The Missing Years of Jesus

The Missing Years of Jesus

2011, Religion  -   298 Comments
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Ratings: 6.47/10 from 87 users.

The Missing Years of JesusIt is one of the greatest mysteries of all time: the whereabouts of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30.

There is a blank space in the record that covers eighteen years in the life of Christ (from age 12 to 30). Other than the generic allusion that Jesus advanced in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52), the Bible gives nothing more about Jesus' life during this time span.

A common assumption amongst Christians is that Jesus simply lived in Nazareth during that period, but there are various accounts that present other scenarios, including travels to India.

Today, scholars are forming a clearer picture of his life by re-examining stories in the New Testament gospels and connecting them with new archeological discoveries.

A narrative rich in details and subtle clues begins to emerge. Go back to Nazareth in 6 A.D. to learn more about the blue-collar village, its oppressed inhabitants and abusive Roman rulers to see how it shaped Jesus personality and beliefs.

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Damali
Damali
2 years ago

yes it's true Jesus went to India but left when he was 30 years because He was teaching everybody which anoyed the elders.

Richard roy Blake
Richard roy Blake
3 years ago

On Grail Christianity" discusses the legends and traditions of Christians not only in the west of England and Ireland, but in such far flung locales as Lebanon that during the missing years Christ traveled at least once and possibly twice to Britain on Phoenician ships owned by his great uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph was known as the "tin man" as his interest in England was to trade with the miners of the Mendip hills. Following the Passion Joseph is said to have returned to Britain with the Holy Grail.

J Miller
J Miller
5 years ago

I've been missing for at least that long.

luis
luis
5 years ago

as always. these history channel documentaries, too much bla bla bla and no answers.....
all that time of personal opinion just to say that in 1893 there was a book , that they did not even know the name for it, to just say he was in india. what a waste of time..

it should not be called documentary, but simply a personal commentary show.

Lucille Robinson
Lucille Robinson
6 years ago

I was once a sceptic, Is this Jesus real? YES, HE IS. I learned how real He is because on July 4th, 1991, I called on God to help me. I started in a church that observed the LAW, 10 commandments for 2 ½ years. I left that church and God sent a friend I knew in the world that is now a pastor. I’ve known him for over 25 years. He said God told me to come to you. The Pastor told me I am born again, I am no longer under the law, I am under the grace of God. I was filled with the holy spirit and Jesus spoke to me and told me I did not want you to live the way I had lived, selling drugs. Immediately, I hated the devil. The word of God, the bible came alive. Every word became real and I saw Jesus. He turned my life around. I serve HIM with all my heart soul ad mind. So, this is for all you sceptics out there, He is real. He walked on this earth, he was 100% God and 100% man. He is coming back and trust me HELL is REAL also. And God is running hell as well as heaven. Please don’t think you’re going to hell running anything. Scripture tells us… Psalm 139:8 If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. So, if you continue to deny Jesus and make your bed in hell, I pray for you because to live in torment forever and ever and ever and ever will be a horrible way to live all eternity forever…….

Robert Jones
Robert Jones
7 years ago

The reason the boy Jesus gave this response to his mother Mary, after she asked her son, what was you're intention of not informing us ( his parents, Joseph and Mary, ) of his leaving them, to go to wherever God sends him as a child ( Jeremiah 1:7 ) into the distant lands with the traveling merchants who makes their return to the shores of Jerusalem once every three years, ( 2 Chronicles 9:21 ) without letting his parents know what he was not to tell no one, including them, his siblings, the priests, the officials, nor the king: Mary said, to a now, 29 year old Jesus, your father and I turned our heads to talk to you and we notice you were gone. So we began looking around for you son, we thought you might have been for a moment with the caravan traveling merchants. we went to see if we could locate you among you're relatives and friends but could not find you, and that's you're father and I became worried. Jesus said to his parents, The reason my Parents did not find me is because my parents were not to know what God has put in my heart to do. I had a requirement to keep. No one was to know of my whereabouts except God. He said to me, do not be afraid to leave you're family while being a child. He said to me, I am to go to all the places that he sends me as Jeremiah did when he was a child. I read of what Jeremiah did as a child, he left from his family too. waiting in the desert in that lodging area where the travelers be. I was there waiting on the caravan merchants so that I can leave. Then i left. I knew that after I read of Jeremiah while he was young, he began a journey to all the places, coming and going through out the countries, to learn from the great wise men, i had to take leave. I couldn't do what Samson did and tell you what God put in my heart. I was not to tell no one of my Fathers private affairs. This secret i have is not to be made known. Lol

