ELEMENTS OF CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD

ELEMENTS OF CHRIST'S CHILDHOOD

Interestingly, other elements of Christ’s childhood would be normal in a Jewish home but very atypical to Gentiles. Certainly Jesus was reared according to Jewish law and tradition. Joseph took a primary role in His religious upbringing. Jesus read Scripture by the time He was five. At six He probably attended the school of the local rabbi. While still quite young, Christ began memorizing lengthy Scripture passages. At age ten He would have begun training in the oral law. Long before Christ turned twelve, He would have been reciting certain prayers as He arose in the morning, other prayers when He ate and dressed, and still others when He crawled into bed in the evening.

Jesus was a little boy, a human little boy, with a little boy’s childhood. But consider what made His childhood unique—the “otherness” of Christ. One of Mary and Joseph’s children was God incarnate. The rest were not.