AFTER 2000 YEARS: A BAPTISM THAT STILL DIVIDES

Say the name Jesus and watch the room change. For some, the name evokes worship and wonder. For others, a shrug, a smirk—or sharp-edged contempt. His name is spoken in prayers and curses, carved into art and weaponised in satire. Billions claim allegiance to Him; billions more have never encountered His story. No other figure in history provokes such devotion—and such resistance, even derision!

His life and message launched the greatest countercultural faith movement of all time.

By the early fourth century, some 10 per cent of the Roman Empire's population or about 6 million people were followers—persecuted and derided—but worshipping Him as Saviour. Then much changed. By the close of that century, Christianity was declared the official state religion—with more than 50 per cent of the population called Christians. Citizens were compelled to convert, and the religion controlled the Empire’s agenda from Constantinople.

In the early seventh century, Islam was born in this environment of Christian nationalism. Muslims did not see Jesus in the same way as Christians, but the Quran honours Him as Isa al-Masih—Jesus the Messiah. In his travel book From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium, William Dalrymple suggests some desert people and monks in Syria might have thought that early Islam was a new branch or off-shoot of the Christian religion.¹

Military force was used to compel people to be Muslims, as had been the case with Christianity from the early fourth century. They see Jesus differently, but today—while it is estimated more than 3 billion in the world are unfamiliar with the name of Jesus—2 billion Muslims and close to 2.5 billion Christians claim to use His name.

Who was He? Why, two millennia later, does He still unsettle the world? And today, would He identify with the religion named after Him?

In the historical philosophical novel Sophie’s World, a Norwegian teenager wrestled with the idea that at times Marx found it necessary to assert he was not a Marxist. Her random question—“Was Jesus a Christian?”—momentarily distracted Alberto, her philosophy teacher. But his response—“That, too, of course, is debatable”—could be a majority reaction today, even among Christians.²

In the light of manipulation, deception, misogyny, power structures, coercion, colonisation and legislation, all being employed to spread, proselytise and bolster this religion and Christian nationalism—the question “Was Jesus a Christian?” is not a distraction, but entirely valid!

But first, suspend judgment on this history to explore how it all started. Jesus had no intention of founding a religion or building a dominating, controlling national empire. His was a radically different, inclusive agenda with all in mind—the broken, alienated, oppressed, neglected and rejected.

How did it all begin? These 50 short reports survey the earliest manuscript records of His life. His was not the holy pyramid-scheme of a guru healer. Some of His ideas and expressions will feel uncomfortable, and some terms He used will need explanation:

• Jesus’ followers were called disciples.

• He equipped disciples to call others as disciples, inviting others to become His followers.

• This cultivated a movement of those who chose to follow.

Today, talk of evangelism, witnessing and making disciples can carry negative connotations for Christians—and even more so for those who have other faiths or no faith. Both history and their own experiences give legitimate reasons for these reactions, for these have too often been experiences of power, control, domination, manipulation or guilt. It is a tragedy that the invitations of Jesus have come to have this kind of meaning for so many people.

As a Jewish rabbi, it was natural that Jesus would attract and train disciples as a kind of apprenticeship—and He taught His disciples that they were to pass His story, teaching and invitations on to others. But this was different to how these invitations are often presented or perceived today. He was not about building a Christian empire; His was a rejection of the power and domination of empires and the creation of a different kind of community. He called this movement God’s way or kingdom—radically non-political and divested of controlling, dominating and oppressive hierarchies. His way of status-reversal has been called cruciform, defined by His willingness to be crucified for His enemies. His kingdom way is revolutionary!

An overlooked anniversary

It is now 2000 years since Jesus of Nazareth stepped into the muddy waters of the Jordan River to be baptised by a desert prophet called John the Baptist. By then Jesus was about 30 years old. Three-and-a-half years later, He would be executed by the Roman state. Yet in that brief window, He launched a movement that has reshaped cultures, calendars, ethics, politics, art and personal lives on a planetary scale.

We mark His birth each December—on a date the writers of the earliest records never specify. But strikingly, the New Testament does anchor one moment of His life to a precise historical timeframe: His baptism, the beginning of His public mission. And it does so with a level of chronological care that reads less like myth and more like investigative reporting.

Luke, a physician-historian writing for a sceptical Greco-Roman audience, dates the ministry of John the Baptist—and therefore the baptism of Jesus—by synchronising it with no fewer than seven political and religious leaders. He names the Roman emperor, regional governors, client kings and even the high priests in Jerusalem. This is not devotional vagueness; it is deliberate historical cross-referencing.

