Jesus - Early Years

Jesus was a common name and is the Greek form of the Hebrew equivalent 'Jeshua', which, like 'Joshua', has been shortened from 'Jehoshua', meaning 'he whose salvation is God'. That Jesus was born in Bethlehem, though this may have been simply a conjecture because Bethlehem was the great King David's home town (and Jesus was often referred to as the 'Son of David'), it could a historical fact.The details of Jesus birth are only recorded in Matthew and Luke's Gospel. His birth is foretold with a family tree that connects Him from the first man, Adam, through to the father of the Jewish nation, Abraham, and King David to Joseph, His adopted father and Our Lady, St Mary, Jesus' mother. Before even Jesus was born, according to Luke, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary telling her the good news that she will have a son 'who will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God' (Luke 1:32). Mary was mystified, as she was a virgin and an anxious Joseph wanted to quietly end his relationship with her, but an angel reassured him. Jesus was born shortly before the death of Herod the Great in a stable of a crowded village inn and brought up in a very ordinary home in the obscure Galilean village of Nazareth. He was 'middle class', Joseph was a carpenter (perhaps more a building contractor) and Jesus would have been taught the family trade. Being a skilled craftsman and possibly employing labour, Joseph would have been a respected figure in the village. However, they were not affluent (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:8) and Jesus' parables sometimes reflect experience of a home where comfort and money were limited (ie. Luke 11: 5-7; 15: 8-10). That Joseph is not mentioned after Jesus' birth and childhood stories and that Jesus is mentioned as 'Mary's son' in Mark 6:3, is often taken to mean that Joseph had died while Jesus was young. This would have left Jesus, as the oldest son, to run the family business and provide for His four younger brothers and unknown number of sisters (Mark 6:3). Jesus had full knowledge of Old Testament Scriptures, which would suggest that He had a normal Jewish child's education at the village synagogue or school, and Luke's Gospel mentions His abnormal appitude in religious debate (2:42-50). Beyond this, we know nothing of His childhood.

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