that Mary was counted while she and Joseph were traveling to fulfill the census ordered in the time of Augustus. If we review history we see that both “anchors” they collide with each other. Herod the Greatruler under the orders of Rome, ruled Judea more or less between 40 and 4 BCyear of his death. As for the census that Luke tells us about, historians believe that it coincided with the census carried out by Quirinus in the time of Augustus, a fact mentioned by Flavius ​​Josephus. The problem, remember Alonsois that Quirinus ruled around 6 AD the region that covers Judea, years after the death of Herod. Conclusion? Both evangelists are actually drawing a fairly broad time frame, of a decade, that could be set between the years prior to the king’s death and 6 AD “There is a difference of at least 10 years between Matthew and Luke,” explains Alonso. Why do we say that Jesus was born when he was born? At this point that is the most reasonable question. If the evangelists point to a time horizon that begins several years before our era (Anno Domini), because devils Do we say that Jesus was born a few days before the 1st AD? Who and how set that date? To answer these questions we must go back a few centuries, although without reaching the era of Herod. Our attention will focus on beginning of the 5th ADwhen at the request of the Pope the Scythian monk Dionysus ‘the Exiguous’ He launched into a difficult task: calculating the date of Christ’s birth. It may sound strange that so many centuries later the followers of Jesus would worry about this question, but at stake there was a primary issue: clarifying when Easter should be celebrated (Computus paschalis), the main celebration of Christianity. Its date … Read more

According to a new study, the holy sheet never covered Jesus Christ. The strange thing is that he has put defenders and critics in agreement

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Turin’s shroud, also known as ‘Santa Slack’, is one of the most important relics of Christianity. This 4.4 x 1.1 -meter linen fabric has been a historic controversy focus among those who defend that it was the blanket that was placed on the body of Christ at the time of their burial and those who believe that it is a subsequent fabric. Now a new study has been published to add more firewood to the fire by stating that the Holy Sheet is false. And what he has achieved is to unite both defenders and critics of the authenticity of the fabric. Short. Cicero Moraes is a Brazilian researcher specialized in three -dimensional reconstruction. I already warned in 2024, but in the recent study published in the magazine Archaeometry He has presented the conclusions that lead him to consider the holy sheet as a false relic. Using Open Source software and three -dimensional models, Moraes approached the formation of the image of the sheet performing digital simulations. He analyzed how a fabric behaves when covering different three -dimensional forms, observing the patterns of the sheet and concluding that they adapt much better to a solid model and without too much depth, such as a bas -relief, than to something more “soft” and in depth, such as human anatomy. This, for him, would already rule out that it was the sheet that covered the body of Jesus Christ, arguing that, in that case, the distortion of the image and the folds would be much more evident if a human body had covered. Here you can see the video of the simulation of Moraes: So? The researcher holdsbased on those 3D models such as those used in cinema and video games for Simulate objects of objectsthat the image of the shroud could only have been created if it had been placed on a bas -relief of a human figure, such as a stone or wood size. If a human body had covered, the image of the shroud would not be so perfect and should be more distorted due to the greater depth of the body, especially on the sides. Come on, that the royal sheet shows a “photocopy” of a sculpture or bas -relief, not a human body. Having covered a body, I would have presented the documented effect “Agamemnon mask“ Moraes’ study shows what the silhouette of Jesus Christ really would be if the sheet had been on a body, on the left, in the face of the perfect representation of the body that shows the shroud, to the right Previous studies. Moraes’ is just One of the many analysis which have been done to verify the authenticity of the relic. The most famous, perhaps, is the test carried out in 1988 by Laboratories of Oxford, Arizona and Zurich in which the Carbon-14 and determined that the fabric had occurred at some point between 1260 and 1390 AD Apart from the studies, to dismant Godofredo de Chany He exposed it for the first time in a French town. And there are also no writings of the Christian tradition that mention the sheet. Of course, on the other hand, defenders of their authenticity argue that The most solid testthat of 1988, It could have been contaminated with materials after the time of Christ, and that the sheet would be about 2,000 years old. Another recent study He pointed out that the spots of the shroud corresponded to the blood that could occur with torture and crucifixion, but there are also those to indicate opposite. The shroud Criticism. The problem of the new study is what you can be imagining: it is an extremely powerful statement based on a theoretical analysis with strictly digital data such as those of a 3D simulation. And criticisms have not taken to arrive. The International Center for Syndonology of Turin (who are responsible for the study of the sheet), directlypoints out that Moraes’ work does not provide direct evidence on the historical piece and, although the 3D modeling It is valuable from the perspective of visualization of the tissue on the body, does not take into account variables such as the elasticity of the fabric, among other factors. And that it is a visual representation of a theory with a century behind it without adding much more. Other experts have commented that, although the study is interesting, the simulations, by themselves, They cannot replace direct analysis of the object. Convulsive context. The First statements De Moraes in 2024 on his study arrived at a complicated moment, since the Santa Neck was going to be an important piece in the 2025 jubilee acts. Not showing the real element, but a series of Very precise digital representations. And what does the Vatican? Interestingly, they have not spoken. But not with this 3D study, but historically. The official position is to promote the interdisciplinary study of the piece, without issuing a conclusive judgment. And this is something that is valued in the scientific community, since it maintains the living and open debate, allowing new study approaches in future research. Therefore … Is the holy sheet false? Moraes defends that its origin is that of a medieval art work, but its research through simulations cannot be definitive. Therefore, it follows the debate on whether it is the original sacred relic or if it is a medieval creation and, like Matteo Borrini, one of the researchers who maintains that it is a medieval artifact, commented A few years ago, “our faith is not based on the shroud, but on the gospels”, so it would give the same if the shroud is original or something much later, since the faith is above it. In Xataka | Boadilla del Monte is not famous for many things. So now he wants to lift a statue of 37 meters

