The Bible is silent about the life of Jesus until the age of 30. And it was with the appearance of Jesus on the banks of the Jordan and his baptism by John that his career as a preacher began, ending with death on the cross and a miraculous resurrection. After his baptism, Jesus retired to the wilderness, where he spent some time alone, preparing himself for the service of God. He soon reappeared on the banks of the Jordan. John the Baptist recognized him and said to the people, ” Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” This meant that he had declared Jesus to be the Messiah, and it made people believe in his special calling. A fairly close group of his followers had gathered around Jesus, the core of which was made up of the twelve apostles and their closest relatives, as well as Mary Magdalene. Together with this group, Jesus moves around Judea, preaching his teachings, performing all sorts of miracles, helping to cure diseases, etc.

What exactly did Jesus Christ teach? What provisions formed the basis of his teachings? We have already noted the Jewish roots of Christianity. Without an explanation of the existence of a close connection with Judaism, much of Christianity will look incomprehensible. Christianity emerges as a sect of Judaism. It sets itself the task of purifying Judaism from those “harmful” layers that were brought into it by the scribes and Pharisees, who turned the living teaching into a system of stagnant positions and automatic ritual actions. To the scribes and Pharisees, the letter of the law was dearer than its essence. Christian teaching develops in controversy with the Jewish scribes and Pharisees, although at first it does not claim to be primarily new. “Do not think that I have come to break the law or the prophets; I have not come to break them, but to fulfill them.” 5,27). At the same time, the line of opposition of the new doctrine to Judaism is quite clearly marked in the Gospels. This line is already clearly marked in the famous sermon on the mount of Jesus Christ, which is reproduced in the gospel of Matthew.

Thus, the main direction in the reinterpretation of Judaism by Christianity consists in deepening the substantial moral principle of religious teaching from the point of view of the assertion of the leading role of the principle of love. The commandment of love: love for God, love for one’s neighbor, including one’s enemy, is considered by many religious scholars to be the cornerstone of the religious and moral teaching of Christianity.

At the same time, in the new Testament sermon quite clearly sounded and social motives: the idea of equality of all people before God, the condemnation of wealth, violence, exploitation. “It is more convenient for a camel to pass through the ears of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” The social motive was especially pronounced in the revelation of John the Evangelist-the Apocalypse. The whole content of this work is permeated with the idea of retribution, which will come in the hour of judgment. And this judgment, according to the author of the Apocalypse, will come soon, even in the lifetime of this generation.