Mary and Joseph knew He was the son of God but didn't write anything down? No biblical accounts until he was in his 30s? Seems strange.

Tibbers said:

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Mary and Joseph knew He was the son of God but didn't write anything down? No biblical accounts until he was in his 30s? Seems strange.

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Dear diary:

Or lack thereof!

You'd think you'd document the entire life of the Son of God.

There were 4 gospel writers and none of them found his childhood significant enough to add except for his birth and the temple fiasco. I guess they could have written "he really liked to read in his spare time."

Which Luke did:
Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Martin Q. Blank said:

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Which Luke did:
Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

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But no idea of what he did and which wisdom he was filled with? Don't you think people would have wanted to know that? What books did he read? Who did he listen to? Parables of his childhood weren't important to the rest of humanity? Those are formative years. Naw, let's just focus on when he was already a man and disregard 90% of his life. Makes no sense.

jkag89 said:

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Infancy Gospel of Thomas

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I was going to bring up the gospel of Thomas and the Nag Hamadi, but those aren't official cannon in the story arc for some reason.

And why I used the emoji with my post while pointing out there are works that present the childhood of account of Jesus.

Tibbers said:

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Martin Q. Blank said:

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Which Luke did:
Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

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But no idea of what he did and which wisdom he was filled with? Don't you think people would have wanted to know that? What books did he read? Who did he listen to? Parables of his childhood weren't important to the rest of humanity? Those are formative years. Naw, let's just focus on when he was already a man and disregard 90% of his life. Makes no sense.

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John 21:25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

I personally believe this was by design. God took on our humanity, he was incarnate in the flesh, but didn't manifest as a grown man. He choose to be conceived, to gestate for 9 months, to be born, to grow and to learn, and then to began his mission. At the wedding feast of Canna, he told his blessed Mother that his time had not yet come, by her intercession he started a little early. We even see earlier at his Bar Mitzvah as some say is when he was "lost" at the temple he choose to go home and be obedient to Joseph and Mary. I think he wanted to live a mundane life, he chose poverty, simplicity and normal life except for 3 years. I am sure he did some amazing things during those times, but I believe the fact that we don't know every detail of his early life speaks to his humility.

Well yeah, he didn't write anything down himself. But to think there were those whom he grew up with, knowing that he was the Son of God would also not write anything down or talk about growing up with the kid, even after he was crucified just makes no sense to me. The wealth of information inherent is too important and the figure is too important as well not to at least consider why it was never written down. As to the Gospel of Thomas, that was supposedly written by his brother but for whatever reason was excluded from the Bible. If all the books are parables with historical figures, some of which overlap, why was it needed to be truncated? Is Jesus' family's account not as worthy?

there is also his entire 20s he spends without import

so he was either living his best frat boy life 18-30, or god agrees with car insurance companies that your brain doesn't work right until 25 and it took him the rest of his 20s to decide the planet is worth saving.

I think there is something about the age of 30 in Jewish Rabbinical law that was significant. Meaning Jesus could not legitimately lead his own school until he reached the age of 30 while being faithful to Jewish law/customs.

Also, nowhere does Jesus ever instruct anyone to write anything down, despite quoting and referencing the OT scriptures. Jesus did not leave us a book - rather He gave us a Church, His Church and sent the Holy Spirit to guide His Church forever.

Aggrad08 said:

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there is also his entire 20s he spends without import

so he was either living his best frat boy life 18-30, or god agrees with car insurance companies that your brain doesn't work right until 25 and it took him the rest of his 20s to decide the planet is worth saving.

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I always thought he was focused on learning during that time…kind of like Superman when he goes to the fortress of solitude as a boy and emerges a man

Wouldn't you like to know what he learned and from whom? Imagine teaching Jesus and not even getting a footnote.

Tibbers said:

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Wouldn't you like to know what he learned and from whom? Imagine teaching Jesus and not even getting a footnote.

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If his childhood mattered, it would have been written about/documented more. There is a theory that the Holy Spirit descended upon him when he was baptized. Maybe not, but the story of Christ's ministry, crucification, and resurrection (of about 3 years) is what is important theologically, not his childhood.

We also don't for example know much about the childhoods of the OT prophets, of course, or any of the disciples. An unhealthy obsession with such, or for instance Mary, or what he looked like etc., has been a temptation for others to try to fill in blanks/gaps that don't matter and lead to a lot of silliness, imho.

There really isn't a whole lot about anyone's childhood in the bible.

or in historical records...most emperors of that time, we know lineage but not much else until they start *doing* stuff

parchment was expensive yo.

