What took Jesus so long?

Great Debates
1

And what was he up to between his childhood and his career as a ministry. The Bible sort of glosses over those years. Maybe there are apocryphal or secular sources that explain what he was doing.

Jesus was probably born around 4 BC. His crucifixion date is usually given as AD 33. According to most sources, his activities started in earnest when he was baptised by John the Baptist when he was about 30. Also, from the gospels, it seems Jesus’ “career” was fairly brief, at the most a few years or so.

Now at that time, people became adults at a very young age, and men were probably expected to be married and supporting themselves by the time they were in their late teens. With the life expectancy so short, young people didn’t have several years to “find themselves” as they did today.

I would imagine a 30 year old man of the first century would be in the same stage of life as an average 45 year old man today. Why did Jesus, after becoming an adult - wait over ten years to begin his mission?

What was Jesus doing in his 20’s? How would a man of that time be able to explain not being married by the time he was 30 or so? And did Jesus have a job before he became a Messiah? The Gospels mention Mary at the crucifixion but not Joseph. That makes me assume Joseph was already dead by that time, and Jesus as the son, would have a widowed mother to support as well.

2

It may be even worse than that. Some sources think JC may have been as old as his late forties at the time of the crucifixion. cite.

As far as occupation, he was a carpenter, and probably a rabbi. (And a fisherman, as well. :slight_smile: )

3

But not a carpenter in the sense that most people might think. He was an artisan.

4

Cuate:

As you noted the four gospels of the New Testament mention very little about Jesus’ early years.
There is a brief account of the events surrounding His birth. Then a gap till He is 12 years old, when mention is made of His visit to the Temple in Jerusalem. Then another gap until He begins His ministry at about 30 years old.

There are, as you suspect, sources of information which are not part of the sacred canon. They are of varying degrees of reliability. Then there is a great deal of commentary-type material based on analysis of what little actually appears in the New Testament and even on pure speculation. This, too, varies widely in dependability.

I’ll be glad to offer my understanding of this time in His life. But bear in mind that I don’t speak with any great authority. So take it or leave it, as you will. I’m just trying to answer your questions.

I think you are correct in noting that the people of that time married a bit younger than they do today. It was not uncommon to get married between 14 and 20 years old. But I don’t think that everyone got married between those ages, or even at all necessarily. A young man had to be able to support a wife and family in order to be eligible to consider marriage. Thus quite a few poor guys may have had to forego ever getting married. Likewise, rich guys could have several wives. So Jesus staying single the whole time would not have appeared too unusual.

Joseph had his own carpentry shop, and so was somewhat successful. Mary was not Joseph’s first wife. Joseph was a widower about 30 years old with several children from his first wife, when he became engaged to Mary. Mary was about 15 years old and had never married before. So after their marriage, Mary had to deal with several step-children who resented her, some of whom were not much younger than she was. They also resented Jesus, their half-brother, because He could be another claimant on their father’s property.

Joseph was still alive at the time of Jesus’ visit to the Temple in Jerusalem but, as you noted, is not mentioned at the time of Jesus’ ministry. Joseph died sometime between those two events. Then without Joseph to protect them, Mary and Jesus were put out of Joseph’s house by the children of the first wife. They felt they owed nothing to Mary, and they wanted to get rid of Jesus before He became old enough to claim part of the inheritance.

So from the time of Joseph’s death until Jesus began His ministry, He had to work to support Himself and his mother. The two of them probably led a meager existence without the backing of the carpentry shop. During the three and a half years of Jesus’ ministry, Mary stayed with other relatives – probably her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. At the crucifixion, Jesus entrusted John the Beloved to care for his mother during her remaining years.

As an interesting side note: One of Jesus’ half-brothers who had helped put Him out of Joseph’s house when Jesus was young, became convinced of Jesus’ divinity after the Crucifixion. He then became a preacher for the early Christian church and even wrote a book that became part of the sacred canon – Jude.

5

YiBan- tho I disagree with you about the children of Joseph being from a prior marriage & even moreso about Mary & Jesus being cast out even if they were, let me add that if you are correct, you still overlooked two other sons who became Christian leaders- James who became Bishop of Jerusalem & Simeon who succeeded James after his murder by a High Priest-led mob.

As to what Jesus was doing all those years (& I believe Jesus was & is Yahweh God Incarnate)- learning to be a human by practicing His greatest miracle- holding back His Deity.