In the Middle Ages the Child Jesus was represented as an “old baby.” The reason still fascinates experts

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It is not necessary to be a scholar, or have an eye trained in the study of medieval art. Soon you are familiar with the Christian iconography of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries or have seen any of the Religious altarpieces That they painted themselves in Europe at that time, you are likely to ask yourself a question: why do they show the Child Jesus like this, ugly, aged, touched? And ugly, aged and touched are three adjectives that probably fall short for not a few of the medieval portraits that represent Jesus in their early years, in Mary’s arms. Where there should be a child in his most tender childhood we find a creature with wrinkles, incipient baldness and the expression of a philosopher submerged in brave reflections. The most curious thing is that they are not due to lack of expertise of artists. They are anything but childish because that is what was sought. Portraits of the child? Jesus. There are examples to bore. Paolo Veneziano, Duccio di Buoninasegna, Massaccio, Giotto… If something has in common their representations of the Virgin and the Child Jesus, beyond having painted them between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries and always represent the same religious characters, it is how they did. They were supposed to represent a young woman with her newborn son or only a few years, but what came out of her brushes was very different: “old children”, creatures not very healthy who seem sexagenarians about to sign retirement. Instead of angelic faces, they created incipient baldness heads, wrinkles and expressions that evoke anything except the idea of childhood. And to show a button. Or several. Arrives with a look at the child Jesus of ‘Crevole Madonna’ (1283-1284), by Duccio Di Buoninasegna who looks at you from the right side of the cover image. Or this other painted by Giotto At the beginning of the fourteenth century and observes you with an equally intense expression under these lines. Detail of ‘Maestà di Ognissanti’, by Giotto, the beginning of the fourteenth century. Lack of expertise? That is the first explanation that comes to mind: if they painted the Child Jesus of that guise, maybe it was because of the ability of those who handled the brushes. The reality is much more complex … and fascinating. “These ugly babies were very intentional,” Phil Edwards explains in Vox Magazine. They were more or less skilled, when drawing the face of Jesus the painters were guided by conventions, an assimilated and shared code and a cultural background that in this case affected both the idea of childhood and especially that of the Child Jesus himself. In fact, one of the keys that help us understand these pieces is that medieval artists did not seek to faithfully capture reality. If their babies are not realistic it is because they were not interested in realism. The message matters, not fidelity. “The strangeness we see in medieval art is due to the lack of interest in naturalism. They were more inclined to expressionist conventions,” Matthew Averett recountsProfessor at Creighton. Each painter handled their own brushes and paintings, true; But in a context that influenced his works. They were the creators, but they resorted to a language and clear conventions. “The idea of artistic freedom to represent these people as one would have been new,” he adds. “Art was not interested in naturalism, but rather in the theological expression,” emphasize in The conversation Angela McCarthy, from the University of Notre Dame Australia. And that does not notice only in the aspect with which the Child Jesus was portrayed. In Western art theology also influenced COMPOSITIONS: Jesus usually appears sitting with a mature or diaper posture. “The latter was an attempt to represent the biblical references to a child wrapped in diapers or the shroud placed on Jesus after his death,” Apostille McCarthy. Detail of a representation of the Child Jesus of the mid -14th century of Paolo Veneziano. Do not say a child, give better “homunculus”. If there is a word that helps to understand those disturbing “children-man” who rest in Maria’s lap and look at us from the medieval tables is that: homunculus, which means “Little Man”. The Child Jesus was after all a child, but not anyone. McCarthy recalls that his artistic representation with Mary began to expand after the Council of Ephesus, in 431, and not much later, in 451, another council was held in Chalcedon that would be key to the representations of the Child Jesus: “Part of the interpretation that the Church made of the Council was that Jesus was fully human and divine. Some theologians interpreted that this meant that this meant that this was fully formed. with knowledge of his divinity “, reveals The expert of the University of Notre Dame Australia: “This was difficult to represent in art and hence the name of the child.” “Perfectly formed”. What we observe in the Middle Ages altarpieces is therefore not a simple (more or less realistic) representation of a child with his mother. No. The message is more complex … and rich. It shows us an idea of the Jesus Child influenced by Christian theology and certain conventions. And in which that concept, the “homunculus.” “There is the idea that Jesus was perfectly formed and unchanged”, Remember Averett“And if you combine that with Byzantine painting, it became a standard form to represent Jesus. In some of these images it seems that he had baldness with an adult pattern.” Good example is the child who observes you from the left side of the composition that opens this report. The image is taken from ‘Madonna Della Pace’an icon that, as they remember from the Santi Giovanni E Paolo Basilica, was donated to the Dominicans by a senator who took him from Constantinople in the mid -fourteenth. “In the eastern orthodox tradition, from approximately the sixth century to the present, the child Jesus looks like a little man,” McCarthy abounds. Detail of ‘Virgen … Read more

We finally have Noah’s videos building his ark, Jesus Christ multiplying fish and Eve being tempted. Thanks to the AI, of course