Aint nobody writing down the drama of their teenage years and then carrying that around their whole lives.

one MEEN Ag said:

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parchment was expensive yo.

Aint nobody writing down the drama of their teenage years and then carrying that around their whole lives.

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To be fair, most of us who are 30-40 or older, are happy we don't have our childhood well documented for eternity on some internet server, as well. It's a pretty new phenomenon.

Based on the time, place, and position in society of everyone involved it's most likely that Mary, Joseph and Jesus were illiterate. There's some writing about Jesus reading later in life, but I don't think there's any evidence of him writing anything in his life. Which at the time it would have been rare for someone to be able to both read and write.

Too much "hands on" time in those teen years.

Quad Dog said:

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Based on the time, place, and position in society of everyone involved it's most likely that Mary, Joseph and Jesus were illiterate. There's some writing about Jesus reading later in life, but I don't think there's any evidence of him writing anything in his life. Which at the time it would have been rare for someone to be able to both read and write.

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There is a commonly held assumption that most Jews of Jesus era were illiterate. However, that's merely an assumption, but there's substantial evidence that literacy was actually widespread. And didn't Jesus write in the sand After the adulterous woman was brought to him?

swimmerbabe11 said:

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or in historical records...most emperors of that time, we know lineage but not much else until they start *doing* stuff

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Anytime we get detailed accounts of childhood in history it's typically a very bad sign. See: Caligula, Commodus, Charles VI of France, numerous Chinese examples of Emperors. They usually only point out that a kid was spoiled, cruel, straight up crazy or died early. I honestly can't think of a historical figure with a well-chronicled childhood that ended up as a decent, effective person

Tibbers said:

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Mary and Joseph knew He was the son of God but didn't write anything down? No biblical accounts until he was in his 30s? Seems strange.

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There really isn't any reason to believe Mary or Joseph believed that. Writings about Jesus are decades after he would have died and no writing can be traced back to a contemporary who knew him in his hey day, much less in his childhood.

uh.. what? Mary and Joseph absolutely knew.

That's why "Mary did you know" is the most annoying song ever. She knew.

ifeelold said:

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Tibbers said:

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Mary and Joseph knew He was the son of God but didn't write anything down? No biblical accounts until he was in his 30s? Seems strange.

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There really isn't any reason to believe Mary or Joseph believed that. Writings about Jesus are decades after he would have died and no writing can be traced back to a contemporary who knew him in his hey day, much less in his childhood.

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So when did he become the Son of God then? At birth and kept it a secret? Was he a normal kid until he met John the Baptist? Wouldn't he differentiate himself at all ages? Wouldn't Mary and Joseph raise this child in an alternate way? Wouldn't those who taught him, who know how to read and write, write down something, anything about a child who is as exceptional as he is? Would they not be told he was the Son of God too and thus, take extra care in what and how to teach such a blessed soul?

Respectfully, none of that really matters. It doesn't change the kerygma, or doctrines of the (early) church. It's just a historical curiosity. No one has the answers about his childhood.

He didn't. Besides that though the writings that exist of his childhood are extremely unreliable with no reason to believe the author had any connection to The childhood of Jesus. Pretty much nothing was written about Jesus until long after he was dead and those who did write about him were about 64 degrees of Kevin bacon away from Jesus.

This is the best response we can get from somebody who has the omnipotent creator of the universe on their side. If somebody said the earth was flat the evidence would be fast, overwhelming and impossible to refute. On the most important questions in a theists world with an omnipotent god behind them the best we can get is a Colbert gif…..

oh no, i think you're confused. you're getting the appropriate level of effort based on the quality of your arguments.

the logic of comparing the authorship of a document written in the first century to whether or not the earth is flat is pretty impressively bad though. figured that deserved a shout out.

Zobel said:

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oh no, i think you're confused. you're getting the appropriate level of effort based on the quality of your arguments.

the logic of comparing the authorship of a document written in the first century to whether or not the earth is flat is pretty impressively bad though. figured that deserved a shout out.

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Eeesh. You seem entirely incapable of following an argument. There are so many truths that can be demonstrated with relative ease. If the truth of your god was in fact truth it would be the most important truth imaginable. You'd think an omnipotent god would have a better way of communicating that that wasn't unclear, confused and dodgy. You're responses just show that you haven't been able to actually critically engage your faith.

Speaking of following an argument, I thought you were talking about timing and authorship of writings about Jesus.