Why are there no writings on Jesus as a teenager in the bible?

Question

doesnt it skip from around 12 to 33? if he is the greatest person to ever live, shouldnt we know about this time period too?

Answer 1

there is a 21 year incubation period for syphilis...

Answer 2

There were, but they (with many other gospels) were dropped from the canon of scripture by about 387 AD.

For instance there is The Infancy Gospel of Thomas - which has Jesus age 5 doing magic to carry water home in his clothing.

Many of these gospels actually predate the ones in the New Testament - which mostly date at least 150 years AD and were clearly not written by contemporaries of Jesus. (Imagine today placing infallible reliability in a report of an event in 1850 not written down until today).

You should really ask why these other gospels were dropped from the bible.

Answer 3

We do know that he was in the temple teaching around the age of 12.

But, the problem is the view of the Bible as a history book. It is historical...but it's purpose isn't to record and provide historical data. It's the Word of God and the relevance to our spiritual journey towards him and towards salvation.

The Gospels are written so that we can understand that Christ fulfilled the prophesies of the Old Testament, the prophesies about the Messiah. Then they move on to his public ministry, death and resurrection.

We aren't given details that do not pertain to the mission and purpose of Christs life here on earth. We aren't told what he did in the evenings, or what he did when he wasn't preaching etc.

The Bible is the inspired Word of God. God inspired the authors to write about Christ. So, obviously they weren't inspired to write about the youth of Christ..because it was never intended to be the historical account of the life of Christ.

Answer 4

It says at the end of John's Gospel: "there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written"
I can only assume that we have a "snapshot " of Jesus' Life and Ministry. His birth and dedication were important, but His teenage years less so. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Well in some of the gospels that didn't make it into the final cut some of Jesus's childhood is described (In the gospel of Thomas being one)... Of course he was an impish youth, and he turned classmate's into goats and otherwise did what many savior gods did as children.

Of course the christians didn't believe that was good enough, so it was one of the several books that were taken out and not adapted into the "official" storyline.

Answer 6

There was the Gospel of Thomas, but the Council of Nicea decided not to cannonize that one because it didn't give Jesus the image they desired. It showed some more human moments and even a few snarky ones, which could have been really scary even if it made it more believable.

Answer 7

The bible really isn't about Jesus, per se, but uses Jesus as the mascot for the belief. If you listen to any preacher at any time, the focus really isn't on Jesus' teachings, but on Jesus' sacrifice. They could care less about teaching you that you are not to judge other people at all and explaining the reasons why you shouldn't do so. You see, that particular teaching is contrary to their sense of spiritual superiority. They'd much rather make you feel the need to seek redemption through personal (often monetary) sacrifice by making you feel undeserving of his sacrifice. Whether Christians choose to believe it or not, they are being bamboozled by their churches.

If the churches were truly about Jesus, they would focus more on his teachings than on his sacrifice on the cross. That part is done, nothing more needs to be said. And it definitely doesn't need to be the focus of the religion. The true center of the religion should be on how Jesus taught people to live their lives and the reasons they are to live that way. Not about whether or not you accept Jesus as your personal lord and savior. The man left instructions, and they were NOT simply "believe in me or go to hell!"

Unfortunately, most Christians are blind to that, and don't care to dissect their beliefs and what they're being spoon-fed by their "Shepherds".

Answer 8

The answer is, it wasn't 't necessary to be included when the point of the message was God's Redemptive Plan for mankind. God got right to the point He didn't ramble.

In fact only 35 days of Jesus life were recorded in the Bible .

Answer 9

It was written about, but when the pwoers that be (at the time), put together the writings of many people to decide what would be in the Bible, they decided not to include it. The bible was edited by a bunch of mortal men who decided what should be in it. and what shouldnt

Answer 10

Jesus did not really do any spiritual things between those ages. It is not recorded in the bible because back then people didn't find anything he did between 12-33 that was important enough to write. He may have also been mentally preparing himself before he started preaching.

Answer 11

Other than Luke 2:41-52, the Bible does not tell us anything about Jesus’ youth. From this incident we do know certain things about Jesus’ childhood. First, He was the son of parents who were devout in their religious observances. As required by their faith, Joseph and Mary made the yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. In addition, they brought their 12-year-old son to celebrate His first Feast in preparation for His bar mitzvah at age 13, when Jewish boys commemorate their passage into adulthood. Here we see a typical boy in a typical family of that day.

We see also in this story that Jesus’ lingering in the temple was neither mischievous nor disobedient, but a natural result of His knowledge that He must be about His Father’s business. That He was astonishing the temple teachers with His wisdom and knowledge speaks to His extraordinary abilities, while His listening and asking questions of His elders shows that He was utterly respectful, taking the role of a student as was fitting for a child of His age.

From this incident to His baptism at age 30, all we know of Jesus’ youth was that He left Jerusalem and returned to Nazareth with His parents and “was obedient to them” Luke 2:51. He fulfilled His duty to His earthly parents in submission to the 5th commandment, an essential part of the perfect obedience to the law of Moses which He rendered on our behalf. Beyond that, all we know is that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52).

Evidently, this is all God determined that we needed to know. There are some extra-Biblical writings which contain stories of Jesus’ youth (the Gospel of Thomas, for example). But we have no way of knowing whether any of these stories are true and reliable. God chose not to tell us much about Jesus’ childhood – so we have to just trust Him that nothing occurred which we need to know about.

Recommended Resource: Why Believe in Jesus?: Who He Is, What He Did, and His Message for You Today by Tim LaHaye.