Backing Up to the Beginning

The early years of the life of Jesus are silent.  We don’t know anything about His life prior to His baptism by John, His cousin.  Other than Jesus confronting the scribes and scholars in the Temple at the age of 12, we know nothing else about Him.  It has been widely believed that He learned all He needed to know about becoming the Savior from His father and that Jesus was a carpenter by trade.   This has been the conventional teaching of Christianity, because in effect, it just makes sense.  But, let’s go back to the three kings for a moment.  I believe we know about these three kings not by accident.  Who were they and where did they come from? 

I have a theory about the early days of the life of Jesus prior to His baptism by John.  And it involves the three kings.  In fact, it involves their gifts.  We know that after Jesus was born that Mary and Joseph took Him to Egypt in order to avoid the wrath of King Herod.  He was jealous that a king would be born who was greater than he was, so we know from Scripture that he wanted all children under two years old to be killed.  So, we know that Jesus was still with His parents at the age of two. 

We know too, that Mary and Joseph then made Nazareth their home.  So, we know Jesus as the Nazarene.  But what about those gifts?  And what would those gifts have been worth?  I wonder about this.  So, I am going to attempt to fill in the gaps here from a non-traditional way of thinking.  There were religious groups at that time that did NOT identify themselves as being Jewish.  It is known there were the Essenes who lived apart from society are were more like the Amish are today.  They weren’t a part of society and lived in their own conclaves.  Who were these people?  We don’t k now much about them, really.  But if we think of why they lived apart, there was something about society in general that was not a part of their thinking or the way they lived.  Who were these people and where did they come from and even a better question might be, who was their leader or leaders?  This is something we don’t really know.  It is surmised they were a peaceful group of people who settled matters in their own court system.  So, why is this important? 

Here is my theory about Jesus.  He wasn’t raised by Mary and Joseph.  BUT, I would think that he came back to Nazareth with His parents when it was safe for them to do so.  The silence of the early life of Jesus is deafening, although there are those who surely have tried to put some kind of life that is more fiction than reality.  I think it goes back to the three gifts from the wise men.  Those gifts were used to pay for Jesus’ training.  And the silence about His life could only have been accomplished by monks who took a vow of silence.  Jesus had to learn about His powers and how to use them.  This is very important.  Jesus may have learned from training by monks who took a vow of secrecy about Him.  As a Jew, it would only have made sense that He go to the Temple at the age of 12.  This is why it’s the ONLY event in His childhood we know.  Then He went back to the monks for more training until it was time.  Who were these monks?  I believe they were like the Essenes, but as much as many would reject this, since the wise men were from the East, They paid for His training with their gifts.  And so, Jesus lived in secrecy because of monks who had to keep quiet about this boy until He was ready to become visible to the world.  Only Jesus would have known when that time would be.  Meanwhile, His parents remained in Nazareth and I am sure during this time, He kept in touch with them, but they too just about had to take a vow of secrecy until it was time.  And this is why we don’t know any more about His parents than we  know.  And as much as I would like to write more about this, I tend to think the wise men were Buddhists and that the life of the Essenes, weren’t finfluenced by any other religion than the religion that was prevalent at the time, which would only have been Buddhism.  But this is just a guess on my part, because let’s face it, any kind of effort to put together the life of Jesus prior to being baptized is just a guess at best.  We don’t know anything more than we know, because my thinking is, monks that raised Him and taught Him had to take a vow of secrecy and that could only mean that these monks had Eastern religious influences.  And that is My conclusion.  Jesus had to learn to become the Savior of the world.  And the fact is, someone taught Him and those who did, did so with a vow of secrecy.  It’s the ONLY reason we don’t know more than we do.  Peace.  I am Brother Ralphie writing for my Angels from The Angels of Life Institute.  Brother Ralphie works from his study for the promotion of Peaceful living and inner Peace with God. He calls this the “Sanctity of Human Life Movement.”