4. The Childhood of Christ
“Thy Holy Child Jesus”
The Childhood of Christ
“AND THE CHILD GREW, AND WAXED STRONG IN SPIRIT,
FILLED WITH WISDOM; AND THE GRACE
OF GOD WAS UPON HIM” (Luke 2:40).
THIS IS ALL we know about the childhood of Jesus, but the silences of God are as significant as His speech. It does not satisfy our curiosity, but there is sufficient revealed to assure us of His real humanity and full identity with the human race. Although He began life as a perfect child, we must not forget that He began it as a perfect child. He did not burst upon the world as a mature adult, but as an infant a span long—in striking contrast to the Greek gods who descended to earth fully grown and well armed. In His incarnation Jesus submitted Himself to the sinless limitations of growth and development inherent in membership of the human race. The gospels do not undertake to provide us with a biography of Jesus of Nazareth but with a history of Jesus the Savior.
Apocryphal Legends
In the light of the pseudo-gospels of the early centuries which abounded with silly fables, the silence of the evangelists concerning incidents in the Christ-child’s boyhood are the more significant. No stories of a precocious child. Some of these apocryphal gospels are still extant, two of them entitled “the Gospel of Infancy.” “These were written by Christians; by men who wished to honour Christ in all they said about him,” writes W. Hanna. “And yet we find them narrating that when boys interrupted Jesus in His play or ran against Him in the village street, He looked on them and denounced them, and they fell down and died.”
Such blasphemous absurdities are a travesty of the truth, as though the Son of God would descend to puerile displays of divine power, and even acts of petty vengeance. Here is a warning not to intrude when God has not spoken. The reason no amazing and extraordinary experiences are recorded is that apparently none happened. The silence of the inspired writers tacitly assures us that His growth and development were those of a normal child, not of a precocious prodigy. He knew no unnatural progress, although the absence of sin would undoubtedly enable more rapid intellectual and moral growth and development. He grew in body. He waxed strong in spirit. He increased in the wisdom of mind and heart.
The Nazareth Home
Jesus’ home of Nazareth was a small, despised village, inhabited by a wild people (Luke 4:28–29). An indication of its reputation among the Jews is implicit in Nathanael’s question, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” That such a village should be chosen by God as a home for His Son is another significant element in the divine condescension.
When I am tempted to repine
That such a humble lot is mine,
WITHIN I HEAR A VOICE, WHICH SAITH,
“Mine were the streets of Nazareth.”AUTHOR UNKNOWN
His family comprised at least eight members, and maybe more. “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?” (Matthew 13:55–56) was the question of his fellow-citizens. So in that cramped eastern home, the Lord of glory experienced the disciplines of life incidental to a larger family, living at close quarters with sinful boys and girls, yet He emerged from the experience “without sin.” His reference to a prophet not being without honor save in His own house (Matthew 13:57) probably reflected the loneliness of His sinless childhood.
The influence, example, and teaching of His mother doubtless played an important part in His development. “Everything indicates that she was one of those rare women whose glory it is to prepare a noble life, losing themselves in it, and desiring to be glorified only in its usefulness.” Mary’s song reveals her as a devout, high-souled woman, fervently patriotic and a student of Scripture. Her song is patterned on that of an older saintly woman of the Old Testament, Hannah.
His Natural Development
In order to be “made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:17), our Lord subjected Himself to the common laws of human infancy and childhood.
He came, but not in regal splendour drest,
The haughty diadem, the Tyrian vest;
Not armed in flame, all glorious from afar,
Of hosts the Captain, and the Lord of war.BISHOP HEBER
He experienced normal physical development. “The child grew and waxed strong.” Pictures of the child Jesus with a halo do Him a grave disservice. He was indistinguishable from other children, except for the absence of sin. He passed through all the stages of a natural development, delighting to scramble up the hills around His home—
Jesus grew at the same rate as other boys, and His amazing physical endurance in the succeeding years bore eloquent evidence of physical foundations well laid during youth. From the ease and accuracy with which He made use of the happenings of everyday life in His teaching, it is obvious that He was an observant child. Like the other children of the village, since there were no parks, He doubtless played in the marketplace (Luke 7:31–32) and joined in their body-building games. He was neither ascetic nor Stoic.
