Encore Post: The Gospels give us only brief glimpses into the first thirty years of the life of Jesus. We have, of course, the Christmas story. They mention the circumcision of Jesus on the 8th day (we celebrate it on New Year’s Day). After forty days, his mother Mary and adoptive father Joseph take him to the temple to redeem him and to purify Mary. There they meet Simeon and Anna. Then sometime in the first two years, scholars from the east come to their house in Bethlehem, worship him and give him gold, frankincense and myrrh. Warned by angel, they move to Egypt while Herod the Great vainly tried to kill him and instead slaughtered innocent boys. In a matter of months, they move back to Nazareth and settle there. Then, that’s it for twelve years. We hear about Jesus among the teachers in the temple and then silence again for sixteen years!
False teachers, psychics and prophets of other religions have not been able to resist. They tell stories of a self-centered child animating clay pigeons, raising a child from the dead to testify that he did not shove the child off a roof and similar things. Some have him move to India to learn under gurus. Islam has him speak while in the cradle. None of these things happened, but are simply stories made up to fill a vacuum they believe exists.
So, what was Jesus’ first thirty years really like? We don’t know precisely other than it was perfectly normal. He grew up as the son of a faithful, Jewish craftsman. He learned his father’s trade, living what was a kind of middle class life. Likely they worked to build the nearby capital of Herod Antipas, called Sepphoris. He would have studied the Torah, learned Hebrew, observed all the customs of the law and studied under rabbis. He likely spoke in Koine Greek and learned something about Greek and Roman culture. He grew up so normally that no one who knew him could imagine him as God. Luke sums it up: “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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