He was born in the spring or early summer of the year 4 or 6 BCE, probably in "the little town of Bethlehem" in the Galilee, near Nazareth. He became a laborer, maybe a stonemason. His mother, Mary, could not get him married because of his suspect paternity, but he had a girlfriend, Mary of Magdala. He had several brothers, one of them a twin brother, Judas "the Twin" (Thomas), and two sisters. He was charged by the Romans with sedition. At a preliminary hearing, when queried by the High Priest whether or not he, the laborer in rags, was "the anointed son of the Blessed One," as all kings were, he answered, "Am I?" He was crucified like two thousand other Jews during the Roman occupation of Palestine. He died between 30 and 32 CE. His followers revered him as a prophet, but he was a marginal Jew who went about doing good.

Little more than one hundred years later, Tertullian, the African apologist, would write, "I am saved if I be not ashamed of him."