In Summer days, like you and me
He played about the door,
Or gathered, when the father toiled,
The shavings from the floor.
Sometimes He lay upon the grass
The same as you and I,
And saw the hawks above Him pass
Like specks against the sky;
Or clinging to the gate, He watched
The stranger passing by.
And when the sun at break of day
Crept in upon His hair
I think it must have left a ray
Of unseen glory there—
A kiss of love on that little brow,
For the thorns that it must wear.A. B. PAINE
To fulfill the psalmist’s prophecy “Thou art fairer than the children of men” (Psalm 45:2), He must have been an unusually attractive child physically. His voice must have held early promise of the rich and vibrant tones that later thrilled and held the multitudes spellbound, and caused the Temple guards sent to arrest Him to exclaim, “Never man spake like this man” (John7:46).
He advanced in mental attainment. “Jesus advanced in wisdom.” He was not an adult infant. He acquired the power of speech as did other children. He gradually gained familiarity with the ordinary branches of human knowledge. He learned to read (Luke 4:17) and write (John 8:6–8). His knowledge came to Him by degrees, but every degree of growth was perfect.
So body and mind developed together and he displayed manly vigor and mental power. It is impossible to penetrate the mystery of His gradual development, but Scripture asserts it as a fact.
His Education
Although the gospels shed no light on the education of Jesus, it is possible to gain some knowledge from the customs of the day. His first instruction would be at the knee of His mother. She would teach Him to chant psalms, and instruct Him in the rudiments of the Hebrew law and history. From the preparations for the Passover festival, He would be told the story of redemption.
In a Jewish village the size of Nazareth there would be a school, known as “The House of the Book,” to which Jesus would be sent at the age of six. The rulers of the synagogue were the teachers. Up to the age of ten, the Old Testament Scriptures were the only textbook. For five years the children memorized the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:7), especially the Pentateuch, until “the Jew knew the Law better than his own name.” From His familiarity with the Scriptures, it might be inferred that there was a copy of the sacred scrolls in the home.
The first book to be studied was Leviticus. What were the thoughts that jostled in the mind of the eager young scholar as He read the ritual of sacrifice that foreshadowed the sacrifice of God’s Lamb? James Stalker remarks that no stain of sin clouded His vision of divine things, and His soul could not remain unvisited by presentiments, growing to convictions, that He was the One in whom their predictions were destined to be realized.
At the age of twelve the scholar became a “son of the Law” and was robed in the garments of a man. Hence forward he was regarded as a free moral agent, responsible for his own actions. The initiatory rite might be compared to our joining the church, or confirmation. This was probably in view when Jesus made His first journey to Jerusalem.
What languages did He speak? He certainly knew Aramaic. When the Jews returned from the captivity, they spoke Aramaic, the language spoken by the Persian masters. His quotations indicate that He read in the original Hebrew and not in a Greek translation.
“As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read” (Luke 4:16). His talks were full of quotations from the Old Testament. Then, too, His native Galilee was full of Greek-speaking inhabitants. By reason of its position, Galilee was exposed to inescapable Greek influences. It was probably in Greek that He communicated with the people of Tyre and Sidon. It is eminently likely that He was master of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
Although denied a university education, for He did not, like Paul, sit at the feet of a Gamaliel, in His later ministry Jesus displayed such a mastery of all branches of education that the rabbis; exclaimed in amazement: “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (John 7:15). Much of His spare time would be spent in the synagogue at Nazareth where He was one of the expositors of the service.
Horace Bushnell wrote very winsomely of the child Jesus. “In His childhood everyone loved Him. He is shown growing up in favour with God and man, a child so lovely and beautiful that heaven and earth appear to smile on him together. So when it is added that the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and more than all, that the grace or beautifying power of God was upon Him, we look on the unfolding of a sacred flower, and seem to scent a fragrance wafted on us from other worlds.”