by Mad Sweeney 49 Replies latest watchtower bible
I'm thinking he traveled east and learned the wisdom of the Orient. No way the Watchtower line about him being a carpenter's assistant all that time is possibly true. He was way too learned about the ways of people to not have been educated and his ideas seem very eastern to me.
Anyone got any good books, articles, blogs, websites on the topic?
An interesting debate...I've often wondered...sorry no research done.
Loz x
Well, an author could pretty much write anything they wanted about this, couldn't they?
Sort of like writing about the adolescent adventures of the young Sherlock Holmes -
I think it's the (Jewish?) traditional view that Jesus was a carpenter, but the word in the original text just means 'craftsman' which could be anything, including a teacher.
Burton L. Mack's 'Who wrote the new testament' contains a lot of theories about Jesus, including the idea that Jesus may have been a Cynic, which seems possible considering the contents of the Gospel of Thomas.
I heard he was a camel racer for a while.
Likely he used much of the time practicing miracles ... turning water into wine, healing people, etc.
We only ready about him after he turned 30.
By that time, he had all the bugs worked out and could perform the miracles easily.
Rub a Dub
With the current trend toward eastern mystical religions, some have
tried to link Jesus by filling in the scriptural void of his youth. But
it is quite evident that Jesus grew up in a Jewish household and
followed the Mosaic law of his day. His knowledge of the Jewish
beliefs, good and bad, is easily read in the New Testament.
The lack of eastern influence is also quite clear. When Matthew
noted that his contemporaries were "amazed at his teaching,
because he taught as one who had authority and not as their
teachers of law" (7:28,29) it was in the context of the preceding
material based upon Scripture.
Well, we know he wasn't pioneering where the need was greater...................cause he wasn't baptized yet!
Doesn't the WTS believe he was spending that time pioneering door to door handing out scrolls?
