Does anyone else really think of what the first 30 years of Jesus 's life was like?

I never really went to church, kicked out in 4th grade cause my mom couldn't pay for Sunday school. This left a bad taste in my moms mouth and after all the molestation scandals , she made a garden in the backyard and was there every day for hours and believed God was everywhere. I never read the Bible am spiritual on the basis of Catholocism , what I remembered and picked up in life. My sister said she doesn't want to put God in a box way of thinking and I don't know if she read the whole Bible or might not agree with some of it. She has church friends . I have a copy of the Bible for my research on Revelation, but I don't know if I am ever going to read the rest. I don't know if I should. My mom said the scriptures was Jesus trying to teach us and guide us and I look to some of the stuff I now like maybe metaphors or maybe not a history lesson of ancient times.

There is a Tool album 10,000 days and that is 27. something years. And I often think of what Jesus life must've been like. Any opinions?

My mom went to 12 years of Catholic school and she told me that when Jesus was young he was like an apprentice to a Man of Miracles? I know his birth is recorded then I thought there was a 30 year gap in anything we know about. Imagine what his life must've been like back then.

a reply to: SilentHill666

I dont think His childhood was all that important. It was His ministry that was important since He came as the suffering servant.

On a side note, the book of Revelation is essentially an Old Testament and Gospel smoothie. If you don't know and understand the OT prophecies, then you don't have a chance in understanding Revelation...you'll just be shooting in the dark.

Thanks I got a King James Bible with the OT and NT maybe I will read up on some things. I know here people research it like crazy just reading the posts.

There's a possibility that he was in Glastonbury during that period, I found a video supporting that claim.

www.youtube.com...

Thank you. I watched the first ten minutes. It's an open window on my iPad and I will watch it all later.

I don't think it's a bad idea to read the bible as a historical document.

As with any bit of literature it's important to remind yourself of the historical context in which it was written.
A lot of the old testament, is not written to modern day morals and standards, and there are some new testament passages which do not as well.

If you can take the learning with the historical context, there are good life lessons to be had.
If you hold to the Bible as the truth, you will have some difficulty in today's society.

a reply to: SilentHill666

I think about it all the time. I'm a Christian. I've read much of the Bible, but not cover to cover. I've done a lot of research on Jesus, trying to decide whether or not to believe in him or not. Spirituality is very important to me, however I truely detest dogmatisms.
So there are lots of theories out there. One theory suggests that he traveled to India where he learned the mystic teachings of the East. Some say he may have been in Britain during this time period.
It's my personal opinion that Jesus never traveled to distant lands. I believe during these years he lived an average life. He would have taken over the family business, carpentry. And he's known to be a fisherman. He would've experienced adolescence and probably gotten in some trouble... Had a first love... Had friends. He wasn't just the son of God, he was a human being.
It would've been very odd for him not to have been married with a few children by the age of 33, when we pop back into his life. 33 was "old" back then.
To me this seems like the perfect reason for the powers that be to leave this part of the story out... What would it mean if Jesus had a lineage that could be traced to present time? That person would be more revered/respected than the pope himself! Can't have that!
So they leave the average, human pieces of his life out, because the son of God couldn't have possibly lived an ordinary life... But why not?
How's that saying go? The simplest answer is probably the most accurate (or something to that effect). Well I think that's the case here. Its probable that he lived the average life of a man of that time. I think it's kind of unrealistic to make any other assumption.
Who knows though? What do you think?

originally posted by: SilentHill666
I have a copy of the Bible for my research on Revelation, but I don't know if I am ever going to read the rest. I don't know if I should.

Listen to your Mom, she gave you the truth.

The Bible is Gods credentials.

According to Napoleon, it is alive, it changes things.

"The Bible is no mere book, but it's a living creature with a power that conquers all who oppose it." Napoleon

I just posted here about why I am convinced about that BTW.

This is the reason why that out of 28 books throughout human history that people claim to be from God that only the Bible contains prophecy that have NEVER missed.

It is baseline of known truth, or a reference point.

Scriptures are the missing link between ALL conspiracy theories.

It contains everything that you need to know.

The Bible says in around 400 different places that Jesus, is the ONLY way to heaven.

In numerous NDE's, Jesus refers to the Bible as "my word" or "my book":

"In fact, everything that My children need to know about how God thinks and works and judges and rewards, either before or after the Cross, is already in My Book. That is why I commanded mankind to ‘engrave My Words upon their hearts,’ and to pass them along from generation to generation. I wanted everyone to hear and know just Who I AM, the Messiah, their one hope of Salvation, their Most High God." www.ctestimony.org...

Not long ago, the Lord gave me $200,000. I said, "Lord, what am I going to do with it? I don't need it. What did You give it to me for?" He said, "You passed my test."I said, "Passed your test? What in the world did I do to pass Your test?" He said, "You fulfilled a scripture. Tell them everywhere you go...tell them that the Bible is my test; every time they fulfill a scripture, tell them to never worry about the answers to their prayers."

