Even less is known about the early adulthood of Jesus than His childhood. Hebrew boys like Jesus were sent to The Temple to study the Hebrew Bible, the Torah. Jesus was known to quote extensively from it, and take His lessons from it. We can probably safely assume that He was circumcised as an infant, and went through the Hebrew rite of passage, called bar Mitzvah at about age 13 to 15. Afterward, He would have been considered a man. He followed Hebrew religious laws. Joseph was a carpenter. His son was a carpenter. That was the normal and expected system at that time. A son learned his father’s line of work, with an apprenticeship that lasted until the father died, or retired. Carpentry was a specialized skilled trade, working with a scarce and valuable material: wood. Homes required roof beams, windows and doors. Farmers needed tools and plows. The work was hard. There were no power tools. Everything was done slowly by hand. The work day was long. Every tradesman had a backup work to which he could apply himself when work was scarce. A carpenter had to know about construction of the faces and lintels of doors and windows. This meant working with stone. By age 13 to 15, Jesus would have been a fairly skilled worker, having literally watched His father since being a toddler. The work was hard, demanding, and lengthy. He would have been strong and muscular. Nearly everywhere He went, He went on foot. Almost nothing is known of the childhood of Jesus. No one around Jesus during His childhood, teenaged and young adult years, and adult years until about age thirty apparently thought anything remarkable about Him. Which implies that He was a pretty typical Jewish boy, pre-adult, and adult of His times. There was a period of approximately forty years when boyhood friends and many relatives of Jesus could have been easily found, interviewed, and good written records could have been made. Why did this not happen? Judea was in A. D. 30, after nearly a century of Roman rule, "ripe", rife with rumors. It was anticipatory, waiting, watchful, looking for the emergence of a leader. They wanted a leader that would step forth, rally the population and reassert the power of God. They wanted to drive out the Romans. The messianic charged atmosphere that existed in Judea is hard to describe so that it makes sense to modern readers. The Hebrews living in a little, out of the way, country village had to have found this to be a fascinating subject for discussion. It would have been more important to them than the Super Bowl, or the antics of an actor on a TV show. The population of Judea was looking for, was "ripe" for such a charismatic leader. The people desperately wanted out from under the Roman yoke and taxes laid on top of the Temple taxes. We cannot know the actual event when Jesus was seized by God. We just know that He began His ministry. We are able to imagine the reaction in His family, and in His village from His parents, brothers and sisters, and neighbors. A person suddenly choosing to embark on a career in the ministry is not unknown. Strange, possibly, but not unknown. It even happens today. A person suddenly "seeing the light" and embarking on a career of revolution, or reformation, is common. History has shown the human race hundreds of reformers and revolutionaries. They rise up out of the obscurity of the masses of humanity as a suddenly growing wild weed. Every country has its own heroes that started as revolutionaries and reformers. We usually honor them after they are safely dead.
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
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