The Jesus Mysteries, Where was Jesus before he was 30?

It's extraordinary what we don't know about the most important/influential man in history, Jesus. There is no description of what he looked like, what he did between the ages of 12 and 30. He left no writings, he doesn't appear in any contemporary documents or histories except for a few vague references.So we are almost wholly dependent on the Bible, yet that wasn't written as a modern "autobiography" or rigorous academic history book it was written as a religious work and didn't take its final shape for several centuries after the death of Christ..

So 2000 years later the Bible is still being interpreted, retranslated, analyzed by computer, believers argue with each other and with skeptics. But how is it possible that even the basic premises of Christianity are still under debate it's an extraordinary situation.

All this leads some to wild speculation, learn more below. The lens tries to be even handed and not take a point of view as far as that is possible.

Click here for List of things we don't know about Jesus Christ

His own townsfolk try to kill Jesus

Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at him.

But Jesus said to them, "Only in their own towns and in their own homes are prophets without honor."

And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

This whole passage is odd but authentic, wouldn't you expect him to be warmly greeted in his hometown? But what has happened to Jesus in the missing 18 years where has he been, what has he learned, what are his miracles?

And according to Luke 4:28-30

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way

1. Only one mention in the Bible of what he did before the age of thirty!

   At the age of 12 Jesus astonishes his parents by arguing knowledgeably with elders in the Temple'. Other than that there is no mention of his life not even a cover all "he grew up just like any other young man" whatever he did is simply omitted.

2. He left not one page of writing
3. He is mentioned in no contemporary document or history

   The first references appear decades after his death and even then are passing references.

4. What Did He Look Like?

   Surely that would be the thing most struck you. Was he tall or short, fat or thin? That would be most asked by Christians.

   (Do not get confused by Isaiah : 53 : 2 There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him which was written 8 centuries before Jesus)

5. What about his brothers and sisters

   We know the name of James who carried on his work, but nothing at all about his sisters. Catholics tried to argue that he had none as it is troublesome for the concept of the Virgin Mary.

6. No exact dates

   We don't know exact dates for his birth, death and the start of his preaching. Of course dates were generally problematic at the time but did no one at the time not wish to fix these dates more exactly.

7. Resurrection Inconsistencies

   The four gospels differ on many essential points, this would require a lens all on its own. e.g. was the Stone already rolled back from the tomb.

8. He is not mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls

   There seems to have been no reference to Jesus in the scrolls even there are many wild theories concerning them, most of the scrolls predate Jesus of course.

9. Rejected by his own "Chosen People"

   Why doesn't Jesus figure in Jewish History?

10. In Mark Jesus just appears fully grown

    Mark begins with John the Baptist predicting the arrival of one much greater than he. When Jesus is baptised by John he receives the Holy Spirit implying that he hadn't had it before.

11. What did Jesus do in the 40 days between Resurrection and Ascension?

    Practically nothing is known about these 40 days other than he continued to teach the Apostles. This is not controversial, there just isn't much to accept or deny.

12. What Was His Attitude to Marriage?

    We learn nothing of Jesus's own attitude to women or whether

13. What Did Jesus Like to Eat?

    We don't know any personal thing about Jesus what he liked to eat, wear or go. I once met a teenager who wanted to know what music Jesus liked. Was this sort of information considered unworthy and censored?

14. St Paul makes no reference to anything Jesus did

    Paul never mentions events during Jesus's life before his crucifixion or aspects of his teaching i.e. to anything that that might be found in the four Gospels before the resurrection.

15. Laughing

    Jesus is never recorded as laughing in the New testament. He does weep however.

The Gospels do not say where Jesus was between the age of 12 and 30. But ancient Buddhist manuscripts say Jesus left Palestine and traveled to India, Nepal, Ladakh and Tibet during the "lost years." For the first time, Prophet brings together the eyewitness accounts of four people who have seen these remarkable manuscripts--plus three variant translations of the texts.

The Bible tells us that Joseph of Arimathea gave up his tomb for Jesus. Tradition tells us that he was actually the Uncle of the Virgin Mary, and therefore the Great-Uncle of Jesus. It is also believed that Joseph of Arimathea traveled to the British Isles shortly after the resurrection of Christ, and built the first Christian Church above ground there. Tradition also tells us that Jesus may have spent much of his young adult life (between 13 and 30) traveling the world with his Great Uncle Joseph. Is this the origin of the legend that Jesus came to the British Isles?

Nicolas Notovitch was a Russian aristocrat, Cossack officer, spy, and journalist known for his contention that during the years of Jesus Christ's life missing from the Bible, he followed traveling merchants abroad into India and the Hemis Monastery in Ladakh, Nepal, where he studied Buddhism. While recovering from a broken leg at the at the monastery of Himis, Notovich discovered the text to The Life of Issa and realized that it recounted the lost years of Jesus. This controversial book shows where many of Jesus' beliefs comes from, while at the same time showing that Jesus was already well on his way to his fundamental beliefs at a very young age.

SECRET HOARD OF ANCIENT SEALED BOOKS FOUND IN JORDAN

One of the biggest and best-preserved hoard of ancient sealed books, which had been secretly hidden for centuries, has been discovered in Jordan. These could be relics from the Jerusalem Church of the first century. Early indications are that the books date from the first century CE/AD and could be some of the earliest Christian documents. Leading academics consider the find to be even more pivotal than the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.

The hoard consists of a collection of ring-bound books (codices) made of lead and of copper. Many of them are sealed on all sides. Scrolls, tablets and other artefacts, including an incense bowl, were also found at the same site. Some of the lead pages are written in a form of archaic Hebrew script with ancient messianic symbols. Some of the writing appears to be in a form of code.

These finds are still wrapped in mystery but if they did belong to the Nazarenes ie Jesus's Jewish followers then the information they reveal could be revolutionary

Why are the events of the Gospel story, and its central character Jesus of Nazareth, not found in the New Testament epistles? Why does Paul's divine Christ seem to have no connection to the Gospel Jesus, but closely resembles the many pagan savior gods of the time who lived only in myth? Why, given the spread of Christianity across the Roman Empire in the first century, did only one Christian community compose a story of Jesus' life and death-the Gospel of Mark-while every other Gospel simply copied and reworked the first one? Why is every detail in the Gospel story of Jesus' trial and crucifixion drawn from passages in the Old Testament? The answer to these and other questions surrounding the New Testament will come as a shock to those who imagine that the origins of Christianity and the figure of Jesus are securely represented by Christian tradition and the Gospels. With the arrival of the third millennium, the time has come to face the stunning realization that for the last 1900 years, Christianity has revered a founder and icon of the faith who probably never existed.

The consensus is still that a historical Jesus did exist, but this book points out many difficult points for Christians to answer.

The Roman destruction of Judea

Thirty years or so after the death of Jesus the Jews revolted against Rome (First Jewish-Roman War 66-70 AD, sometimes called The Great Revolt) the Romans responded by utterly crushing Judea. The temple was burnt and anything valuable was looted. There were further revolts which lead to the Jewish diaspora. We shall never know how many documents of the preceding centuries including documents of the era of Jesus were lost.

It would seem that the Nazarenes that is to say Jewish followers of Jesus also disappear from history at this time and this lead to Christianity to being defined by St Paul.

Nineteenth century New Testament scholars who rejected the traditional perspective of the priority of Matthew in favor of Marcan priority speculated that the authors of Matthew and Luke drew the material they have in common with the Gospel of Mark from that Gospel. Matthew and Luke, however, also share large sections of text which are not found in Mark. They suggested that neither Gospel drew upon the other, but upon a second common source, termed the Q (Wikipedia)

You will learn that the existence of this document is controversial.

This book tackles all the thorny issues. Jesus had brothers and sisters how does this affect the story of "Virgin Birth". The flight into Egypt was necessitated by the "massacre of the innocents" but there is no other record of any such massacre. The census recorded by Luke could not have occurred at the date specified and so on.

In December 1945 some Bedouins discovered a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel near Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

The Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dating back to around the third century was also discovered at the same time as part of the Nag Hammadi library.

In 1521 in Oxfordshire some men were branded on the face for reading the Gospel of St Peter and warned they could be burned at the stake for further offenses.

Bishop Celsus claimed that Jesus learned Magick in Egypt and this was the basis for the miracles. A young medical student at the University of Edinburgh in the 1690s called Thomas Aikenhead was executed for proclaiming this, he was the last person to be executed for blasphemy in the UK. You will have to decide yourself whether the claim that Jesus learned Magick In Egypt is a Medieval invention.

Mark is generally agreed to be the oldest Canonical Gospel. Why not read Mark again with the aim of finding out what you can learn about Jesus as a person. It doesn't take long especially if you skip the parables which most people know by heart. You will probably find you learn very little, Jesus chooses his disciples, performs miracles, resolves some theological difficulties, predicts his own death and then is executed and resurrected. It is almost as though it was written by his campaign manager. But as I said this is weighty matter and I claim no special expertise.

Two thousand years after Jesus Christ debate still rages, libraries are full of books analyzing The Bible. Archaeologists are still making new discoveries, ancient texts are still being discovered or decoded, computers are used to analyze the text. The greatest minds are still undertaking research. This all means that the study of religion is as actual a subject as say research on replacing fossil fuels and just as important for society.

At least we now live in a society adult enough to allow discussion and alternative viewpoints. My current view is that when the the contents of the canonical New Testament were first decided four hundred years after Jesus the clerics knew that there were significant inconsistencies between the gospels but that the truth was already lost and they conscientiously decided the texts as they were, resisting any temptation to iron them out. May be this is the reason that for centuries it was forbidden for non-educated people to read the Bible.

When did you become interested in this subject?

What is your opinion or belief?