Boyhood of Jesus

GOLDEN TEXT: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” —Luke 2:52

LUKE 2:41-52

THE Scriptures are comparatively silent concerning the boyhood of Jesus, although they do give us some information concerning him. In Luke’s account of his birth, which is the only one we have, we are told that when he was eight days old he was circumcised, according to the requirement of the Law, “and when the days of her [Mary’s] purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.”—Luke 2:21,22

According to the Law (Leviticus 12:3,4), this would mean that forty-one days after his birth he was presented to the Lord in the temple. There in the temple, Simeon uttered a wonderful prophecy concerning Jesus, saying that he would be “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” (Luke 2:28-35) Then Anna, a prophetess, at the same time “gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”—Luke 2:36-38

We are told that “when” they had thus performed “all things according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.”—Luke 2:39

Up to this point the record is simple. Luke was an accurate historian, and it must be that he recorded this sequence of events exactly as they occurred. However, Luke says nothing about the flight into Egypt, as directed by the Lord, in order to save the young child’s life from the wrath of Herod, the account of which is given us in the second chapter of Matthew.

Verse 1 reads, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.” There is no word in the Greek text for “when,” the original simply stating that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, and that wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, because, as later stated, they had seen “his star in the east.” There is nothing in this text to state that the wise men arrived on the day of Jesus’ birth.

The full account indicates otherwise. When the wise men arrived, they inquired where they might find Jesus, who was “born king of the Jews.” The news that such a One had been born, finally reached the ears of Herod, and when it did “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” Considering that this occurred in a fairly large city, where they had no modern means of rapid communication, it is obvious that it did not all take place the night that Jesus was born.

Herod summoned the wise men, and asked them to let him know where they found the newborn king. They found him in a “house,” not in a stable. Then the Lord warned them in a dream not to return to Herod, but to depart for their home country by another way. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt.”—Matt. 2:12,13

If this occurred at the time Jesus was born, or even forty-one days later after he was presented in the temple, then Luke is in error by saying that after they had “performed all these things according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee.” (Luke 2:39) Luke, however, furnishes information which provides a basis for harmony between the two accounts. He tells us that the parents “went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.” (ch. 2:41) It could well have been when they returned to Jerusalem the next year that the wise men presented their gifts to the “young child.”

This would be in keeping with Herod’s decree to have all male Jewish children slain, of two years old and under, “according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.” (Matt. 2:16) He had asked them what time the star appeared in the east that denoted the birth of this great king. Evidently he and the wise men understood that the appearing of the star in the east marked the time of Jesus’ birth. We do not know from what country in the “east” the wise men came, but in any case it could easily have been a journey of several months, or even a year.

This is unimportant, of course, except as it may help us to find the harmony between the two accounts. From Egypt the family returned to Nazareth. The yearly visits to Jerusalem brought them there again when Jesus was twelve years of age. It was then that he went into the temple to seek information.

When his mother chided him gently for leaving his parents, he said to her, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” By now he realized that he was in the world on a special mission for his Heavenly Father, and he wanted to know more about it. He doubtless learned in the temple that according to the Law it would not be proper for him to enter upon his service for God until he was thirty years old.—Num. 4:3

QUESTIONS

According to Luke’s account, how old was Jesus when the family returned from Jerusalem to Nazareth?

Is there anything in Matthew’s account of the wise men’s visit to indicate that they arrived at the very time that Jesus was born?

Luke states that Joseph and Mary visited Jerusalem each year to keep the feast of the passover. How might this information serve to harmonize the accounts of Matthew and Luke concerning the sequence of events in the young child’s life?

What probable information did Jesus receive from the doctors of the Law in the temple concerning his “Father’s business”?

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