Leonore Hauser
Leonore Hauser
7 years ago

Read some of these comments and it was hard just keeping up with all the "politics". I don't have a profound theological, intellectual or historical point to make and I haven't seen this ( I was looking for another documentary) but I do have simple factual and true insight that can never be debunked: I never believed Jesus really existed and sought out to intellectually and historically discover him. I read books and wasn't convinced. I was also a functioning opiod addict and so in my ignorance I called out Jesus on his legendary ability to perform miracles. I said " If you are Almighty, take this from me!" I awoke one morning 13 yrs ago and the addiction was gone. I was freaked out. It has never returned. I was searching for intellectual evidence and I received that which transcends our limited human reaches. I know that I know Jesus existed and that is why I don't have an argument. I am living the reality of who he is in my life. I was a borderline aethiest and I say that because I was curious about the historical (not spiritual) Jesus. Today , his undeniable presence (that is a real presence making itself known within me) in the form of the Holy Spirit constantly reminds me he not only existed but remains very much alive in me......sounds like magic or something far fetched and mythical to any of you? I don't blame you it sounded like rubbish to me too until I called Jesus out and here I am without an argument just wide eyed wonder and gratitude.

Jerry Campbell
Jerry Campbell
7 years ago

He just led a normal life because if i am not mistaken his entry on the donkey into Jerusalem was prophesied to occur on a specific day.If he was doing supernatural things in his youth it may have effected prophesyThe bible has a tendency to include only essential information. We've already have a zillion denominatios just from the information we have already.

chriistopher keogh
chriistopher keogh
7 years ago

what i don't get about religion is the god who created everything so we are told ,so why does a god so powerful and a christian god at that need us ,Why would the most powerful god of them all need puny humans to worship him in fact why would he need to create a earth planet with us on it.plain common sense tells me that the whole story about all of creation is based on fantasy and lies either we humans are very important or irrelevant, whatever that truth of all of this story i believe we will pay dearly we are pawns for how f***ed up all of this creation business is

Shrike
Shrike
8 years ago

Nazareth simply did not exist in 6 AD.

Alex
Alex
10 years ago

So what exactly do you all believe in if not in Jesus, what could possible be logical and factual enough to say otherwise...gentlemen any thoughts on your beliefs?

The reason I ask most of the comments have nothing to do with the video shown but assumptions for the sake of arguments. Maybe out of hatred towards Christianity. Granted most Christians are not truly followers of christ, but rather following the masses, in acceptance. Just a thought for you. Kind of like "I see you do it and I want the same." Youngsters point of view to celebrities?...

Now about this video, it seems to be a buyable assumption ever more so than Jesus going to India. But then again an assumption not based on actuality, nor because national geographic says so. The "actual" life of Jesus nobody really knows, well except the people of his time, and the people that lived with him. I do have to say in the studies of that time every jewish boy had to learn Leviticus at a very young age. And studied in communal oral studies, due to the fact there were not very many scrolls running around with the scriptures in them, house churches they were called. So to say Jewish people were illiterate, I don't know about that statement...Anyway Jesus did become a Rabbi, hence why the masses called him "rabbi" or "teacher"... Point being Jewish history is not simple just as any other history, and to try to depict a persons life with assumptions is just bizarre thinking. But I guess some people have nothing better else to do but try to disprove something to get some recognition or acceptance.

Bodi
Bodi
10 years ago

Bottom line is whether or not he existed, as of right now, Jesus is not alive, but if you believe in G-d why not just cut out the middle man and go straight to the source??? We all have the potential to be like Jesus so why not own our holyness and stop looking elsewhere for validation?

jacquie54
jacquie54
11 years ago

It was and still is Jewish law that all Jewish boys read the Torah. To say that most Jews during the time of Jesus were illiterate is just IGNORANT! The Jews were and are still known as the People of the Book. How can you have such ignorant "experts" on your National Geographic video saying such ignorant things? You must not have had any Jews working on this video, since any Jew would know that.

Christians, also, should know this since it is specifically mentioned in the New Testament by Paul when he wrote back to the Christans in Jerusalem.

eric dockstader
eric dockstader
11 years ago

I guess none of those good historians would have agreed to do the film if they had used his real name. Jesus Christ is not something you name a baby especially when he wasnt found to be the "anointed one" till later in life. The whole documentary is about him yet they never use his birth name Joshua Benhur. I think it would have been a better doc if they talked about that instead of the relationship with his mother etc

Donald Muhammad
Donald Muhammad
11 years ago

when are we going to stop depicting Jesus as caucasian? Some will reply; "What difference does it make?" It seems to make a BIG difference to those that keep misleading others...

