it is one of the world’s great mysteries
a biblical conundrum that has baffled
scholars for years between the ages of
12 and 30 the life of Jesus Christ is
unaccounted for
there is no written record there are no
tales told nature abhors a vacuum and so
do many religious folks and that’s why
many people have talked about these
missing years and have tried to
speculate about what Jesus might have
done during that time in modern times
attempts have been made to fill in the
missing years wild stories of Jesus
traveling to India to study with Eastern
mystics even Jesus appearing in North
America any good historian who’s worth
his salt will go with the earliest and
best evidence not later evidence not
wonky evidence not evidence that
contradicts all our earliest and best
sources you’re going to go with your
earliest and best evidence and that
happens to be Matthew Mark Luke and John
from historical research and recent
archaeological work in Galilee in
particular combined with things that we
can deduce from the Gospels themselves
we actually know a fair amount Bethlehem
is where Christ was born
but the Gospels say his family left soon
thereafter he went and lived in a town
called Nazareth so was fulfilled what
was said through the prophets he will be
called a Nazarene this was not a party
area this was not a happening place
this was a kind of a quiet area in a lot
of respects a lot of farming that was
going on fishing that went on in the Sea
of Galilee and people that worked there
didn’t make a great deal of money
typically
the Gospels imply during the missing
years Jesus’s status was blue-collar
once in the New Testament in the Gospel
of Mark Jesus critics in his hometown
asked is not this the carpenter and then
in the parallel text in Matthew they
asked is not this the carpenter’s son
there would not have been much work in
Nazareth for Jesus his father or other
craftsman instead it’s believed Jesus
could have found steady work three miles
away in the bustling town of Sepphoris
known for its elaborate mosaic artwork
created by the Romans you can envision
the family spending many years building
houses building furniture building halls
billing in assembling buildings with
limestone and wood that’s the family
business
the Nazareth region also provides clues
to Jesus’s level of education and his
knowledge of the world the language of
the region was Aramaic and scholars are
certain that Jesus spoke it the Gospels
also say Jesus knew how to read meaning
he was educated during the missing years
apparently he knows how to read because
he goes into the synagogue according to
Luke and he reads from the scroll the
prophets he may not have been just a
carpenter either because Nazareth was
close to the Sea of Galilee it’s
possible Jesus went there to fish if he
did he most likely would have run into a
group of fishermen men who years later
would lay down their nets and become his
apostles as he walked by the Sea of
Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew his
brother casting a net into the sea for
they were fishermen then jesus said to
them follow me and I will make you
become fishers of men it’s written in
the Gospels that Jesus had a father on
earth named Joseph
he appears several times in the texts
but disappears after Jesus teaches at
the temple at age 12 it makes sense to
presume that at some point during this
time he died and that Jesus would have
had to deal with the death of his father
and would have done the appropriate
things as a son namely attend to the
burial services and attend to the
various rituals and then be especially
attentive to his mother and the needs
that his mother would have had but being
the one responsible for his family would
not last
there are clues in the Gospels that
suggest Jesus would leave them behind in
order for Jesus’s ministry to work he
would have to shun the people closest to
him his brothers and sisters and his
mother he went walkabout he went out on
tour he went out to do miracles and
signs and wonders and preach and teach
all over the place leaving James and the
other members of the family to take over
the family business this in a small town
would have been considered scandalous
there is of course a great deal about
those years that we don’t know but what
we do know is not insignificant and that
is that Jesus grew up as a boy in the
synagogue learning Scripture drinking
deeply from the wells of Scripture
experiencing firsthand the social and
economic oppression of the Palestinian
Jewish peasantry of his time of which he
was apart and envisioning a day as he
would later say of a kingdom of God
where the cause of the poor and the
lowly and the disadvantaged would be
championed over those who oppressed them
by studying stories agreed upon to be
true a clearer albeit hypothesized
portrait of Christ’s life can emerge
a biblical conundrum that has baffled
scholars for years between the ages of
12 and 30 the life of Jesus Christ is
unaccounted for
there is no written record there are no
tales told nature abhors a vacuum and so
do many religious folks and that’s why
many people have talked about these
missing years and have tried to
speculate about what Jesus might have
done during that time in modern times
attempts have been made to fill in the
missing years wild stories of Jesus
traveling to India to study with Eastern
mystics even Jesus appearing in North
America any good historian who’s worth
his salt will go with the earliest and
best evidence not later evidence not
wonky evidence not evidence that
contradicts all our earliest and best
sources you’re going to go with your
earliest and best evidence and that
happens to be Matthew Mark Luke and John
from historical research and recent
archaeological work in Galilee in
particular combined with things that we
can deduce from the Gospels themselves
we actually know a fair amount Bethlehem
is where Christ was born
but the Gospels say his family left soon
thereafter he went and lived in a town
called Nazareth so was fulfilled what
was said through the prophets he will be
called a Nazarene this was not a party
area this was not a happening place
this was a kind of a quiet area in a lot
of respects a lot of farming that was
going on fishing that went on in the Sea
of Galilee and people that worked there
didn’t make a great deal of money
typically
the Gospels imply during the missing
years Jesus’s status was blue-collar
once in the New Testament in the Gospel
of Mark Jesus critics in his hometown
asked is not this the carpenter and then
in the parallel text in Matthew they
asked is not this the carpenter’s son
there would not have been much work in
Nazareth for Jesus his father or other
craftsman instead it’s believed Jesus
could have found steady work three miles
away in the bustling town of Sepphoris
known for its elaborate mosaic artwork
created by the Romans you can envision
the family spending many years building
houses building furniture building halls
billing in assembling buildings with
limestone and wood that’s the family
business
the Nazareth region also provides clues
to Jesus’s level of education and his
knowledge of the world the language of
the region was Aramaic and scholars are
certain that Jesus spoke it the Gospels
also say Jesus knew how to read meaning
he was educated during the missing years
apparently he knows how to read because
he goes into the synagogue according to
Luke and he reads from the scroll the
prophets he may not have been just a
carpenter either because Nazareth was
close to the Sea of Galilee it’s
possible Jesus went there to fish if he
did he most likely would have run into a
group of fishermen men who years later
would lay down their nets and become his
apostles as he walked by the Sea of
Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew his
brother casting a net into the sea for
they were fishermen then jesus said to
them follow me and I will make you
become fishers of men it’s written in
the Gospels that Jesus had a father on
earth named Joseph
he appears several times in the texts
but disappears after Jesus teaches at
the temple at age 12 it makes sense to
presume that at some point during this
time he died and that Jesus would have
had to deal with the death of his father
and would have done the appropriate
things as a son namely attend to the
burial services and attend to the
various rituals and then be especially
attentive to his mother and the needs
that his mother would have had but being
the one responsible for his family would
not last
there are clues in the Gospels that
suggest Jesus would leave them behind in
order for Jesus’s ministry to work he
would have to shun the people closest to
him his brothers and sisters and his
mother he went walkabout he went out on
tour he went out to do miracles and
signs and wonders and preach and teach
all over the place leaving James and the
other members of the family to take over
the family business this in a small town
would have been considered scandalous
there is of course a great deal about
those years that we don’t know but what
we do know is not insignificant and that
is that Jesus grew up as a boy in the
synagogue learning Scripture drinking
deeply from the wells of Scripture
experiencing firsthand the social and
economic oppression of the Palestinian
Jewish peasantry of his time of which he
was apart and envisioning a day as he
would later say of a kingdom of God
where the cause of the poor and the
lowly and the disadvantaged would be
championed over those who oppressed them
by studying stories agreed upon to be
true a clearer albeit hypothesized
portrait of Christ’s life can emerge
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