The Youth Jesus left at Jerusalem – A Bible Study in Luke 2
We who are parents as a rule
take great care when it comes to the whereabouts of our children. This is
especially the case for young children. I remember one time when I took my
sister’s children to Disneyland in California and my nephew (who could not have
been more than about seven at the time) and I got separated in a video game
arcade. What a nightmare. Rushing around looking for the lost child, seeking
out the authorities, retracing your steps, looking, and finally, thank God,
finding the lost little one. With my own daughter, whenever we go to a mall or
a public area, I pay extra close attention to where she is at all times. Today,
we just can’t be too careful.
“The child was growing, and
was becoming strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God
was upon him. His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the
Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to
the custom of the feast, and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were
returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother
didn't know it, but supposing him to be in the company, they went a day's
journey, and they looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When
they didn't find him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for him. It happened
after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the
teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. All who heard him
were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When they saw him, they were
astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us this
way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you." He said to
them, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my
Father's house?" They didn't understand the saying which he spoke to them.
And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and
his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom
and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
Now, on the surface, when we
read this passage, there seems to be (from our modern perspectives) a certain
level of irresponsibility of the parents of our Lord. Why didn’t they pay
closer attention to the location of their son? How could they have left him in
Jerusalem alone? Now I think it is safe to say we can make some speculation
here to fill in the gaps of this story.
First,
it is clear from the Gospels that Jesus had four brothers and at least two
sisters.[1]
Jesus was twelve at this time. If we take the example of the family of Moses
who was three years younger than his brother Aaron (Note: Early Jewish women
often nursed their children some 24 months or longer and this helped to hinder
women from getting pregnant again until the children were aged three and were
weaned.[2])
that the Biblical ideal for spacing children is three years, by this time,
Joseph and Mary may have had as many as four other children (more children than
my suggestion are physically possible), with a new born among them. So, it is
easy to see that this family would have been busy taking care of their younger
children.
We
can also note that maturity took place at an earlier age in ancient times, with
young men of 13 taking on some of the responsibilities of early man hood.
However, to be sure, 13 year olds were still under the total responsibility of
their parents. Our text in Luke 2 even indicates this. The text shows that his
parents exhibited a great deal of concern for our Lord and returned immediately
to Jerusalem to find him. So how do we
understand what really took place in this story of Luke 2.
Understanding
this idea is enhanced by taking into consideration the cultural environment at
that time concerning the procedure for taking longer trips. We have to
understand that when we read this passage our approach to travel is quite
different than what those people in those days undertook when they traveled. I
think that those who are older would even say that our modern approach to even
the simplest of trips is something completely foreign to the way that they took
trips when they were young. Over the years, things have changed a lot. I have
spoken to some older people who have told me that they used to go “to town”
once a week. Today, we just hop in the car and go wherever we want whenever we
want to. The situation in the past though was quite different. Herein is the
key to the proper understanding of this passage: understanding the cultural
environment of the times in which the narrative is taking place. To quote one
of the preeminent Biblical historians concerning the importance of placing the
Biblical narratives in their proper cultural environment, Dr. John J. Pilch of
Georgetown University, who said: “If we have not been reading the Bible as a
Middle Eastern document, the likelihood is that we have been misreading and
misinterpreting it.”[3]
This
brings up an important point that we always have to keep in mind when it comes
to the Bible. We Bible students today have to remove our biases and assumptions
about what we might think the Bible means based upon our own perspectives. Look
at the issue of censuses for example. My father (Dr. Ernest L. Martin) pointed this out in his work
dealing with the number of Israelites at the Exodus.[3a] When the issue of censuses
is under discussion and Moses comes up with these huge numbers which lead us to
think that the population of Israel may have been 2.5 million people, we need
to remember that Moses counted the living and the dead, or the pedigrees of the
people (see Numbers 1) at that time, and he included those pedigrees in his
count and that gives us the larger figure. To us today, when we think of a
census, we think of counting only living people, but to Moses it meant
something else. As Biblical students it is our jobs to get rid of our own
biases and get back to what the actual facts were at that time. This can be
ascertained often by a close examination of all the relevant texts, but can
also be understood by studying other books or looking at the cultural context
of how people live in the East, particularly before the advent of modern
conveniences. To be sure, 200 years ago, the people who traveled in the East
traveled in a similar fashion to how they traveled in ancient times. Herein
lies a clue of how we might better understand how Jesus could have been
separated from his parents at this time when they were returning to the Galilee
from Jerusalem.
The
first thing to understand is that people in those days traveled in groups to
attend these feasts. These groups traveled from the Galilee in the north and
went south to Jerusalem. Upon completion of the feast, groups then formed for
the return trip. Now, let us note some comments of scholars and individuals who
have made pilgrimages to the Near East within the last two hundreds years and
they have mentioned some peculiarities concerning the habits of travelers in
the Near East which might help to better understand this passage.