Misguided Faith by Norvel Hayes.

I have asked the Lord, "Jesus, why do you bless me like this?" "Because you passed my test," He answered. "How did I pass your test?" You fulfilled the Scripture," He said. "My test for the human race and the Church is obedience to the Scriptures." This statement seems simple to me. God has a test He wants you to pass. He said, "I don't have any other test except the Scriptures. Tell my people that there are blessings attached to each verse that is fulfilled by any believing Christian.

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

This life is a preparation for the next... All Christians are now on probation, to prove character and to test us for the world to come, to see what we'll do with the life weve been given, to test our repentance, how real it is, to test our obediance whether we plan to be an obediant Christian or not, to prove our faithfulness, to see what well do with time...

Fire on the Altar MP3

originally posted by: SilentHill666
I maybe metaphors or maybe not a history lesson of ancient times.

The Bible is to be taken literally unless the text in question is obviously symbolic.

The Bible DOES frequently employ allegory, such as in Gal.4:21-24.

But it also makes it perfectly clear when doing so.

Francis Chan has some interesting ideas on this:

"You're leaders are coming up with conclusions you would never come up with if you just read the Bible your self...many of us have come to conclusions that we didn't get from scripture, we were just told these things." (Francis Chan @ 15 min. point)

If you don't believe the Bible....fine...don't believe it. But don't suggest that one part should be taken allegory when another part of the Bible CLEARLY indicates that it isn't. I'm guessing you don't do that with other forms of literature, do you?

If you have a history book on George Washington, do you decide to read chapter 3 as an allegory, but the rest of it as fact simply because you don't want to believe the events of chapter 3 took place? If chapter 14 is believed to be historical---and it refers to the events of chapter 3 as historical....why would you believe chapter 3 to be allegory?

Is The Bible Literal Or Allegorical?

When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word, at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.

The Golden Rule of Interpretation

Those holding to an allegorical interpretation of the Bible point to a variety of scriptures and use them as proof-texts for the claim that God intended for His Word to be interpreted allegorically, and as we shall see, many of these verses have been taken out of context or redefined so as to give the appearance of supporting the false allegorical mode of interpretation. www.scribd.com...

The sum and substance of this most important rule is that one should take every statement of the Scriptures at its plain face value, unless there are indications that a figurative or metaphorical meaning was intended by the original writer. In other words, one is to take the Scriptures as they are written and is not to attempt to read into the Sacred Writings his own ideas or the thoughts of men. Since this golden rule of interpretation is such a very important one, it becomes necessary for us to look at it more minutely.

If a person can take a plain passage of Scripture, close his eyes to its real meaning, and read into it a figurative or symbolic meaning, he will be forced to do the same thing with related passages—if he is logical. In doing this, he is forced to reconstruct large sections of the Scripture and to impose upon them a meaning foreign to that of the original writer.

When one has once adopted this method, one has no place to stop—short of a denial of the records and of forcing a meaning upon the Word of God contrary to all facts and reason. As we have seen above, the rationalistic critics have simply carried this spiritualizing process to its inevitable conclusion.

Modernism and rationalism are the logical outgrowth of forcing a figurative meaning upon a passage that is clearly literal. In the light of these facts we can see how very important it is for us to apply the golden rule of interpretation rigidly to every passage in the Word of God.

The Golden Rule of Interpretation

originally posted by: BO XIAN
In many dozens, hundreds of cases, THE LITERALISTS WERE ALWAYS PROVEN CORRECT as archeology uncovered more and more confirmation that the Bible was literally true in detail after detail.

Some things are literal AND symbolic, both/and. I don't think a great number of things in the Bible are primarily or only symbolic.

I am 31 and often think Jesus lived about the same age as me before he went on his pilgrimage and had to become a martyr . I think about what life was like back then, home schooled or with other kids. We both lived nearly as long just I think about what he did with that time. He knew he had a mission and I often think did he ever think the he** with it I just want to live my life. He was a very intelligent man. What makes someone go on a dangerous possibly life ending crusade. He had to know there might be consequences. Just I often try to think about what the man or child was like before the Son of God.

a reply to: SilentHill666
The so-called "missing years" are like a blank page in a diary.
A blank page in a diary normally means that this was a day when nothing much happened.
Similarly the outward life of Jesus during that period would probably have been filled with ordinary routine. There were no incidents, apart from that visit to the Temple, which anyone thought worth remembering and bringing up later.

a reply to: SilentHill666

Well, there are The Infancy Gospels, that purport to tell stories of the childhood of Jesus Christ.

I. I, Thomas the Israelite, tell unto you, even all the brethren that are of the Gentiles, to make known unto you the works of the childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ and his mighty deeds, even all that he did when he was born in our land: whereof the beginning is thus:

II. 1 This little child Jesus when he was five years old was playing at the ford of a brook: and he gathered together the waters that flowed there into pools, and made them straightway clean, and commanded them by his word alone. 2 And having made soft clay, he fashioned thereof twelve sparrows. And it was the Sabbath when he did these things (or made them). And there were also many other little children playing with him.