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It has all the meaning of the world: according to the generative IAS They become more and more sophisticatedcontent creators to use and pull social networks are making more and more spectacular videos. And among those who are being applied the most to launch amazing content we have Christian devotees, who are taking advantage of the abilities of artificial intelligence to spread passages from the Bible with an overwhelming realism. Word of God. It is not very clear where the trend began, but it is having a disproportionate reception. At the forefront of these contents are accounts as SECRETOSDELABIBILA0 (more than 500,000 followers) Lokiprosperity (with almost 50,000) or Vlogsbiblia (with more than 30,000), which feedback to each other and parasitate, so it is not very clear where the proverbial eggs and chicken of these contents are. What are they going. The contents are diversified according to the poster, but all coincide in what focuses the profile of ‘Vlogsbiblia’: passages of the Bible recreated with AI and in which the protagonists narrate in the first person and looking to the screen, looking at it as if they were recorded in a mobile. Is not recreated in the ARCA CONSTRUCTION, Daniel in the lions pitthe Multiplication of breads and fishMaria pregnant with JesusJesus Before being crucifiedEva making routines of Skincare In Eden or the same Eva being tempted. In all cases there is a certain sense of humor derived from anachronism and a few harmless jokes at the expense of ICTs Influencers They are surprising, but it is not the only possible approach in this clash between Christianity and generative artificial intelligences. Bible stories. The most popular of these profiles, ‘Lossecretosdelabiblia0’, also recreates with the passages with more traditional planning, such as small films. This also enters beliefs that touch not very traditional Christian teachings: the recipe for A bread that gives immortality And that is in the Bible, the return of Jesus with apocalyptic dyesthe complex angelic mythology, Crazy Giants of four meters in the Old Testament and warnings against the PASCUA EGG PAGANISM. An extensive task of propaganda of faith with videos that reach the seven million views. The sanctification. Undoubtedly, the ‘Los SecretosDeBiblia0’ videos are among the most realistic that have been seen on social networks. They do not allow, evidently, pieces generated by AI, but the relative naturalness of voices and images is a jump with respect to, for example, the first and still grabbed videos of ‘Lokiprosperity’, of simple evangelical advice starring A Jesus emerging between the clouds either asking permission to enter your home. More than enough, in any case to get donations from the target audience of these videos, the same people who believe that the nonsense of AI What do Facebook are real are realand that invariably comment with “blessings” or names of verses. In this last type of videos, which respond to ask how “Are pigs demons?“And they have a marked apocalyptic tone, profiles like ‘focus like’Prophets of Labiblia‘(More than 800,000 followers). Our particular favorite? A video that proposes an unusual cross between evangelization by AI and the tics of influencers that make Jesus, Mary and his disciples in Podcasters. The Christianization of Tiktok. These types of accounts are part of a unique use of social networks by religious currents of great penetration in Spanish -speaking users. We have already talked about profiles that offer an innocent, almost harmless version of Christianity: Bible readers They customize their books, nuns turned into authentic Influencersand a larger scale, groups of Pop music like Hakunawhich manage to add thousands of listeners thanks to the diffusion provided by Tiktok or Instagram style platforms. Hashtags like #christiantiktokwith more than 22 million publications or #JOVENESCRISTIANOSits equivalent in Spanish, with almost five million, are flag bearers of this incursion of the youngest in social redees. Although in the case of these videos generated with AI there is an extra pecuniary component: all profiles link to courses to learn to make digital and evangelizing chrys yourself. Public attentive to all this there are, of course.

