As we move into the Ordinary Sundays of the Church year, you may notice an abrupt change from the events of Jesus’ childhood to his public life. This is because the gospels themselves make an abrupt transition in what they tell us. The only event mentioned between Jesus’ birth and his baptism is his getting lost in Jerusalem at the age of twelve. This gap of almost thirty years is what we call the Hidden Years of Christ’s life. Since Jesus is by far the most famous person in history, these missing years have created great curiosity for many centuries.

There has been some speculation, and even some creative fiction written about the unknown years of His life. There is an ancient document known as the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas” that tells fanciful stories about Jesus working miracles as a boy. It describes Him as fashioning small clay birds and bringing them to life. Early Christians writers knew of this document about 150 years after the life of Jesus, and they knew it was simply a work of fiction. The author is unknown, probably somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean world. Most Christians have barely heard of it for good reason: it tells us nothing useful about the life of Christ.

There are a number of other legends about Jesus: him travelling to lands as far distant as the British Isles or central Asia. None of these have any evidence they are true, so again they are largely unknown. But we do have a small amount of information from the gospels about these unknown years; Jesus was considered the son of Joseph, a carpenter. As Jesus approached adulthood, he would likely have learned something of Joseph’s trade. This is a well-known Christian tradition, that Jesus did some carpentry work.

But there are two other hints in the Gospels that allow us some modest assumptions about Christ’s youth. The priests and teachers in the Temple were amazed at the understanding of scripture Jesus showed them. When he returned home, Jesus grew and found “favor with God and man”. When Jesus returned home after his trial in the desert, he went to the synagogue and read from the prophets, “as was his custom”. Both of these suggest to us that Jesus was an observant Jew who had some talent for understanding the Hebrew Scriptures. The fact that his early apostles left their jobs abruptly suggests that Jesus had a good reputation in his local community of Nazareth. It would be an honor for someone to be called by a respected “rabbi”, i.e. teacher.

As reasonable as this speculation about Jesus’ life may be, it is true that the Gospels only tell us certain things. They focus on what people need to know for our Salvation. Maybe someday in heaven we will get to learn much more about Jesus and his earthy life.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Matthew Kowalski