Horse 953 - Jesus: The Untold Years

The question cropped up recently as to what it would have been like to either be or grow up around Jesus, while he was a boy and into adulthood. In fact the Bible itself offers not a whole heap of answers on this at all.

We know from scripture that Jesus had four brothers; these being: James, Joses, Simon, and Jude. We also know that he had a sister called Salome and one other sister who remains unnamed by scripture (that is to say that she had a name but we don't know what it was, though I'd like to think that it was Elizabeth).

It's reasonable to assume that Joseph, Mary and the seven kids probably led a pretty normal sort of life in Nazareth. Joseph was a chippy by trade and one would assume that the five boys learnt their trade in carpentry as well. But what of their home life?

I grew up in a home with only a sister and I can tell you that things got pretty heated at times. It is normal that children fight and being a house with seven kids in it, it would sometimes be a noisy place. Though Jesus himself would have been very different since he never sinned once, not ever.

I bet Joseph's thinking "One of those darn kids broke my hammer, now who was it? Probably not Jesus 'cause that kid never does nothin' wrong... Joses! Get your sorry butt over here right now!"

"It's time for you to go and study now Jude"
"But muuuuuum" (and I have both heard and done this many times) "Muuuuuum, the Torah is boooring!"
"Why can't you be a good boy and study like your brother Jesus?"

or

"Dad, Salome and Simon are saying sware words"
"Are you telling porkies?"
"No dad."
"Hmm.... No, you're not, are you? You never do, do you?"

Here was a boy who whilst working in His dad's shed, never used His own name in vain when He hit His thumb with the hammer. He never short changed His customers when he worked in the shop. By the same token He never told a lie to protect His mates either.

I think that it would have been obvious that Jesus was different to other children. He wouldn't have shared a lot of traits that make kids so unbearable.