Judaean preacher and religious leader Jesus of Nazareth was BOTD in c. 4 BC. Historians are generally agreed that Jesus was born in Roman-occupied Judaea (modern-day Israel and Lebanon) and raised as a Jew. The Gospels written by his disciples claim that his parents were Mary and Joseph, and that he was born in Bethlehem during the great census ordered by Emperor Caesar Augustus. He appears to have had a brother named James, who later became his disciple. Theologians have theorised that Jesus was a rabbi, and that Mary Magdalene, often misidentified as a prostitute, may have been his wife. Historians are also generally agreed that Jesus was a preacher, and was put to death via crucifixion on the order of Roman authorities. After his death, a Jesus cult sprung up, claiming that he was the “Christ” (Son of God) prophesied in Jewish scripture and that he rose from the dead after three days. Despite years of persecution by the Emperor Diocletian, the Jesus cult maintained its following, and was eventually renamed Christianity. Jesus’ teachings had a major surge in popularity in 309 AD, when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, building the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the purported site of Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem. Under this new climate of tolerance, Christianity became the dominant religion throughout Europe, spreading to Africa and the Americas via missionaries and the colonial projects of the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British and German empires. Four accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings, reputedly written by his disciples Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, together with various letters by Saint Paul and other missionaries were collated as the New Testament, the foundational document of Christianity. Since the invention of homosexuality in the 19th century, liberal theologians have argued that Jesus’ doctrines of tolerance and forgiveness suggest an acceptance of homosexuality, in stark contrast to the anti-gay doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian faiths. In his 1998 play Corpus Christi, American playwright Terrence McNally portrayed Jesus as a gay man who has sex with his male disciples, igniting protests and walk-outs at its premiere and subsequent performances. Jesus’ birthday is traditionally celebrated on 25 December, replacing the Roman festival of Saturnalia and coinciding with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Typically portrayed in Western art as being fair-skinned with blue eyes, the attached image, computer-generated by anthropologists, is thought to be closer to Jesus’ actual appearance.