A thought by Charles R. Swindoll, from his book, Jesus: 09 (Great Lives Series) (p. 48). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
I find this interesting.
Charles says, "The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—the only accounts of Jesus’ life that were unanimously accepted by the people who knew Him—offer no information about what happened to Him during those eleven years. History is silent. Luke alone offers this tidbit: 'The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him' (Luke 2:40). Between the ages of one and twelve, we know nothing about Jesus’ life."
He goes on, "Leave a blank space in history and, before long, someone will try to fill it. Many decades after the last eyewitnesses had died, several new documents emerged containing fanciful stories of Jesus’ childhood. They first appeared in the second century, but none of them was considered remotely plausible by the gatherings of believers at the time. Recently, novelists and a few conspiracy theorists have claimed that 'the church' and the Roman emperor Constantine colluded to squelch the truth of these documents because they threatened to undermine their power. It makes for a compelling adventure story, but as history it’s comical.
"Before Constantine rose to power as Roman emperor and made Christianity legal in AD 313, there was no single organization that governed Christendom like the Roman Catholic Church would later. Christianity was illegal, and Christians were frequently persecuted. Churches remained largely underground cell groups that struggled to survive in hostile areas and kept a low profile in the more tolerant corners of the empire. During the second and third centuries, churches were in no position to strong-arm anyone. They did, however, communicate. And they agreed that these alleged accounts of Jesus’ life were fraudulent. The newer accounts weren’t believable because they disagreed with the genuine documents they had possessed for decades. Consequently, the communities of believers scattered across the empire didn’t bother to reproduce or preserve these later documents."
He continues, "We don’t know much about what Jesus was like as a child. What we do know comes from one story in the Gospel of Luke, probably because Luke interviewed Mary as a part of his research.
"At thirteen, a Jewish boy was called a bar mitzvah, a 'son of the commandment.' In preparation for His thirteenth birthday, Jesus might have undergone a rigorous program of instruction and preparation for this passage into manhood. But the modern bar mitzvah ceremony and celebration evolved from Jewish customs in the Middle Ages, so we can only speculate as to what first-century Jews did. Regardless, one year prior to officially becoming a man, Jesus accompanied His family’s caravan to the Holy City to celebrate the Passover Feast and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These back-to-back celebrations spanned eight days, a time taken together as the Passover."
Charles later says, "When did Jesus first become aware of His true identity? Did He put it all together by reading about the Messiah in Scripture? Did He hear a sermon in the synagogue near Nazareth that caused it to click in His mind? Was it an innate understanding that slowly emerged with Him because of the Spirit of God within Him?"
He the says, "No one can say for certain. We only know that He understood His divinely ordained purpose by His twelfth birthday. Even with this knowledge, He remained humble and silent until the proper time."
Luke 2:51–52 says, "He went down with [Joseph and Mary] and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."
Very interesting, isn't it? Yes, yes! #continuethought
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