The oldest of the biographies of Jesus, which according to most New Testament scholars is the Gospel of Mark, tells us nothing of the time or place of Jesus' birth, nor does it record anything of his life prior to the time when he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. Perhaps information concerning the early part of Jesus' life was not available or was not regarded as important. Other Gospels report that he was born in Bethlehem of Judea and grew up in the town of Nazareth in Galilee. His public ministry did not begin until after his baptism, which was apparently a turning point in his career. John the Baptist was conducting a vigorous campaign in preparation for the great day when God would establish his kingdom here on earth, which John believed to be near at hand. John called upon people to repent of their sins and in witness thereof to be baptized. That Jesus responded to this call and was baptized indicates that he was in full accord with the work John was doing. Shortly thereafter, Jesus began to proclaim the coming of the heavenly kingdom on earth and called upon his fellow men to make preparation for it. The work of John the Baptist was brought to a close when he was imprisoned and later beheaded by Herod Antipas. His death may have been one of the reasons why Jesus continued, at least in part, the type of work that John was doing, although there are good reasons for believing that Jesus would have carried out a program of his own quite independent of what happened to the Baptist.
Before beginning his own public ministry, Jesus, like many of Israel's prophets, retired to the solitude of the wilderness for a period of fasting and meditation. At the end of this period, we are told that he was tempted by Satan, the archenemy of God and the personification of the forces of evil. Although the details of the temptation stories are somewhat varied, there can be little doubt that they report an actual event, and the meaning of the experience is essentially the same in all of them. They tell us that Jesus was tempted to do evil in the manner that is typical of the temptations that come to all human beings. That Jesus was able — with divine help — to resist these temptations brings assurances that any person may overcome evil by cooperating with divine aid, the same as Jesus did.
