If you last posted just before the boards went down, it’s likely your message never got saved or backed up, and so when the boards came back up, it wasn’t there.
Pedantic historical moment (uh, oh, might get into actual GD content here. . .)-- this question was of great interest in less sqeamish times when theologians were trying to deal with the dual-nature of Christ (these days people seem to tend to prefer to forget about questions regarding his human aspect-- key problem being if he didn’t suffer and wasn’t like man why was his “sacrifice” such a sacrifice?. . . and other questions). Anyhow, a couple of interesting discussion of Christ’s sexuality/corporeality as it was grappled with in the medieval and Renaissance eras:
Steinberg, Leo. The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion.Longman Publishing Group (1988).
Bynum, Caroline Walker. “The Body of Christ in the Late Middle Ages: A Reply to Leo Steinberg,” Renaissance Quarterly XXXIX, No. 3 (Autumn) 1986: 399-439.
Actually, I used to wonder if Christ knew what it was like to be a teenager. As both a teen and an adult, I certainly hope He did. The Bible certainly states that Christ was tempted, and the Gospels contain records of Him being so as an adult. Having had a rather rocky adolescense myself (as in, I barely survived it), I took comfort in thinking Christ might know how it felt when everything He did got Him in trouble, not to mention the aches, pains, hormones, moodswings, and general awkwardness of being a teenager (can’t you just picture Mary dealing with Christ during a growth spurt?)
Luke 2:41-52 talks about Christ’s parents taking him to Jerusalem for the Passover festival when he was 12. When His parents left, He stayed behind talking to the teachers in the temple. When His parents realized He was missing and went back to get Him, It sounds like there was the beginning of a typical kid/parent argument, and I particularly like Luke 2:50 “But they [His parents] did not understand what he meant.” Teenagers, there’s Biblical justification for your parents not understanding!
As I read things, even at 12, Christ knew who He was, although I’m not sure if He knew all that entailed. Tempted but without sin, to me does not rule out not liking His temporal parents. I can’t even argue that it rules out feeling horny, because let’s face it, we human beings do spend at least a little time in that state, and taking that and using it correctly is part of overcoming sin. He became human to fully understand us. Would the Creator really have omitted such a vital force? Luke says at 12 He was questioning teachers, but He was also listening. This is the One who knew Peter would disown Him and loved and forgave Him anyway. Could He really do that without knowing what it’s like to be tempted and afraid?
I’ve looked at The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, in fact I own a copy of it in a book which examines all 4 official Gospels in depth and examines others (I’d give the title, but I’ve apparently lent it to someone). I did have problems with it, and its authority is suspect, so I disregard it.
By the way, agentfroot, in my book, this is not blasphemous. It’s a good question. Then again, what do you expect from “the crazy lady”?
CJ
Besides, since Jesus sees all of us, His4Ever, he sees what is in our hearts. He KNOWS if we’re asking something out of curiosity and possible silliness, and whether we’re doing it strictly to be perverted.
First off, His4ever, are you implying that it’s blasphemous to suggest that Jesus went through puberty? Yes, folks, Jesus had a PENIS, and if He went through life without even thinking about using it for pleasure, then I refuse to believe He could possibly be “human.”
Second, FriarTed, I’m all for Life of Brian (never seen it but read the script when I was around 12), Tori Amos, and South Park too! Heh the song “Icicle” is really interesting…
“And when my hand touches myself, I can finally rest my head.
And when they say 'take of His body, I think I’ll take from mine instead.
Getting off, getting off, while they’re all downstairs
Singing prayers, sing away, He’s in my pumpkin pjs…”
giggle anyway… Cjhoworth, Sunday school teacher/crazy lady extraordinaire, thanks for the heads up on this.
For the record, I’m Wiccan, but here’s my position on Christianity and Jesus in the form of a quote from my FAVORITE movie, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”
Tommy: Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?
Hedwig: No… but I love His work.
Alright, Edlyn. 
These are not the infidels you’re looking for. You can go on about your business.
His4ever - when you were a child did YOU ever play “doctors and nurses” with other children?
Did YOU ever wonder about the changes taking place in YOUR own body?
Did YOU “compare notes” about these changes with your siblings or friends?
When/if you did this - did YOU feel that you were sinning?
His4ever
most of the people here have some belief in jesus so they are allowed to poke fun without their words being twisted around to me something else. like if a white guy started making black jokes everyone would look at him different and call him racist, but if a black guy made black jokes then no one thinks anything of it.
So did I. The board crash lost it – I’m sure you’ve heard of restoring from backups and losing the data entered after the backup in consequence? Jdavis restored the entire board as of the Monday morning before the crash.
And just for the record, every Christian denomination but two is on record as adhering to the Chalcedonian formula of Christ’s nature: “Truly God and truly man” – “He became like us in order that He might raise us up to be like Him.” (Those two are the Copts and the Jacobites, if you’re interested, but you may not like some other aspects of their belief.)
Perhaps you’ve run across the quote that “He was tempted in every way as we are, but did not sin.”
Tell you what – keep Christ up on a pedestal where He has no idea what it’s like to be a teenager, a gay man, a person weeping for his dead family, a child in need of comfort. The Jesus I know is quite aware of what the human condition is – He’s been there. And He loves us precisely because He’s been one of us.
More arrogance.
“don’t listen to them, they’re just children”.Unlike Us…
Sigh…
:rolleyes:
Seriously- esp to Christians- what if there was a Mrs Jesus?
No biggie-if there was a Mrs. Christ, it was Jesus who was to die for us and our sins.
She would IMHO just be another citizen of earth.
agentfroot, thanks to this thread, there are several people in a small Episcopal church in southwest Pennsylvania who are wondering what Christ was like as a teenager, including your father. No one seems to consider it blasphemous, but rather a valid, reassuring question.
I don’t have anything of my own to add, but I put this question to another friend of mine, and he had the following contribution.
Warning! Extremely bad pun follows!
If Jesus was a typical child of his time, he probably learned his father’s trade by working in the shop with him and doing various chores, including cleaning up the carpenter shop. Thus we may be safely assured that Jesus swept.
Please note that a fellow fencer is responsible for this and, because of this, I did kill him. Of course, this having been done at fencing practice, and he being the more experienced fencer, he also killed me.
CJ
Anyway, I alwasy wondered why they stopped the narrative at Jesus’ age 12 and didn’;t continue it til the important stuff was to happen.
Maybe puberty is best left untalked about!
But what would people like H4E do if there was info about this in the bible
JESUS’S FIRST BONER
HIS FIRST WET DREAM
HIS PARENTS TELL HIM THE FACTS OF LIFE
I notice that H4E hasn’t bothered answering my questions about her adolescence - or do Christians just not talk about such things:confused:
Jesus probably threatened to smite people with wedgies from Heaven if they wrote about His puberty.
“Dude, I’m like, serious!”