“The usual rate of traveling
in the East is three miles an hour; and the number of hours devoted to
traveling rarely exceeds six or eight hours, the distance of an ordinary day’s
journey may be considered as twenty or twenty five miles. The first day,
however, on starting on an expedition, forms an exception to this rule; on that
day it is not customary to go more than six or eight miles, and the tents are
pitched for the night’s encampment almost within sight of the place from which
the journey commences. The sun was hanging low as I left Cairo on the fifteenth
of March, to proceed across the desert to Syria; and after a march of two hours
and a half we halted near the obelisk which marks the spot of Heliopolis, the
On of Scripture (Genesis 41:45). The only reason that I heard assigned for
starting thus late and stopping so early was, that it furnished the
opportunity, in anything [or anyone!] should prove to be forgotten, to return
to the city and supply the deficiency.”[4]
Note also Henry Maundrell
who traveled in the Near East in the late 17th century: “We set out
from Aleppo [Syria] at three in the afternoon, intending to make only a short
step that evening, in order to prove how well we were provided with necessaries
for our journey. Our quarters this first night we took up at a place about one
hour and a half west of Aleppo.”[5]
Another author gives
a similar account: “The first day’s journey of the pilgrims, he says, as is
usual with caravans, was very short. They traveled scarcely an hour and a half,
as far as Gerrha, where they encamped near a fountain.’[6]
Hackett continues: “But this practice of restricting the first day’s journey,
in whatever way it may have arisen, has existed apparently from the earliest
times; for we find the stations marked in the itineraries of the oldest
travelers in the East, agreeing very remarkably with those mentioned by later
travelers. The permanency, therefore, so characteristic of Asiatic life in
general, may be supposed to have maintained itself in this respect as it has
done in other things.”[7]
Going
directly north about 16 kilometers (about 10 miles), we come to a location just
to the east of Ramallah known as Al Bireh.
Al Bireh
Al Bireh has an interesting history. Note what
Fr. Eugene Hoade has to say about this location:
“It is believed that this
[Al Bireh] was the first stopping place for caravans going from Jerusalem to
Galilee by way of Samaria, and therefore the place where Mary and Joseph missed
the 12-year old Jesus and returned to Jerusalem to find Him in the Temple (Luke
2:41).
The Holy Family ‘having fulfilled
the days, i.e. after the Pasch (Passover) celebrations, were returning to
Nazareth together with numerous people. After a day’s journey (that is, after
the traditional first day’s journey, some 16 kilometers [10 miles or so]),
thinking that Jesus was in the company, ‘they sought him among their kinsfolk
and acquaintance. And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking
him. And it came to pass, that after three days his parents found him in the
Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them
questions.’
It is very probably that in
memory of this event there was built by the Franks in 1146 the church with
three aisles of which considerable ruins still remain at the top of the
village. [this was written by Fr. Hoade in about 1970] But it is not unlikely
that the church of the 12th century was erected on the remains of an
older church. It is the property of the Greek Orthodox.
El Bireh is commonly
identified with Beerot, the most northerly of the Gabaonite tetrapolis (Joshua
9:17). Both in Hebrew and Arabic the name means well (s). The primitive site,
on archaeological evidence, would be on Ras et Tahune (Mill Hill), a hill to
the north of the village. Given the tribe of Benjamin, it was the home of Banaa
and Rechab, who assassinated Ishbosheth, son of Saul, and whom David had hanged
at Hebron (II Samuel 4:2) The actual village could represent the Berea of I
Maccabees 2:4 and Birra, La Grande Mahomeria of the Crusaders in contrast to
the La Petite Mahomeria, which was El Qubeibeh [Emmaus] or Beit Surik. The
Templars had a post there in the 13th century and the remains of the
Khan beside the spring is part of their castle.”[8]
When we consider how far it
is from Jerusalem to Al Bireh and the fact that from ancient times caravans
were stopping there because of the spring, this could be a logical place for
the first nights stopping on trips between Jerusalem and the Galilee. I myself
have walked from Jerusalem about half way to El Bireh and my brother in law and
myself made the trip in less than an hour and a half. What the travelling
customs of those days in the Near East, which have existed for several
thousands of years, show us is that a system was in place to help travelers to
assemble themselves at the meeting point after the first days travel. With this
understanding, the story of Luke 2 makes much more sense.
[1] Matthew 13:55,56; Mark 6:3 says that Jesus had “sisters” in the
plural and early Christian traditions tell us Jesus had two sisters named Mary
and Salome. The family of Jesus was 9 people, maybe more.
[2] See Mc’lintock and Strongs Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological
& Ecclesiastical Literature, vol.II pg. 243, article, ‘child,’ which refers
to Genesis 21:8, Exodus 2:7,9; I Samuel 1:22-24; II Chronicles 31:16 and
Matthew 21:16.
[3] http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/SFS/an0900.asp
[3a] 101 Bible Secrets that Christians Do Not Know (ASK Publications, Portland:OR, 1991)
[3a] 101 Bible Secrets that Christians Do Not Know (ASK Publications, Portland:OR, 1991)
[4] Horatio Hackett, Illustrations of Scripture suggested by a tour
through the Holy Land, pg. 15-16; Gould and Lincoln: 1863.
[5] Henry Maundrell: A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem: 1697, pg. 1
[6] Helon’s Pilgrimage – Helon’s Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem, vol.I, p.63.
[7] Horatio Hackett, Illustrations of Scripture pg.18.
[8] Fr. E. Hoade, Guide to the Holy Land, pgs. 656-7, 7th
ed. Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem 1974
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