3 And a certain Jew when he saw what Jesus did, playing upon the Sabbath day, departed straightway and told his father Joseph: Lo, thy child is at the brook, and he hath taken clay and fashioned twelve little birds, and hath polluted the Sabbath day. 4 And Joseph came to the place and saw: and cried out to him, saying: Wherefore doest thou these things on the Sabbath, which it is not lawful to do? But Jesus clapped his hands together and cried out to the sparrows and said to them: Go! and the sparrows took their flight and went away chirping. 5 And when the Jews saw it they were amazed, and departed and told their chief men that which they had seen Jesus do.

No one really knows because there was little if any written record made during his lifetime! The best we have to go with are the gospels of which the earliest was probably written sixty years later.

After his birth this is what we have in the gospels:

This was till at least 2 years old, maybe a few more.

Matthew 2:13 After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, "Herod will be looking for the child in order to kill him. So get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave."
Mat 2:14 Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt,
Mat 2:15 where he stayed until Herod died. This was done to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet, "I called my Son out of Egypt."
Mat 2:16 When Herod realized that the visitors from the East had tricked him, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old and younger---this was done in accordance with what he had learned from the visitors about the time when the star had appeared.
Mat 2:17 In this way what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true:
Mat 2:18 "A sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping. Rachel is crying for her children; she refuses to be comforted, for they are dead."
Mat 2:19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt
Mat 2:20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go back to the land of Israel, because those who tried to kill the child are dead."
Mat 2:21 So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Israel.
Mat 2:22 But when Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. He was given more instructions in a dream, so he went to the province of Galilee
Mat 2:23 and made his home in a town named Nazareth. And so what the prophets had said came true: "He will be called a Nazarene."


Luke 2:41 Every year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival.
Luk 2:42 When Jesus was twelve years old, they went to the festival as usual.
Luk 2:43 When the festival was over, they started back home, but the boy Jesus stayed in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this;
Luk 2:44 they thought that he was with the group, so they traveled a whole day and then started looking for him among their relatives and friends.
Luk 2:45 They did not find him, so they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.
Luk 2:46 On the third day they found him in the Temple, sitting with the Jewish teachers, listening to them and asking questions.
Luk 2:47 All who heard him were amazed at his intelligent answers.
Luk 2:48 His parents were astonished when they saw him, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been terribly worried trying to find you."
Luk 2:49 He answered them, "Why did you have to look for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?"
Luk 2:50 But they did not understand his answer.
Luk 2:51 So Jesus went back with them to Nazareth, where he was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Luk 2:52 Jesus grew both in body and in wisdom, gaining favor with God and people.

And much later when he had started his ministry:

Matthew 13:54 and went back to his hometown. He taught in the synagogue, and those who heard him were amazed. "Where did he get such wisdom?" they asked. "And what about his miracles?
Mat 13:55 Isn't he the carpenter's son? Isn't Mary his mother, and aren't James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers?
Mat 13:56 Aren't all his sisters living here? Where did he get all this?"
Mat 13:57 And so they rejected him. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is respected everywhere except in his hometown and by his own family."


BTW, waiting for the post that goes like this "I imagine it would be a whole lot of nothing because he didn't exist, he is just a made up story by the powers that be". ha ha very witty [sarcasm]

His life was very secluded. He was extremely sensitive for the first 30 years.

I have been very interested in finding out what happened during his early years. I have read about many of the writings that were not included in the current Bible. Many believe he lived a normal life and worked along side of his father. Others believe he traveled and even studied other religions. There is a book not in the Bible that stated he used his powers and even took the life of another child. He later returned life to this child. As a spring board into your search, here is some information on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org...

Like anything, take what you find with a grain of salt. But, there are a lot of things out there you can find and dissect. Best of luck to you in your search.

I really like Michael Heiser's discussions. He's logical, analytical, and insightful. He doesn't engage people in silly philosophical arguments.
He's got a sense of humor too. He'll tell people he's boring or uninteresting, but a lot of his stuff is quite riveting.

If you take even a quick look at his stuff, you'll see that he is very thorough in his research.

a reply to: Murgatroid

I couldn't disagree with you more. The Bible is not literal. A few examples, the universe was not created in seven days, it took billions of years. Jesus is not really a Shepard and I'm a human being not a sheep. When Jesus says do not hide your lamplight beneath a basket, he doesn't mean that I shouldn't put my lamp under a basket. I don't mean to be rude, your entitled to your opinion, but I find it absurdly ridiculous to take everything in the Bible as literal.
One of the reasons the Bible has withstood the test of time is because it is open for interpretation.
Opinions always most welcome!
Thank-you
Sara

a reply to: Cinrad
Cmon Cinrad Matthew was written 80 year after his death and most of Matthew is a straight lift from Mark which was written 40+ years AD