6

“…learning to be a human by practicing His greatest miracle- holding back His Deity.”

Interesting take on it. But how long does it take to do that? Orson Welles was 25 when he made Citizen Kane; was he less practiced at being human?

For that matter, how much “being human” did Jesus actually accomplish? Didn’t get married, didn’t go to war. WWJD when it comes to childbirth? He never got pregnant, so how would he know? Jesus was never an old man, either. Did he ever get sick or break a bone? So many things humans do, Jesus never did.

Did God have to incarnate himself simply so he could break bread with the anthropoids? Surely there are better ways to empathize with one’s creations.

(Note: originally read “take a crap like the anthropoids,” but I thought better of it.)

7

As a friend put it when I suggested that it would have been nice if Jesus had stayed around another 10 years to fill in the details on a few things: “What else did he need to say?”

As to what took him so long, well, the idea was that he came down to Earth and suffered the same things that regular people do. It wouldn’t be necessary he go to war or get married: plenty of famous spiritual people did neither. But to speak compellingly to people he needed experience that sounded familiar to others. So he would have to have been through puberty, and to become competent at a trade. Perhaps he had a spiritual growth to go through as well. One doesn’t learn the whole OT in depth by age 20.

Another aspect is brain development. I had heard before that the human brain’s emotional portion isn’t completely developed until mid 30s. This Harvard article suggests the brain grows throughout most of our lives: www.harvard-magazine.com/archive/01mj/mj01_rn_1.html
If this is so, and presuming that Jesus’s life was in large part planned ahead of time by God, then there’s every reason not to have Jesus start a ministry until most of his brain was developed. He would sound immature, otherwise.

8

I have just come to terms the approach in the last year that it doesn’t really matter what Jesus did during his early years. It doesn’t mean too awful much compared to how he finished his life. All that really matters is when Jesus Christ began his ministry. It’s what he teaches us (with authority) at this period in his life that is so important to the world.

9

This guy says Jesus was 33 when he died http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/a38.htm
So Jesus was only the Jesus as we know him for 3 years? Did Jesus know who/what he was prior to starting his ministry at 30?

10

I’m not going to get into a bunch of “cite” wars w/ y’all on this one. FWIW & IMHO according to several books I’ve read over the years, I’m of the opinion that Jesus went on a “quest” if you will, via camel train to the East. He spent several years in India w/ the Brahma priests. He was named Issa there and mastered their ways. He eventually came back to the middle east and met his fate.

There are even stories of his returning to India after the “resurrection” and starting a family. I don’t know if I’m willing to go quite that far.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in pursuit of my own beliefs and compared many different religions. I see many similarities in Hindu and Christian doctrine and believe it quite possible that Jesus spent time there.

Just my opinion…Peace

11

According to the theology of the sacrifice being like a temple sacrifice, Jesus would have never had broken a bone, and been without an markings of imperfection, such as birthmarks or scars.

12

He seemed to have some idea around age twelve, tho I doubt he fully knew his Divine identity, destiny or all the implications.

13

Not adding much value to this thread, but this struck me as the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks :

Oh I know it’s probably technically right owing to some medieval monks messing up the maths to find year 0, but it still makes me laugh!

14

from what I recall, the 4 BC date comes from a statement in Jewish history (perhaps from Josephus) that a lunar eclipse occured in the Spring that King Herod died & astronomers figured that was March 4 BC. That has been called into question in that there is evidence he may have suffered a setback in power then but actually lived until a lunar eclipse in 1 BC/AD (it was the same year). That still may have put Jesus’s birth at 2-3 BC (Ernest Martin, the main proponent of this theory, puts it at September- Rosh Hashanah of 3 BC- at which time
astronomical/astrological constellations & planets matched the images of Revelationn 12).

15

I thought the implication of Luke 2:47 was that 12-year old Jesus already was superhumanly mature. And if you go by the Koran (3:45), Jesus was able to speak while still an infant.

This is where the question in the OP comes from. So little is said about the time between the Nativity and the start of his ministry, except for this one episode of pre-teen Jesus. And all we know of that point is that he already knows what he’s doing, and people are amazed. So why wait 18 more years? To avoid Doogie Howser burnout?

16

Sure it took him a long time, but damn, he could make a good chair.