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The New Testament gives us a few details about Jesus’ childhood, and we are grateful for those details that it gives. Are there any details about His culture that might give us a glimpse of what His early life may have looked like? Are there details in the scriptures that we may have overlooked?

 

Growing Up in Occupation

As Americans, we treasure our freedom. But Jesus lived everyday of His life on earth with the occupying presence of the Romans in the background, and sometimes very much in the face, of Jewish daily life. The occupying presence is always looking over your shoulder to see if an insurrection is brewing, and to make sure that taxes are being paid.  As with most times when there is a clash of cultures, that clash leads to misunderstandings. In time, misunderstandings lead to mistrust, and mistrust leads to fear, anger, and hatred. And indeed, incidents of insurrection did occasionally erupt (Acts 5:36-37).

All that tension between the two cultures fractured Jewish culture as Jews tried to grapple with how to respond to the occupation. Sadducees tried to somewhat cooperate with the Romans, Pharisees staunchly resisted the Romans, and tax collectors combined cooperation with the motive of profiting from the misery of their fellow Jews. Jesus grew up in a society full of tension.

 

Typical Jewish Boyhood

Sometimes people might be looked down upon because they live in the wrong part of town. In Jesus’ situation, the whole town where He grew up was looked down upon, even in Jewish culture (John 1:45-46). Not only that, but the power and glory of the Roman empire was centered in Rome, 1400 miles from Jerusalem. Palestine, and especially a small town like Nazareth, were a backwater in the Roman empire. Jesus grew up a long way from the bright lights and big city.

Contrary to writings in the Apocrypha that claim the boy Jesus displayed miraculous signs, the scriptures indicate no such ability as a child. This would indicate that God the Father chose to not complicate His son’s upbringing by the attention and controversies that Jesus’ miracles as an adult eventually brought (Jesus the One and Only, Beth Moore, 2002, p. 45).

We know practically nothing about Jesus’ education. However, we know that typical language education would have included the ability read and write in Aramaic, the language that everyone spoke, and to be somewhat conversational in Greek (The Master, John Pollock, 1985, p. 16). Greek was the common second language of the region, probably due to Alexander the Great conquering Palestine about 329 B.C. That invasion had seen pagan Greek culture threaten to overwhelm Jewish culture and traditions. As a means of countering that invasion, Pharisees had risen in importance trying to hold on to Jewish culture and the importance of the Torah.

According to Jewish tradition, a boy was initially taught by the father. Jesus would have read the scriptures by age 5, and by age 6 he would have likely gone to the school of the local rabbi. Before age 10 Jesus would have begun memorizing long passages of scripture, and at age 10 he would have started his education in the oral traditions of the Jews. Before age 12 Jesus would have been reciting prayers when he woke up, as he dressed and ate, and at night as he went to bed (Jesus the One and Only, Moore, p. 45). Most likely,  God would have made provision for someone to teach Jesus the scriptures from the original Hebrew, instead of the common Greek translation, the Septuagint.    

For comparison, the apostle Paul, who was approximately the same age as Jesus although Paul lived outside of Palestine (Paul grew up in present day Turkey), would have learned Hebrew as a boy from the synagogue keeper, and would have most likely mastered the Psalms and the writings of the prophets, and Jewish history by age 13 (The Apostle, John Pollock, 1985, p. 17).

Jesus grew up in what we would consider a big family. Matthew 13 indicates that Jesus had 4 brothers and multiple sisters. And yet for all the things that contributed to His upbringing (an occupation, a town with a bad reputation, a big family) the most remarkable thing about Jesus’ upbringing was how ordinary He was (Jesus the One and Only, Moore, p. 44). Jesus’ life growing up was so ordinary that the people of His hometown absolutely could not believe that He could be the Messiah (Matthew 13:54-57). Likewise, His appearance was unremarkable (Isaiah 53:2).            

 

Visiting the Temple at Age 12

Luke’s gospel records the event of Jesus accompanying His parents to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover when He was the age of 12 (Luke 2:41-52). There is no explanation of how Jesus came to be in the temple, but when He was found by His parents, he was “sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46 NKJV).

The boy Jesus made quite an impression. Scripture records, “And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers” (Luke 2:47 NKJV). Were any of these teachers still around when Jesus started His ministry 18 years later? If so, did any of them recognize Him as the boy from the temple so many years ago? There is no indication in scripture of any such recognition. When Jesus responded to His parents “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49 NKJV), He revealed that He was already developing His life purpose.

And after getting a taste of hanging out with the teachers in the temple, He went home with His parents “and was subject to them” (Luke 2:51, NKJV). Back in backwater Nazareth, Jesus continued to grow and mature in a small town (Luke 2:52).      

 

Conclusion

Jesus’ upbringing was ordinary in many ways there in Nazareth. Since He grew up far from Jerusalem, He missed learning the teaching of the most prominent rabbis. Come to find out later, those rabbis teaching was very much different than what God intended (Matthew 5, Matthew 23). Jesus’ childhood is a great example of how God can be at work in someone’s heart in humble circumstances, maybe in a small town, far away from big money and popular trends.

God’s work in a life usually involves growing His word in that life, developing disciplines, quietly building toward a day that God uses that life to impact society with a demonstration of God’s truth and love (Proverbs 3:1-6, Luke 2:52). The famous evangelist D.L. Moody is credited with saying, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to Him.” May we all learn from these ideas regardless of our age.