Luke’s key marker is “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman Emperor” (Luke 3:1). Tiberius assumed the imperial throne after the death of Augustus on August 19, CE 14. Counting his accession year as year one—as was customary—the 15th year lands in CE 27–28.³ Luke then layers on additional independent anchors: Pontius Pilate governing Judea, Herod Antipas ruling Galilee, Philip governing the northern territories, Lysanias ruled over Abilene, and the overlapping high-priestly influence of Annas and Caiaphas.⁴

All the dates intersect. Cleanly. Coherently.

This convergence has led many historians to identify CE 27 as the most likely year of Jesus’ baptism. And Luke adds one more confirming detail: Jesus was “about thirty years old” when he began His public ministry (Luke 3:23). If He was born shortly before the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, the numbers align with remarkable consistency.

The intrigue deepens

More than five centuries earlier, during Israel’s exile in Babylon, the prophet Daniel was praying earnestly about the fate of his people and their ruined city of Jerusalem—which had been desolate for almost 70 years (see Daniel 9:15–19; see also Jeremiah 29:10). In response he received a message outlining a long-range timetable.

If read as a messianic prophecy pointing to the arrival of the Messiah—as N T Wright, John Stott and others have read it⁵—there would be “seventy sevens” (490 years) to end rebellion, and from the decree to restore Jerusalem there would be “seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven” (483 years) to the arrival of “the Anointed One” (Daniel 9:24, 25). In short, 483 years would pass before this Messiah would appear.

That decree was issued by the Persian ruler Artaxerxes in 457 BCE.⁶ Count forward 483 years and the timeline arrives—again—at CE 27.

The convergence is arresting: Roman chronology, Jewish leadership records, personal biography and ancient prophecy all point to the same moment. Jesus’ baptism was not an accident of history. It was a beginning—public, deliberate and, for those who see it, uncannily on time.

This series of reflections is an invitation to revisit that beginning—and to see much of what has followed—with fresh eyes.

It grew in the east

This faith movement did not begin with some random viral moment in ancient history. Followers were first called Christians—as a term of derision and mocking—in Antakya, ancient Antioch in Türkiye, near the Syrian border, about the mid-CE 30s (see Acts 11:26). It grew as an Eastern religion, rather than the Western religion it is often assumed to be today. Its first statements of faith (creeds) were written in the east. The first councils were all held in the east. Until the early fourth century there were no church buildings—not one—but the first built were in the east.

Jesus’ upside-down values, His reversal of status and power, His insistence that the last come first and the least become great, were as disruptive then as they are now (see Matthew 20:16). On the night before His execution, He told His followers that they would also suffer but were to do the things He had done (see John 14:12). After His resurrection, He commissioned them with a strange sentence that still echoes: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21).

They took Him at His word. But what did He mean?

This book celebrates the 2000th anniversary of Jesus’ baptism—which proved to be a divine affirmation and the launch of a mission that refuses to stay in the past. We follow His story as it unfolds, step by step, grounded in the earliest accounts and ordered as history rather than legend.

The questions—Who was He? Why does He still command such attention?—have never stopped mattering. And as you’ll discover in these pages, they might be more personal—and more unsettling—than they first appear.

FOLLOWING HIS STORY CHRONOLOGICALLY—AND HOW TO READ THESE REPORTS

More than 180 events from Jesus’ life are recorded in the earliest manuscripts written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—the first books of the part of the Bible known as the New Testament. They are also called Gospels, a word simply meaning good news!

These books help us understand how it began. Matthew highlights Jesus’ radical vision of His movement, called God’s kingdom or way. Mark draws on the apostle Peter’s eyewitness memories, offering a fast-moving biography. Luke—a gentile medical doctor and careful historian—arranges the record into an orderly account. Writing decades later, John looks further back still, introducing Jesus as the One he calls the eternal Word and offering our only glimpse into the early months of His ministry.

In this book, we track Jesus’ life story across 50 short reports. While not followed slavishly, the research of Robert L Thomas and Stanley N Gundry in The NIV Harmony of the Gospels (HarperOne, 1988) is used as a guide for the chronological sequence of His life and these reports.

The order of the references at the top of each report indicates this sequence. The flow of each report is not interrupted with numerous references but all quotations in the text are from the initial references in the New Living Translation. Only quotations from other sources or translations are bracketed in the text.

There were four dramatic purposeful transition points in Jesus’ life: (1) His baptism; (2) His move to Galilee; (3) His call of 12 followers called apostles; and (4) His death with reports of resurrection. These were the times when He moved from hidden preparation to public foundation-laying; from gathering followers to multiplying leaders; and from sacrificial love to what has been seen as a Spirit-empowered movement.

