Why Is There NOTHING Written In The Bible About Jesus' Early Years?

by minimus 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  minimus

  Why doesn't the NT have ANYTHING about Jesus on record prior to his baptism? After all, he was a PERFECT boy. You would think that little Jesus would've been talked about by everyone in the town,

  "Why can't you be like little Jesus? He NEVER talks back to his parents!"

  "Did you see the unbelievable work, Jesus did working on that house?"

  "I've been keeping my eye on Jesus. He's 25 years old now and he would make a perfect husband for any of my girls!"

  Not ONE comment about the perfect baby/child/adult? I don't get it.
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  Ding

  Perhaps the Bible writers focused on what they considered important rather than trying to write a complete biography as people do today.
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  minimus

  Growing up as God's perfect son is important, I would think.
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  blondie

  There is some about his life until he is 2 and about his life when he is 12. Actually, I tried thinking about any "important" person in the bible and if there is much about their childhood or young adulthood; couldn't think of any offhand.
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  cheerios

  wasnt there quite a bit written about joseph?
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  blondie

  When he was 17 and older. But not much. He spent 10 years about in prison before he got a way to get out and there is no day to day byblow of that.
• 

  XJW4EVR

  Why doesn't the NT have ANYTHING about Jesus on record prior to his baptism?

  So the birth narratives, and Luke's accounts of two visits to Jerusalem don't count?
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  Leolaia

  The "gap" only came into existence when the two nativity stories of Matthew and Luke were added to the Markan gospel narrative. Aside from the Lukan story re the time when Jesus was 12, there isn't any interest in the growth of Jesus as a man. The synoptic gospels really are only interested in the last year of Jesus' life. It was left to later infancy gospels (such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas) to fill in the gaps. Modern pseudepigrapha like the Aquarian Gospel and the Life of Saint Issa also seize upon the "gap" as a point of departure for attributing their unique message to Jesus (usually under the guise of Jesus receiving special instruction in a far-off Eastern land during that time).
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  wobble

  I wonder if a big part of why we have no information on these years is the time the stuff was written.

  In jewish society a male was not considered as grown or adult or whatever until he was thirty, what he did before that was infantile and not important.

  I imagine it is only in modern times, since Freud and others have pointed out the importance of what happens to us in childhood, that there has been great interest in the formative years of anybody.

  For example, we know little about the really youthful Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror or Napoleon.

  As Leo points out, the pseudepigraphal type writings of the 2nd. century and later, on this part of Jesus' life, are filling a gap in the market, the religious tracts that we call the Gospels, written as they were to promote Jesus as a credible leader of a new movement that would move Judaism on, would be unlikely to focus much on those early years, as such tales would alienate many readers.
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  minimus

  I tend to think most young ones were not considered as "important", BUT Jesus was not just another kid on the block. He was PERFECT! So, why no commentary is made about his exploits or younger life is perplexing to me.