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Here Are 13 Theories About The Mysterious Lost Years Of Jesus Christ
The New Testament talks about Jesus A LOT, and yet the Gospels don't say anything about what Jesus was doing between the time he was 12 and when he turned 30. But don't jump straight to a 13 Going On 30-esque conclusion. There are plenty of far more plausible theories about the lost years of Jesus.
Just like scholars have found convincing physical evidence that Jesus was a real person, there is also evidence that he may have traveled during the unknown years of Jesus, including proof of Jesus in India. He might have even gone to Britain or Japan, according to some theories. If Jesus stayed closer to home, working in the sun as a carpenter, it's even less likely that Jesus looked like a white European. Or maybe the lost years are "lost" because Jesus was breaking some Biblical rules.
Where was Jesus during the missing years? Now's your chance to vote for the most likely explanations.
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- Thomas Mirtsch
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1Jesus Spent The Years Working As A Carpenter With Joseph
The mainstream explanation for the lost years of Jesus is pretty straightforward: he spent his youth in Nazareth studying to be a carpenter with his father, Joseph, and indeed grew up to be a carpenter. This theory is the most straightforward, since sons generally practiced the same trade as their fathers. According to the customs of the time, Jesus would likely have learned the carpentry profession from his father, and when Joseph died, Jesus the would become the family's patriarch. At the age of thirty, he would have been old enough to formally begin his ministry.
And the Gospels support the theory, as in Mark 6:3 when Jesus begins teaching and people respond, "Is not this the carpenter?"
There is little proof that Jesus spent those years as a carpenter, however. Even the early Christian writer Origen argued that "Jesus himself is not described as a carpenter anywhere in the Gospels accepted by the churches."
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2Jesus Spent The Lost Years As A Family Man
When Jesus showed up at the wedding in Cana and started changing water into wine, he sure seemed to know what wedding guests want at a party. Could that be because Jesus had his own wedding during the lost years?
In The Lost Gospel, Barrie Wilson and Simcha Jacobovici argue that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children during the lost years. They base the argument on a 1,500 year-old Aramaic book found in the British Library. And it isn't the only source to suggest that Jesus was married. A fourth-century Egyptian papyrus also includes a quote from Jesus mentioning his wife.
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3John The Baptist Was Teaching Jesus During The Lost Years
Some scholars think it's unrealistic to assume that Jesus spent nearly two decades as a carpenter before becoming a religious leader. Jesus may have put in years as a disciple before gathering his own disciples. In Rabbi Jesus, Bruce Chilton argues that Jesus never went back to Nazareth after his visit to the Temple. Instead, he became a follower of John the Baptist, who trained Jesus. Chilton says, “Jesus had a rebellious, venturesome spirit. He did not become a passionate religious genius by moldering in the conventional piety of a village that barely accepted him.”
Matthew says that when Jesus asked John to baptize him, John responded, "I need to be baptized by you" rather than the reverse. Could it have been a "the teacher becomes the student" moment?
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4Jesus Spent Years Arguing With Scholars
The only Biblical mention of Jesus between his birth and his 30s comes in the story of Jesus at the Temple. When he was 12, according to Luke 2:41-52, Mary and Joseph accidentally left Jesus in Jerusalem for several days - sort of a first-century Home Alone. When they rushed back to the city, Mary and Joseph found their tween in the Temple, arguing with the teachers and giving them astonishing answers.
Jesus obviously spent a lot of his time devoting himself to learning. And even at 12, he told his parents not to be surprised that he had spent several days arguing with scholars. That episode hints that Jesus may have devoted years to scholarly pursuits before he began to collect followers.
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Jesus Broadened His Mind Traveling The Silk Road
Maybe Jesus traveled throughout the Far East before beginning his ministry. The evidence for this theory comes from a theologist and archaeologist named Nicholas Roerich. In 1887, he traveled to a Tibetan monastery in Kashmir, where he claims to have found several ancient scripts describing the arrival of Jesus in the region.
According to Roerich, Jesus traveled along the Silk Road, made his way to present day Afghanistan, headed south to India and various holy cities, and even reached Tibet. He then returned to Jerusalem through Kabul and Persia. Several other scholars would subscribe to this theory, and believe that Christ's teachings and philosophies were heavily influenced by his eastern wanderings.