These define five periods or phases in the early development of this faith movement, forming the outline of Jesus’ story and of this book:

1. Preparation—for a life that would multiply.

2. Foundations—modelling a new way to live and lead.

3. Participation—equipping others for wider impact.

4. Leadership multiplication—through sacrificial love.

5. Movement multiplication—through the anointing by one called Holy Spirit.

These reflect a simple, intentional five-step process with five invitations to make and multiply disciples—all in a relational and participatory environment:

 This outline is a summary of the beginnings of this faith movement. Jesus modelled disciple-making and counter-cultural movement-building. You may want to refer to this sometimes—or to the graphic below. It is simple. Radical. Reproducible. Counter-cultural. Sustainable. And it provides a great structure for the reports in this book.

How to read these reports

Some will want to quickly read the 50 reports in this book to catch the drama of the beginnings of this movement. Others may take a more reflective approach—perhaps exploring one report each day. And still others may spend time reading the biblical accounts referenced at the top of each report and then reading or rereading the report, considering the more-detailed earliest records.

These reports might form the frame for discussions with a small group of friends, family or colleagues. Catch up regularly, perhaps weekly—in a cafe or place you all enjoy—read the report, share insights from the background reading (referenced at the top of each report), and discuss your responses. Questions to prompt discussion could be those used in Discovery Bible Reading groups:

1. What is new?

2. What surprises us?

3. What do we not understand?

4. What would we apply to our lives?

5. What would we share with someone else this week—and with whom?

You will be challenged and surprised by these reports on how it all began 2000 years ago—and perhaps find it confronting. It’s a story that still impacts!

1. William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium, Harper Press, 1997, pages 298–301.

2. Jostein Gaarder, Sophie’s World, Phoenix, 1996, page 326.

3. Tiberius became emperor in CE 14 after Augustus died. Roman regnal years were often counted inclusively, not by completed anniversaries. The 15th regnal year overlaps CE 27, making 2027 the 2000-year anniversary. The alignment of the 15th year of Tiberius with CE 27–28:

─ Year 1: CE 14–15

─ Year 2: CE 15–16

─ Year 3: CE 16–17

─ Year 4: CE 17–18

─ Year 5: CE 18–19

─ Year 6: CE 19–20

─ Year 7: CE 20–21

─ Year 8: CE 21–22

─ Year 9: CE 22–23

─ Year 10: CE 23–24

─ Year 11: CE 24–25

─ Year 12: CE 25–26

─ Year 13: CE 26–27

─ Year 14: CE 27–28

─ Year 15: CE 27–28 ← Luke 3:1

4. Primary sources for the dates of these seven rulers:

Tiberius Caesar—accession after Augustus’ death (CE 14).

Tacitus, Annals 1.3–7.

Roman inclusive regnal counting explains Year 15 overlapping CE 27.

Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea—prefect CE 26–36.

Josephus, Antiquities 18.3.1; War 2.9.2.

Pilate Stone (Caesarea inscription)—confirms historicity.

Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee—reign 4 BCE–CE 39.

Josephus, Antiquities 17.8.1; 18.2.1.

Philip the Tetrarch—reign 4 BCE–CE 34.

       Josephus, Antiquities 17.8.1; 18.4.6.

Lysanias of Abilene—CE 14–29.

       Abila inscription (reign of Tiberius)—confirms Luke’s reference.

       Josephus, Antiquities 19.5.1—an earlier Lysanias is distinguished.

Annas and Caiaphas—Annas, the former high priest (CE 6–15+); Caiaphas (CE 18–36).

       Josephus, Antiquities 18.2.1; 20.9.1

       Explains Luke’s dual reference to formal and de facto authority.

5. N T Wright, End of Exile: Daniel, Jesus, and Redemption, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIVcpyzWwm4&t=1s>—views Daniel 9 within the context of Jewish messianic expectation and its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, though he focuses heavily on the historical context of the “end of exile.” He places Daniel 9 in the context of the 70-year exile prophesied by Jeremiah, with Daniel 9 expanding this to 70 “sevens” (490 years) to explain the extended period of suffering, leading to the messianic age, with the ministry and death of Jesus.

John Stott, The Cross of Christ, IVP, 2021—the prophecy of the “seventy weeks” (Daniel 9:24–27) is viewed as messianic, pointing to the ministry and death of Jesus Christ.

Other commentators who have seen Daniel 9 as messianic rather than just pointing to the Maccabean period in the second century BCE, include:

• E B Pusey, Daniel the Prophet, 1868. 

• Edward J Young, Daniel, 1949.

• Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction.

• Harold W Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, 1977. 

• Michael L Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol 3.

• Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

• John Walvoord, Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation—identifies the Messiah of Daniel 9 with Jesus.

6. Siegfried H Horn and Lynn H Wood, The Chronology of Ezra 7, Teach Services, 2017—examines the dating of the 7th and 20th regnal years of Artaxerxes I of Persia and biblical chronology in light of the discovery of the Brooklyn Museum Aramaic papyri (published by Draeling in 1953), an additional group of double-dated fifth-century papyri from Elephantine.