Given that he has to be one of the most-discussed people to exist in the history of the human species, it's hard to believe that there are things about Jesus that get ignored. But, despite the ubiquity of his story in many places around the globe, the truth is that bits and pieces of that story do get swept under the rug. And the details that you do uncover can start to make this singular man seem very, very odd indeed.
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More than 2,000 years after his birth in a humble manger, Jesus of Nazareth has a following of 2 billion people, according to OpenMind BBVA. While followers of Christ today don't need historical proof of his existence for their faith-based beliefs, biblical scholars have long scoured the archaeological and historical records for evidence nonetheless.
Some of these details and incidents from the life of Jesus may occasionally come up in a class or Bible study, but you're unlikely to hear them on a regular basis. A priest or pastor is probably loathe to build their entire Sunday sermon around, say, the multiple stories that involve Jesus spitting into a blind person's eyes.
Even if you're not a Christian, chances are pretty good that you've heard of the religion's central figure: Jesus Christ. He's quite possibly one of the most pivotal figures in all of history, essentially kicking off what's still the world's largest religion, Christianity. It had an estimated 2.3 billion adherents in 2015, according to the Pew Research Center, accounting for over 30 percent of the share of world religions.
Can a man truly be said to have last words if he escapes the grave? The dual nature of Jesus Christ — fully human, subject to wants, hunger, despair, and death, and yet fully divine and therefore eternal — is among the most difficult aspects of Christianity to wrap your mind around, for believers and skeptics alike. It demands accepting that Jesus was truly killed by crucifixion and descended into Hell and that he returned to Earth to speak to his disciples before ascending into Heaven.
It's very easy for the religiously-inclined to head to a service, hear a message, go home, repeat, and wind up refreshing well-known, comfortable tales and lessons again and again, like Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark and the flood, or Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. And Jesus? Well, he's that long-haired savior guy who went around talking about peace and love, right? The end. Unless he was talking about folks being cast into hellfire, that is.
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