Unknown years of Jesus

Uncommon card · No. 134084

The unknown years of Jesus (also called his silent years, lost years, or missing years) generally refers to the period of Jesus's life between the accounts of his childhood and his baptism, for which the canonical gospels provide no detailed narrative. The Gospel of Luke relates an episode involving Jesus at the age of twelve and later states that he was “about thirty years old” when he began his ministry. The gospels provide no continuous account of the intervening period. Mark 6:3 describes Jesus as ho tektōn, while Matthew 13:55 refers to him as “the carpenter's son”. The Greek term tektōn had a broader semantic range than the modern English word “carpenter” and could denote a woodworker, artisan or builder. Scholars have therefore often inferred that Jesus practised a manual trade in Galilee before his public ministry, but the sources do not establish the precise materials he worked with, where he worked, or that he worked alongside Joseph throughout this period. From the late nineteenth...

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