John Patton
John Patton
11 years ago

The control motivations of the church, and the majority of religions for that matter, seem plainly obvious but I do believe Jesus lived, as did Buddah and other spiritual leaders, and that he was a gifted messenger, a guru, a shaman, a messiah for his time - regardless of the misuse of his story by people leading organized religion.

Bou
Bou
11 years ago

Jesus Christ is made up story by Roman Catholic Church for social political control.

Chris Avera
Chris Avera
11 years ago

so Jesus got mad at the Jews and come up with a plan to start his own religion because he thought it would be the only way to change things

Mookleong
Mookleong
11 years ago

So much to argue and endless claim about Jesus and Bible . Always make me wonder why the earlier christian never build something like pyramid or something big and massive that house all their story in rock carving ,can withstood the test of time for all of us to wonder in awe . The Egyptian , Sumerian ,Mayan , Aztec , Buddhist and Hindu all did it well with rock or writing that is there for us to read .

thirt13n
thirt13n
11 years ago

I hear the voices in which the words make no sence.
Rain water eventually turns grape seeds into wine. The sun appears walking on water at the end of the day on a lake. You were killed if you didn't buy into the enslaving God belief, void of logic.

Smeatfree
Smeatfree
11 years ago

Jesus was just another Jew killed by the Romans (encouraged by the Jewish heirachy). There were thousands of them, he is just another one. The whole virgin birth thing was stolen from other religions as were many other Christian myths in the Bible, such as the resurrection.
Religion is unfortunately a human invention that humans have evolved to need. It is a bit like smoking, the first smokes get you addicted (offer the devil) and the later ones quell the craving (offer salvation).
An atheist doing a good turn is doing it for free, a Christian is doing it for a ticket to heaven (also known as greed).

John-Christopher Di Meglio
John-Christopher Di Meglio
11 years ago

Actually, that's DiMeglio.
Both extremes are based in repulsive psychology - no doubt majorly sociopathic - even psychopathic. Eventually we will see each other and know - perhaps forcing some reform. Meanwhile a rational analysis will demonstrate that both social camps are based in personal power (growing proselytes) rather than about the subject matter and its resolution. In short, myth believer and myth believer both - you are the pigs that the Pearls are cast before, that will trample them and kill the messenger - which is central to the issue of dominance and the mission of evolution imo. To the rest of you, it is vital that you commit to a unified analysis of the universal natural intelligence system. And that is going to have to migrate away from the pandemoniacal.

richin k
richin k
11 years ago

Every religion is a fiction, just to keep human beings disciplined and all these r just fairy tales but there is something supernatural. I dunno y ppl havent figured out yet and start chasing something which doesnt exist and make up crap

Tears on the Equator
Tears on the Equator
11 years ago

Mr.Tallen, the Philokalia, My life In Christ by St.John Kronstadt, Unseen Warfare, the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St John Klimacos --there is much to read.

lakhotason
lakhotason
11 years ago

The news has a report on a piece of parchment that has just been verified as authentic. Although the scrap is only the size of a business card it is being referred to as "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife". Written by Coptics in approx. 150CE, Jesus is quoted as saying "My wife...."

This information came from the Harvard Divinity School website.

Mike Laing
Mike Laing
11 years ago

"and don't try to pretend that you do; I and anybody reading your posts know that you don't, that you don't want to and that you'd rather lie about it."

You don't speak for anyone else, and certainly not me. I think you are the misinformed one here. As far as I know, theological historians are not even relevant anymore, but that is beside my point.
One of the surest signs of BS is someone that claims that they are an authority on matters, and that others are not. Read up on logical fallacies. I don't even believe you are not a christian.

dmxi
dmxi
11 years ago

cleverly observed........i question the scholarship!it is as self-centered as you-know-who...!you choose to believe there was a historical jesus but deny his actions credited to him. so,what made him special to survive mythically or in folklore?where is the sense in that,in your opinion?

dmxi
dmxi
11 years ago

"jesus wept for christs sake !"

hisxmark
hisxmark
11 years ago

What's next? "The Missing Years of Goldilocks?"

David Torres
David Torres
11 years ago

Mark emulated (aemulatio) Homer's Odyssey to create the life of Jesus. Mark also had other sources and many other characters where he borrowed from. There is no information about Jesus missing years because it is a myth. Mark didn't know Hebrew he knew Greek and he was a great writter and so he had access to Greek literature. Mark created the life of Jesus and Mark's gospel was used to create the other gospels. There is no historical Jesus. The early christians (gnostics) manipulated and still manipulate information to make christianity more believable.

Bill Harwood
Bill Harwood
11 years ago

logic and eality applied to a great jistorym nuch jore compellijhg than the eother stories,l Touching on his heritage and other mysteries,.

