Virtually all New Testament scholars and historians of the ancient Near East, applying the standard criteria of historical investigation, agree that Jesus existed as a historical figure.[1][2][3][4][nb 6][nb 7][nb 8][nb 9] While some scholars have criticized Jesus scholarship for religious bias and lack of methodological soundness,[nb 10] with very few exceptions such critics generally do support the historicity of Jesus and reject the Christ myth theory that Jesus never existed.[21][nb 11][23][24][25] There is widespread disagreement among scholars about the accuracy of details of Jesus's life as it is described in the gospel narratives, and on the meaning of his teachings,[nb 12][27][nb 13][29]:168–173[29] and the only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and that he was crucified under the orders of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate.[27][29][30][31][32] It is also generally, although not universally, accepted that Jesus was a Galilean Jew who called disciples and whose activities were confined to Galilee and Judea, that he had a controversy in the Temple, and that, after his crucifixion, his ministry was continued by a group of his disciples, several of whom were persecuted.[33][34]