In Jerusalem they have just discovered a 2,000 -year -old garden that coincides with a description of the Bible: the tomb of Jesus

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If we stick to the literature of that best-seller In religious code which was (and is) the Bible, the Evangelical story of the Gospel of John on the burial of Jesus had resonated with a singular symbolic force for centuries. Namely: the death of the “Messiah” occurred in a “Calaveras Place” and the funeral in “A new, fertile garden, without prior use”, almost like an echo of Eden. Ironies of life, a reform in Jerusalem has found an extremely similar place. The garden under stone. Although literaryly powerful, that passage has always lacked the same as many other passages: topographic precision. However, recent excavations in the Church of the Holy Sepulcherled by a team of archaeologists from La Sapienza University of Rome, have unearthed indications that could confer that fragment biblical an unexpected empirical support. Taking advantage of some renovations initiated in 2019 after decades of disputes between the religious communities that administer the temple (the orthodox, the Franciscans and the Armenians), the team of Professor Francesca Romana Stasolla began, in 2022, a meticulous work under the nineteenth -century panel of the sanctuary. There, under slabs and centuries of liturgy, they discovered the vestiges of An old quarry Of the Iron Age that, in Jesus, already served as a place of burials excavated in the rock. From the Empire to faith. This space, although it was not the only one of its kind in the Jerusalem of the time, was the one that the first Christians identified as the place of the crucifixion and the grave of the Nazarene, conviction that led the Emperor Constantine (after his conversion to Christianity) to order the construction of the first temple on that soil loaded with memory. The current church, rebuilt by the crusaders in the twelfth century, is the last incarnation of that ancient veneration. The revealing of the current finding is that, in the period between the exploitation of the quarry and the erection of the temple, the area was transformed into An agricultural space. The finding. Archaeologists identified low stone walls and stuffed land for cultivation, as well as evidence of olive trees and vines 2,000 years ago. For Stasolla and his team, these discoveries offer a possible material correspondence with the mention of the garden that appears in the Gospel of John, which suggests that whoever wrote, or compiled that story, possessed a intimate knowledge of the geography and territorial organization of the city at that time. Faith culture. Beyond the symbolic force of the garden and its potential link with the story of the burial of Christ, the findings also include Ceramic coins and fragments of the fourth century, which suggests continuous use of the place even before its formal Christianization. Although Stasolla herself speaks cautiously with respect to proclaiming any definitive confirmation of the place of Jesus’ burial, the researcher does underline that the true value of the discovery lies in showing how entire generations They have projected their faith On that site. The history of Holy Sepulcherhe insists, it is not only the story of a character or a religion, but an integral part of the history of Jerusalem. The continuity of the cult, the transformations of the environment and the weight of tradition have conferred that space A living identity which transcends archaeological certainties. Seen thus, between fragments of agricultural walls, millenary roots and sacred land, the recent finding not only excava in history, but also in the religious conscience of the West. Image | Gerd Eichmann In Xataka | The miracle of bread and fish is one of the great magic tricks of the Bible. Now we know “how it was done” In Xataka | The Bible and its 463 contradictions, in addition to violence and misogyny, gathered in an interactive graphic