Helmer2
Helmer2
11 years ago

All we actually can know about the historical Joshua/Jesus is this note from Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews - Book XVIII - Chapter IV - Verse I: "BUT the nation of the Samaritans did not escape without tumults. The man who excited them to it was one who thought lying a thing of little consequence, and who contrived every thing so that the multitude might be pleased; so he bid them to get together upon Mount Gerizzim, which is by them looked upon as the most holy of all mountains, and assured them, that when they were come thither, he would show them those sacred vessels which were laid under that place, because Moses put them there (12) So they came thither armed, and thought the discourse of the man probable; and as they abode at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they got the rest together to them, and desired to go up the mountain in a great multitude together; but Pilate prevented their going up, by seizing upon file roads with a great band of horsemen and foot-men, who fell upon those that were gotten together in the village; and when it came to an action, some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great many alive, the principal of which, and also the most potent of those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain."

Marion Hubbard
Marion Hubbard
11 years ago

Jesus' teachings were basically Buddhist teachings about meditation and enlightenment. The language he used can be understood in this context '... the kingdom of heaven is at hand" etc. In the 'missing years' he was in India.His name was Issa. He returned to India after the so-called 'resurrection'.

poohoo
poohoo
11 years ago

I think Jesus was a Palestinian Time Traveller Magician Jew

Pythus
Pythus
11 years ago

something about the narration makes this so boooooring

Grant Butler
Grant Butler
11 years ago

Jesus wasn't real, it's missing because they never wrote this part of the story, just people making up more crap to fill in the gaps.

poohoo
poohoo
11 years ago

I'm confused. Was Jesus a Palestinian Jew?

Michael Veys
Michael Veys
11 years ago

all this polarizing egoic mind stuff and chatter....this is the bane of the world...consider finding what unites you...not what divides you...life a rightousness life and finish your sojourn on earth as a legacy of love!

kris sto
kris sto
11 years ago

Jesus story is my favorite fairy tale!

Javier agudelo
Javier agudelo
11 years ago

The missing years of Jesus are fully detailed in the "Urantia Book", for those that want to know more about the missing years of Jesus this is the book to read....

Javier agudelo
Javier agudelo
11 years ago

Thank you soooooo much for the best web site in the wholw World Wide Web

jda

james jones
james jones
11 years ago

this is NOT objective. this is NOT worth the time. this, in fact, is produced by agenda-driven liars with very few scruples. if you watch this and take it seriously, i defy you to research any particular tidbit that the producers felt important enough to repeat 3x.

that's a falsity, your honor....
--ordell roby
--really, is it an untruthitude?
--judge judy
roger that.

Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones
11 years ago

The bible is a very misunderstood beast and most of it is in code. It tells you over and over again that certain passages are for "those with eyes that see and ears that hear" Whenever you see that phrase you are about to enter the land of parable and metaphor and without the code you are lost. I highly recommend an extensive knowledge of the dead sea scrolls and the assorted apocrypha before attempting to decode it. The DSS's clearly explain the codes. Certain names like Marry and Joseph are in fact titles of office for instance. Ever wondered why a Joseph is always the head of the household for instance? Even Angelic names refer to official positions within the temporal temple hierarchy. When Marry is visited by the Angel Gabriel she is in fact receiving a specific human visitor from the Jerusalem or Kumran temple (depends on the interpretation).

ulickmcgee
ulickmcgee
11 years ago

religion is the cause of all wars.

Jarkko Toivonen
Jarkko Toivonen
11 years ago

another religious fairytale..

Common_J
Common_J
11 years ago

Religion, used to instill hope in desperate times.
self relief that bad things don't happen to good people for no reason.
insures cooperation of a society to be moral and unified

Reply with more interesting descriptions or reasons why religion was created.

Common_J
Common_J
11 years ago

no god, everyone should read about the Egyptian myth Horus, and the many other similar figures in history...i guess Jesus Christ has a nice enough ring to it, that his name stuck.

slpsa
slpsa
11 years ago

I would rather drive roofing nails into my skull than watch this. Serious.
{nods}

RickRayFSM
RickRayFSM
11 years ago

Why would god hide his son to the populace for 18 yrs. Read between the lines!

Kateye70
Kateye70
11 years ago

As far as I'm concerned, there's a decent probability that some ascetic Jew of the appropriate time period managed to inspire enough people that a small cult developed around him.

I'd be interested in pursuing further exactly what prompted the cult to develop over a couple of hundred years into the religion that Constantine decided to capitalize on.

It's scary to think what might happen in a couple of hundred years with scientology. And we *know* that 'religion' was dreamed up by a sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard.