WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT
JESUS' YOUTH
The Rev. Harold Shepherd, CD, M.A., S.T.M., LL.B., LL.M.,
Ph.D.
Sermon from February 1, 2004
And you will say, “Do here also
in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at
Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is
accepted in the prophet's hometown.” Luke
4:22-24
In today’s Gospel reading we find Jesus paying a
visit home to Nazareth part-way through his ministry. As
was his custom, he went to the synagogue of Saturday
morning to worship. He was given the scroll of the Book of
Isaiah to read from. Finding Isaiah 61, he read: “The
Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to
the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the
captives and recovery of sight to the blind.” They
were amazed at his gracious words and asked “Is not
this Joseph’s son?” Although we do not know
very much about Jesus’ youth, this passage gives us
some insight. The parallel account in Matthew 13:54-56
gives us even more details. After he taught in the
Synagogue in Nazareth, the people asked: “Where did
this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not
this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called
Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon
and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then
did this man get all this?” From this we learn that
Jesus could read Hebrew and teach with great wisdom in a
synagogue. This was viewed as being unusual for the son of
a “carpenter” from a small village like
Nazareth. This traditional view of Jesus’ upbringing
has been challenged in light of more recent historical and
archeological research about the region that Jesus was
from.
The Roman occupation in Palestine dated to the arrival of
Pompey in 63 B.C. Aulus Gabinius, who was Proconsul of
Syria from 57 to 55 B.C. divided Palestine into five
administrative districts, one of which was Galilee. He
choose as its capital the City of Sepphoris in Lower
Galilee that was on major trade routes leading from the
east to the Mediterranean and south to Jerusalem. In 47
B.C. Julius Caesar appointed Antipater of Idumea prefect of
Judea who in turn appointed his son Herod as governor of
Galilee. Seven years later in 40 B.C. Herod was appointed
King of Judea, including Galilee, Samaria and Idumaea,
ruling until his death in 4 B.C. After his death, a number
of revolts broke out against the Romans. A rebel leader
named Judas, son of Ezekias, took the Galilean capital,
Sepphoris including its arsenal. In retaliation the
Proconsul fo Syria, Quinctilius Varus, destroyed the city
and sold its inhabitants into slavery. The Romans then
divided Herod’s former kingdom and gave Galilee and
Perea to his son Herod Antipas in 3 B.C. Given that he
ruled until his death in A.D. 39, he was the principal
political authority in Galilee during Jesus’ life and
ministry. One of the first things that Herod Antipas needed
to do when he assumed power in 3 B.C. was to rebuild his
capital of Sepphoris that lay in ruins. This city was built
on a hill and featured two paved streets of about 13 meters
in width that included colonnades. One ran from east to
west, and the other from north to south. Many shops lined
these streets, with a large public building at their
intersection. A Roman theater was partially cut into the
hillside that could seat between 3 and 4,000 people.. In
addition to public buildings, courts, a fortress and
ordinary houses, there were also elegant mansions. The city
had two markets featuring many of the wares that the
affluence of a capital could attract. According to
Josephus, Sepphoris was the strongest city in Galilee and
was rebuilt as the “ornament of all Galilee.”
Covering about 35 hectares, the population was likely
between 14,000 and 18,000 inhabitants. Both Aramaic and
Greek were spoken in the city.
Given that Jesus was likely born in the last few years of
the reign of King Herod (i.e 6-4 B.C), Sepphoris was
destroyed when he was under four years old. The rebuilding
of this administrative centre and architectural jewel was
particularly intense when Jesus was growing up. According
to Mark 6:3, Jesus was a “carpenter.” The Greek
word, teknon, is actually not that precise. It could be
best translated as “craftsman” or
“skilled worker.” Among other things, it could
refer to a carpenter or a stonemason. Nazareth was a very
small farming town without much need for skilled craftsmen.
However, Nazareth was three miles from the capital,
Sepphoris- about a one-hour walk. Although no reference is
made to this in the New Testament, it is quite likely that
any meaningful work as a carpenter or stonemason would have
taken place a few miles away in helping to rebuild
Sepphoris. As the capital of a district answering directly
to the Proconsul of Syria, it was the cultural centre of
the region that apparently needed a very large theater.
This was the world of Jesus’ youth. He was not the
country bumpkin that many people think he was. He most
likely actively engaged in the intellectual life of the
capital, developing a wisdom and academic acumen that
astonished his compatriots.