What was Jesus like,growing up in the first Christian family

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His mother and step-father regarded him as God the Son, and hence were the first Christians, and represented the first Christian family. Reread Matthew and Luke, if you please.


No, because none of these characters' parents were visited by angels when they were born, etc. etc.



Thanks for the great compliment.

Are you looking for a serious discussion yourself, Mr. Troll?

He might have found receiving the eucharist a little weird.

Also, if his parents were devout Catholics he was being educated about how he'd have to die on the cross, though I'd figure Joseph and Mary could have had a few fights over which was more important - the our fathers and hail Mary's, like in any standard fight between a husband and wife though that ended up ten Hail Mary's to one Our Father.

Hmm, wonder if he had a rosary in the garden of Gethsemany?



Great eye for history OP. Maybe we could discuss what it was like for Muhammad being raised in a Muslim family next, or on a different angle what it was like for Bruce Lee being the first Jeet Kun Do student.

When he was growing up, and certainly prior to that, God the Son was aware that he was going to have to be flagellated and crucified.

Otherwise, all of humanity would continue to be held as guilty for Adam's crime of having been deceived by Eve.

That might tend to explain some of Jesus' depressive episodes.

Of course, children generally can't imagine eventually reaching the old age of 30. Otherwise, none of them would smoke.

Maybe Jesus, the child, remained somewhat oblivious to what would take place in his adulthood, even though he knew full well that it was coming.

I'm guessing that, although his parents were the first Christians, and the first to achieve salvation through faith in Jesus, they probably didn't make him take communion, although they may have told him that the Passover matzos was his flesh, etc., just to tease him.

In all seriousness if you take the bible as the authentic story you get every indicator that he never had a lapse of awareness that he was God's son, if God hadn't given himself that cheat - logistically - there's a great chance he could have just thought he was a freak and gone nowhere. I would also figure that to be him internal reality was likely quite different, he didn't just know he was the son of God - he was in touch with all sorts of facts and figures that other people just didn't have (his explanation of weather to then dumbfounded pharasees). On another note though I have a hard time calling his parents the first Christians, perhaps later in their lives they could have defined themselves as Christians but, prior to him having a ministry, Christianity did not exist - they were Jews, Jesus was a Jew, his parents may have been perhaps very faithful and very much substance over form but still had nothing else to be. For Mary to even receive angels in her room to let her know that she would be concieving the Messiah - she's still a Jewish woman fulfilling Jewish prophecy at this point.

Christianity, in any form, didn't come into existance until after Christ rose from the crucifixion. Even His own disciples didn't fully believe Jesus was the Son of God. Yes, they witnessed miracles performed by Jesus during His ministry, but still doubted. The doubt continued until He was laid to rest. It took seeing Him in person, walking & talking, after His death to realize He was not a mere mortal. Had Jesus just been another man, the crucifixion would have been truly the end, not the start of a new religion.

Jesus' upbringing was Jewish. Says so in Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John. I'm not going to quote direct from the Bible. It's there...you can check the passages at www.biblegateway.com if you like. He came from a long line of Jews on Mary's side (Luke 3:23-38). Those are the facts...He was raised as a Jew, & celebrated along with them all the Jewish holidays. His family celebrated passover it's right there in scripture. At 12, He already knew His path (Luke 2:41-52). He did the miracles on Sabbath to show others how hypocritical the Jewish religious leaders were. If you don't believe me, please read the 4 gospels again. I'm in the middle of reading Luke myself. I prefer reading The Message due to the fact it's written in contempory English. The older versions remind me of reading Shakespeare...it's tough to translate the core meaning sometimes from past translations.

What's really interesting is that Jesus often requested the recipients of His miracles not to talk about them to others. Sometimes they honored His request, other times they blurted the results of their healing to anyone who'd listen.

And that was wise of him - it garners credibility. When you say "Now - go out and tell everyone what I just did" people would pause for thought, wondering if they missed something.

I think its important to note that people back then had nothing to go on but their reputation. If people thought you were crazy it probably put you in a world of hurt.

So very true...since there was no other way but through witness testimony to make or break someone's reputation. That was pretty much true up until recently too. Jesus also undermined the credibility of the Jewish religious leaders who were out & out hypocrites. They used their positions as a point of power to their own benefits. He pointed out their shortcomings, often in front of witnesses. It didn't win Jesus respect from the leaders, who had Him tortured & executed exactly as scriptures predicted. It's not written in the scriptures, but I wonder what those same leaders would have been thinking after hearing of the Son of God's resurrection. I can imagine that it was something similar to "Oh crap! We screwed up, & had God's Son executed! Major ooooops!"

Just like in a lot of situations you'll run into where if you 'rock the boat' or challenge the structure of authority or power you'll generate a heck of a roe.


Or "Why didn't we behead him and separate the halves?". I'm sure it would have just made them feel even more powerless.

Of course, when Jesus was growing up, he had this halo either attached to or orbiting his cranium.



I wonder if other kids made fun of him because of it?

I am sure the reactions was: "Those Christ nutters stole the body from the tomb".

ruveyn

It seems to me that though the responses I've read, this discussion is rather biased, in that a lot of you are analyzing Jesus' upbringing automatically assuming that Jesus was what the Bible said he was (i.e., the son of God/God incarnate, born of a virgin, etc.). There seems to be a lack of looking from the point of view of the time in which Jesus lived. We can't write a 100% accurate biography of Jesus of Nazareth's life, due to the fact that these manuscripts, quite frankly, were written about 2,000 years ago by people who never knew or knew anyone who knew Jesus of Nazareth, decades after Jesus' supposed death date.

We have to look at Jesus' life as a child as it would've been for someone growing up in the 1st century, C.E. from an objective, scientific, evidence-based, and more open point of view than the one that priests and ministers have been teaching people for the past 2,000 years.

Jesus had no God power, only the holy spirit which is available to all humans. This is why he referred to himself as the son of man a lot. Jesus could have become a God, he had access to this power, but he chose to stay a man to complete his destiny. He could do miracles on demand because he understood the relationship with the holy spirit intimately as apposed to humans who can only try and fail to understand God. Jesus could only understand it perfectly because He was God. I am only choosing to answer your stupid thread because although you are making a joke you also seem misinformed.

This is in a way correct. Jesus had no God power, although he understood God better than anybody else. He would have been treated the same as all children and his life wouldn't have been much different until his last 3 years on earth. So if you want to know what child Jesus was like, research what a child from 2000 years ago would have been like.

I always thought that was a dinner plate

Nope, that was behind John the Baptist.

I thought it was a gong.