So mods or admins, feel free to move this if it belongs somewhere else. Just let me know where so I can find it haha :lol: I have a question about Jesus. I finished reading the four gospels yesterday and found something kind of strange. The early life of Jesus isn't documented a whole lot. I read the infancy narrative in Matthew and Luke and a single section of twelve verses called "the boy Jesus in the Temple" only in Luke. Then the baptism marks the start of the ministry and is very clear in all but John who I feel wrote about it pretty indirectly. My question is why is the early life of Jesus not in the Bible? Is it unimportant and we only need to worry about the ministry of Jesus as Christians? Or is his early life known by people today and the authors of the gospels in the Bible didn't feel it was important to write down?

There are several "gospels" not included in the canon; a google search of non-canonical gospels will yield a plethora of information on them. While the canonized gospels are considered trustworthy and their authors are considered to be who they say they are, other gospels don't look to have the same reliability (at least that was my takeaway when I researched the topic for a paper several years ago). There are books about Jesus' childhood but they're kind of goofy (Jesus using magical powers and whatnot, as if that wouldn't give him a bunch of attention) and made me think that the author was making it up as he went. As for why there are no authentic accounts in the NT, I'd guess it's because either those with first-hand accounts didn't write anything or because Jesus stayed under the radar until He formally began ministry and as such, accounts of everyday life weren't necessary.

I figured it was something like that. Thanks. Before I posted this, I looked on the internet and I found one story. I'm not sure if any of you have heard of Isa, but it's what Jesus is called in the Koran. I was looking to see if the Koran maybe said something about Jesus' early life and when I searched Isa, I got some results about Islam and other things about a man called Issa, with two S's. Issa was said to come mysteriously into existence at the age of 12 and disappear at the age of 29. He traveled through India studying Hinduism. The title of the webpage was "The Lost Years of Jesus." It said that in 1894 a Russian doctor broke his leg while traveling through China, Afghanistan, Tibet, and India. A Buddhist monastery took him in until he could walk on his own again. He spent a lot of time in the library and came across these texts about Issa which he had someone translate and he recorded. When he returned to western Russia, he shared his findings obviously with controversy. He was accused of making the whole thing up. Two other men took a trip to the Himalayas to find the texts and both returned with essentially the same translations of the life of St Issa. So is it possible that the reason why there are not any accounts (or any credible accounts) of Jesus' early life is because he wasn't in Palestine for people to witness and write down?

Let me get my rant out of the way first... Matt, why would the son of G-d go to India to study Hinduism? that makes no sense he is G-d he knows whats right and whats wrong and doesn't need to study a false religion. and really your going to trust the Koran on this? really, its a book full of contradictions like don't even get me started. okay now to the point. I'm glad you are thinking about this and asking questions. The reason why Jesus' early life isn't in the bible is because it was boring, he went to work with Joesph everyday and helped take care of his family he lived just like a normal Jewish man, up until he reached the age when a man was eligible to become a high priest (he was not a of the tribe of Levi so that was not happening) which is when he started his ministry. Do you understand what I'm saying? if not sorry I'll try again :)

Why would the son of God not go to India to study Hinduism? Nothing wrong with educating yourself. A semester of World Religions was required for graduation from my high school. It just helped us see what else was out there and how other people's beliefs compared and differed from ours. And I was just saying that the name of Jesus in the Koran led me to this. I didn't find anything there. I don't know if I was just looking in the wrong place or there just is no info about young Jesus. And even if it was boring, don't you think that someone would have recorded it? Or gone back after they realized he was the messiah and written something down? Like I said, there's a section of Luke in my Bible called "The Boy Jesus in the Temple." I just find it interesting that there isn't more about it. I'm not expecting ten more chapters per gospel, but just a little something

[b]serfofChrist92 wrote:[/b] [quote]There are several "gospels" not included in the canon; a google search of non-canonical gospels will yield a plethora of information on them. While the canonized gospels are considered trustworthy and their authors are considered to be who they say they are, other gospels don't look to have the same reliability (at least that was my takeaway when I researched the topic for a paper several years ago). There are books about Jesus' childhood but they're kind of goofy (Jesus using magical powers and whatnot, as if that wouldn't give him a bunch of attention) and made me think that the author was making it up as he went. As for why there are no authentic accounts in the NT, I'd guess it's because either those with first-hand accounts didn't write anything or because Jesus stayed under the radar until He formally began ministry and as such, accounts of everyday life weren't necessary.[/quote] Anne Rice wrote a fictional book about Jesus' young life in Egypt as well as Nazareth before he was 12 years old. According to the story, he had to stay under the radar due to some of the Egyptian Jews that lived near them as well as their Jewish family didn't understand Jesus at all or why he would manifest such innocent power. read the book for the rest. The radar meant that he could be known well before he grew up and/or ready for the ministry.