Passion

Passion, in its specific biblical usage, refers to the sufferings of Jesus Christ in the period leading to and including his crucifixion. The word appears once in the Authorized Version, in Acts 1:3, where Luke writes that Jesus showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. The Greek word underlying it is pathein (to suffer), from the same root as pathos, distinguishing the suffering and death of Christ from his subsequent resurrection appearances.

The Passion narrative — a term derived from this usage — designates the accounts of Jesus's arrest, trial, crucifixion, and burial in all four Gospels. These narratives occupy a disproportionately large share of each Gospel, reflecting the early church's conviction that the death of Christ was the central event of salvation history. Paul summarizes the apostolic proclamation as Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2), and the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament is understood in the New Testament as pointing forward to this defining Passion.