Who Was Jesus? His Childhood

I just watched Epsiode 1 of a Discovery series called "Who Was Jesus." This one is all about his childhood and in what conditions he grew up. It' was SUPERB. 

I think there are 3 episodes, I will definitely finish them all soon. But, I've gone ahead and made notes for you from Episode #1!

Enjoy!

The Childhood of Jesus:

1. Mother Mary was told before conceiving Jesus that she would conceived through the Holy Spirit

2. The Angel was the one to name Jesus, she told Mary to do so.

3. Being pregnant without marriage was a crime punishable by being stoned. But now she finds herself pregnant and has now broken all moral rules.

4. Joseph was told of Mary's conception by an Angel. But they had to leave their town to go to Bethlehem to escape her persecution for being pregnant.

5. Most scholars now agree that Jesus was not born in a stable. There was very title wood back then to build a stable.

6. It was more of a cave he was born in underneath a Church. 

7. In the Jewish tradition, the Messiah must be from the House of David, which is from Bethlehem. Is this maybe why the Gospels put Jesus being born there?  But was he really?

8. Jesus was NOT born on December 25th in the year Zero - this we already know. The monk who devised the Calendar made a mistake in his math.

We have no other evidence of his birth because people did not care in those days. 

Most believe his birth was more in 4 B.C.

9. Nazareth was a small village with a very small population and his childhood was very tough. His family was very poor and they all had to work from an early age to make the family work.

10. Evidence of recurring famine during the time of Jesus has been found over and over in the bone analysis of many people from his town during his time.

11. 50% of children in that time never even reached the age of 5. 

12. Infectious disease, lyce, and malaria were very common during that time.

13. Archaeological evidence shows that even severely disabled people were very well taken care of by their families and many lived to very high ages.

14. The Holy family is typically seen as just Jesus, Mary and Joseph. When in reality Jesus grew up in a house full of children - who's names we know from the Gospels. Matthew 13:55.

15. Some believe that Joseph was a widower and that Jesus's brother/sisters were from Joseph's prior marriage but not from Mary.

16. Growing up, evidence shows that Jesus was most likely picked on and bullied, treated as an outsider while he was growing up. 

17. It is likely that Jesus knew from an early age that he was the Son of God, feeling different himself from all the other boys.

18. Jesus joined his father in learning and practicing Carpentry by age of 12. 

19. Jesus grew up in a very trying time - the rich were getting richer and the poor, poorer. 

20. The Roman Empire was really hurting the people and suppressing the Jewish people a lot. 

21. When Jesus was 12 years old, the Romans sent a decree to survey to Jewish people again to raise their taxes - this led to a major uprising. The Jewish believed that they should only be paying their taxes to God - not the Romans.

But the rebellion was put down and thousands were killed to set an example.

22. Jesus was most likely able to read and write because Jewish boys his age are taught to read the Tora very clearly in that time. 

23. According to Gospel stories, Jesus had a very sophisticated knowledge of the scriptures from even a very young age.

24. The Priests of the Jewish temples in Jerusalem are known to have made deals with the Roman leaders which afforded them very wealthy lives. The Jewish population began to become very unpleased with the Temple leaders over time. 

If you can, I highly recommend watching this series. I just ordered the DVD even though it's free on Netflix to stream...