In a strange turn of events, Jesús Calleja will be the third Spaniard in history to travel to space

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The television presenter Jesús Calleja will travel to space in a Blue Origin ship, the Jeff Bezos Aerospace Company. Tells it in A new documentary called ‘Calleja in space’which has already released two episodes in Amazon Prime Video waiting for its launch in the New Shepard rocket. The space flight does not yet have an assigned date, but it will be broadcast live in Telecinco. The launch of Jesús Calleja. The famous Spanish adventurer has an assigned seat in a New Shepard mission in Blue Origin. Presumably the NS-30, which although it has not been announced, is the following mission in the calendar. The New Shepard is a 15 -meter high suborbital rocket (18 with the spacecraft in which passengers go). Although he is not able to put the capsule into orbit, it was the first rocket in the world that He managed to demonstrate a propulsive landingwhich has allowed Blue Origin to offer a regular space tourism service for millionaires. How will the flight be. The New Shepard will take off from Texas. Calleja and five other travelers will access the capsule at the top of the rocket along the launch tower stairs. The rocket will take off and accelerate to overcome the Kárman line, the most accepted border between the earth and the outer space, 100 kilometers above sea level. While the rocket returns to the surface to land, the ship separates and makes a parable in space during which travelers experience about three minutes of microgravity and enjoy panoramic views of the earth. Next, the capsule begins its atmospheric reentry and opens the parachutes to land, 11 minutes after takeoff. The third Spanish in space. Once you cross the line of Kárman, Jesús Calleja will become the third Spaniard to have traveled to space. The first two Spaniards to achieve this were: Pedro Duque: As astronaut of ESA in 1998, aboard the discovery space ferry, and 2003, aboard a Soyuz ship Michael López-Elegría: as NASA astronaut in 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2009, and as Axiom private astronaut In 2022 and 2024 Pablo Álvarez, career astronaut in ESA since 2022it has not yet flown to space, but it is planned to do so for a mission of six months before 2030. Sara García, reserve astronaut in ESA of the same promotionit could also be called for a shorter mission, such as those of Axiom. How much has the flight cost. The cost per seat of a New Shepard space tourism mission is confidential and surely varies from customer to customer. That said, there was a specific figure that ended up leaking thanks to a transaction made by crypto. Moundao, an organization to “decentralize access to space”, moved 2.5 million dollars in cryptocurrencies To pay two seats aboard the New Shepard. That is: he paid 1.25 million dollars per seat. The first was used by Coby Cotton, of the YouTube channel ‘Dude Perfect’, on the NS-22 Mission of August 2022. The second, by the cardiologist Eiman Jahangir during the NS-26 mission August 2024. Two points. Most likely, Jesús Calleja has not paid the space flight of his pocket, or ruined along the way to his producer, Zanskar Productions. The documentary is co -produced by Mediaset Spain and It is broadcast in Amazon Prime Video streamingwhere it has other sponsors, such as Generali. Maybe Prime Video has been able to access a lower price than usual for the Calleja seat in exchange for all this advertising, but does not have to. Blue Origin is a private company that is only linked to Amazon for being owned by Jeff Bezos, also the founder of the technological giant. Image | Prime video In Xataka | If the space industry wants to democratize tourism, it must overcome several challenges. Like space smells good

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