Christ, the mortal side, the Jewish prophet; the majority of his life is unknown, only about a year or more of his life. Dates vary from his actual birth to the crucifixion, many figure mid to late 30’s. Today, a man in is 30’s is considered young, yet in the first century life span at that time for most ended in the mid 40’s. Christ can be considered middle age or past that at the time, going into his senor years. Adding to the acceleration of the aging process at the time, 40 day fasting rituals, starving the body of nutrients, were common and practiced by Christ and his followers. Christ, middle East genetically, would have started graying and balding by the start of his ministry. A whole different look to the black bearded, handsome, Americanized, 20 year old “White” European image of Christ that dominates Western religions and cultures. Christ did not start his ministry until after John the Baptist started his baptismal renaissance. Some estimated Christ’s ministry duration of about a year or slightly more. We know it was right after John the Baptist was gaining popularity in Jerusalem and before John the Baptist was executed after Passover around 30 AD.

Again, just about Christ’s whole life is unknown. Over 30+ years of it. The birth story would not be known to the biographers of the “New Testament” and appears to be third person sourced since the story varies by the writers. Christ, the man, would have lived the compete human experience of emotional turmoil, interpersonal relationships and, as a mortal, experiencing immorality, “sin”. No mention that Christ was married, but he would have had relationships then to live a secluded life, withdrawn from society. Christ would have worked his whole life and had some form of residency, yet this history is missing. Christ’s knowledge of scripture and his resentment to the corruption of organized religion would place him as an active member of synagogues or he knew scribes personally. For a God born as man, this God would have experienced human pain, suffering, and temptation, he would have understood the human experience in order to forgive it’s evils. Like the mortal Christ, we are an imperfect creation that struggles with morality. We war, we are violent, and have anger and rage, yet we always seek redemption to turn back to humility.

What we do know of Christ is written accounts from Roman historians and from biographer’s narratives decades after the crucifixion. All accounts of Christ the man are only from the start of his mission later in his life to ready himself for his entry into Jerusalem. Christ knew that any Jewish uprising, or someone seeking a revolution in Judaism, would cause the Roman military to subdue the one responsible. Jerusalem was a satellite of the Roman Empire and the governors had to keep the peace. Unlike John the Baptist, Christ had educated followers to account the mission as a narrative in later years, orally, thus persevering and proliferating the new religion. Without Christ’s “apostles”, no one today would know of Christ, similar to the missing history of John the Baptist. In Roman history, Christ and John the Baptist are only foot notes in Rome’s occupation of Jerusalem at the time.

Christ, the man, is a compilation of all of us, the better side, that we try to adhere to and emulate then to follow our primitive, evil, impulsive side of hate, war and violence. The renaissance from the divergence of Judaism, offering eternal life, forgiveness of our more destructive side of human emotions, and a personal connection to a God, one who would be like us then an external spiritual entity who lived on a mountain or in a box not seen by or touched by mortals.

Mike Callahan