Jesus and Mohammad Case

Jesus and Mohammed

Introduction

The two have much in common. Both never really intended to start a religion. Both never wrote a word themselves but were written about a century after their death. Both offered change from the staleness of the settled religions and offended those in charge. There were differences. Mohammed had engaged in battles as the leader of his group while Jesus did not. Mohammed had a career as a trader while some assume Jesus had worked with his father as a carpenter.

Jesus

Jesus was born in a world under the control of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire at the time was the largest most stable and most forward thinking government of the time. They allowed the average person to continue to live as they had before if not better. Not forcing major social upheaval on the general population allowed the average person to continue living as they had before. The only thing that changed was who they had to obey and who they paid taxes to.

The Jewish religion was still practiced and his parents were practicing Jews. Which resulted in Jesus was raised in that faith. The "The Historical Jesus" (n.d.) website, the name Jesus was the Greek version of the Hebrew version of Joshua and Christ comes from the Greek word Messiah.

For the first 30 years little of Jesus’s life was noted. Then when Jesus reached the age of 30 he started with his baptism by John the Baptist who lived as an ascetic ("The Historical Jesus", n.d.). He was referred to by many of the time as a charismatic itinerant teacher who attracted crowds and apparently performed miracles and brilliance as an orator ("The Historical Jesus", n.d.). He had a group of followers of which 12 were referred to as disciples but most likely also had female followers.

After a couple of years those in positions of power were seeing Jesus as a threat to the status quo. The Romans who had several others incidents of rebellion were looking to stop more from happening. The Jewish Leaders were not happy with Jesus by his interpretations of Jewish law from which they derived much of their power from ("The Life of Jesus", n.d.).

Muhammad

Muhammad started harsh life in a harsh land with little resources. At age of six his parents died, and he was taken in by his grandfather who died when he was eight. Then he was taken by his uncle Abu Talib who ran a caravan ("Mohammad", n.d.). Consider that many orphans of the time ended sold as slaves he was one of the lucky ones. This is where Mohammad would have been exposed to different ideas and ways of living. He would have learned about the Roman Empire which had split into half and Byzantine Empire was slowly sinking into the sunset of history. When