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6Jesus Became A Desert Monk By The Dead Sea
In 1947, the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in the dry, arid desert southeast of Jerusalem. And the documents may contain clues about the lost years of Jesus. According to a theory that became popular in the wake of the discovery, as a young man, Jesus may have visited Qumrān, home to the monastic Essene sect. The Dead Sea scrolls represent their ancient religious texts, and there is evidence that John the Baptist, the man who baptized Jesus, may have been influenced by the sect.
If John the Baptist learned from the Essene sect, it is possible that Jesus also studied with the group. And one scroll even mentions a figure who sounds a lot like Jesus. He's called "Son of God" and "Son of the Most High."
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- Jesus’ Journey to Kashmir
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7Jesus Made Multiple Trips To India
18 years is a long time, so it's possible that Jesus traveled long distances during the lost years. One theory claims that he went all the way to India more than once. Jesus may have studied Buddhism in Kashmir, where some even claim he settled after the date of his crucifixion. At one Buddhist monastery north of Srinagar, Jesus reportedly attended a religious meeting in AD 80, years after he was supposedly crucified.
According to the theory, Jesus may have visited India to return the visit of the three Wise Men from the East. It might also explain why Jesus sent St. Thomas to India, where he was ordered to spread the Gospel.
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- Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
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8Maybe Jesus Really Was A Shepherd
In John 10:11, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd." The passage has often been interpreted as a metaphor, meant to imply the relationship between Jesus as shepherd and his followers as his flock of sheep.
However, what if Jesus meant it more literally? He might have left his father's trade of carpentry and been a shepherd for years. Life as a shepherd would have given Jesus a lot of time to think, and it would have taught him the importance of not losing any sheep.
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- James Tissot
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9The Lost Years Were Jesus's Loner Years
Jesus wasn't exactly anti-social, according to the Gospels, but by the time he became a prophet, Jesus was already in his thirties. His lost teen years might have been very different. Jesus may have spent his teenage years wandering in the desert trying to figure out what to do with his life, like the first-century equivalence of high school.
Of course, in his later years Jesus spent almost all his time with the Apostles. Maybe he surrounded himself with people to avoid the loneliness of his teenage years. Or maybe Jesus turned things around after reading Proverbs 18:1-2, "A loner is out to get what he wants for himself. He opposes all sound reasoning."
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10Jesus Went To A Tibetan Monastery
A mysterious third century manuscript described the Life of Saint Issa. He is called the Best of the Sons of Men, and he studied with yogis in India, Nepal, and Tibet. Could the manuscript be referring to Jesus? Did he train with mystics in the remote Himis monastery in Tibet?
Skeptics claim that the theory, promoted by Russian aristocrat and spy Nicolas Notovitch in 1894, is simply not true. When Notovitch first promoted the theory, the monastery even contradicted him and many decided it was a fraud. Yet the story persists, and multiple visitors to the Himis monastery claim to have seen the same manuscript.
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11Jesus May Have Visited Britain's Druids
In The Missing Years of Jesus, Dennis Prince argues that there is evidence that Jesus visited the British Isles. And the theory isn't new. Even British poet William Blake asked in verse,
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
The theory claims that Jesus traveled to Britain with his uncle, a tin trader named Joseph of Arimathaea, and decided to study with the Druids in Glastonbury. And one British tribe even minted coins bearing the name Eisu, a mysterious person who rose to prominence around 30 AD. However, there is little archaeological evidence to support the theory.
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- Florentine Codex
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12Jesus Was The "White Prophet" In The New World
Jesus might have been quite the traveler in his "lost years." One theory claims that Jesus traveled all the way to the New World. According to archaeologist L. Taylor Hansen, a "White Prophet" visited multiple Native American tribes around the time of Jesus's lost years. Legends place the "White Prophet" in Peru, Mexico, and North America.
Could the "White Prophet" have been Jesus? The legends claim that the prophet could speak a thousand languages, raise the dead, and heal the sick. Maybe Jesus was practicing in the New World before he unveiled his miracles back home in Judea.
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13A Japanese Town Claims Jesus Lived There For 12 Years
It's a long way from Nazareth, but the Japanese town of Shingo claims that Jesus visited during his lost years when he was 21. According to the theory, Jesus went to Japan to study theology. He liked it so much that he stayed for 12 years, only heading back to Judea where he ran into trouble with the Roman authorities.
But according to the Shingo theory, Jesus didn't die on the cross at all - he fled back to Shingo, where he lived until he was 106 years old. Today, Shingo calls itself Christ's Hometown, and 20,000 people visit each year to see the grave of Jesus.
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