Who was Jesus?    

Abundant biblical and extrabiblical evidence testify that Jesus was a real person.

Yeshua (Jesus) was born about 6 B.C.E. in Bethlehem of Judea (Israel), a small holding of the Roman Empire, to Jewish parents Yosef (Joseph) and Miryam (Mary). He became a carpenter. At about age 30, he began teaching about God's kingdom, traveling about Judea with his 12 apostles.

His claims to authority, and even being God, and his denunciations of the Jewish authorities as hypocrites, infuriated the establishment. Many of his contemporaries testified that he had done miracles.

When he was 33, he was tried by the Jewish authorities and accused of blasphemy (for claiming to be God) and sorcery (for claiming to be able to rebuild Herod's Temple in three days if it were torn down -- a claim he did not actually make; a statement he made was misinterpreted).

Since the Jews could not put someone to death, they brought him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judea, who reluctantly agreed to flog and crucify Jesus.