The Gospels

The story resumes in a temple, with an old priest named Zechariah burning incense while the people pray outside, and an angel telling him that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son named John (Luke 1:11-13). Six months later Gabriel is sent to Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to Joseph, and Mary answers, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). The generations of waiting end in a stable, a manger, shepherds, and later wise men from the east who ask Herod the Great, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?" (Matthew 2:2).

Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan while Tiberius rules and Pontius Pilate governs Judea (Luke 3:1-2, 21-22), and then He begins to call people by name. Simon Peter and his brother Andrew leave their nets; James and John leave their father Zebedee in the boat (Matthew 4:18-22). Matthew rises from the tax booth (Matthew 9:9). Twelve are appointed "so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach" (Mark 3:14) — among them Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, "who betrayed him."

The Gospels are crowded with people the world had overlooked. A leper is touched, Jairus's daughter is raised, a woman who had bled for twelve years is healed by the hem of a garment (Mark 5:22-42). Bartimaeus shouts from the roadside until he can see (Mark 10:46-52). Zacchaeus climbs a tree and comes down to salvation (Luke 19:1-10). Mary and Martha welcome Jesus at Bethany, and their brother Lazarus walks out of a tomb still bound in graveclothes (John 11:43-44). Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna travel with the Twelve and provide for them out of their own means (Luke 8:1-3).

The era ends where the Gospels build: a supper, a garden, a trial before Caiaphas and Pilate, and a cross carried part of the way by Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21). Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus lay Him in a new tomb (John 19:38-42). On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene finds the stone rolled away, hears her own name spoken, and runs to tell the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" (John 20:16-18). The last words of the era are a commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).