that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied
in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them,
like the days of the heavens above the earth.
Placed in a metal case and affixed to the doorpost, the mezuzah was touched by everyone entering the house. Afterwards each who touched it would kiss the finger and speak a prayer that, as promised by the psalmist, “The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and even forevermore.” Even though carried in His mother’s arms, Jesus could still reach out chubby fingers to touch the mezuzah, and it was a proud day when He could stand on tiptoes and reach the sacred metal box as He entered the house.
From the time He was able to speak, Jesus took part like all Jewish children in the daily prayers of the family and the enjoyment of the Sabbath, which was a time of rejoicing and praising the Lord. The passing of the seasons also brought the religious holidays or feasts.
Particularly enchanting for a child was the Chanukah, or Feast of Dedication, celebrated at the beginning of the winter season. Then in each house on the first day of the festival, one candle would be lighted for every member of the household, increasing by one each day until on the eighth and last evening the number was eight times that of the first. Then Nazareth blazed with light and the children moved through the streets or across the rooftops with hushed steps and eyes filled with awe to watch and pick out the houses of friends and relatives.
The Feast of Purim in the spring and the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles near the beginning of autumn were times of merrymaking and boisterous good cheer which particularly appealed to the boys. Most solemn of all was the Passover, held on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first month of the religious year. Occurring in spring, it was a time of thanksgiving for the mercy of God in passing over the firstborn of the Children of Israel in Egypt, when the angel of death had warned Pharaoh to let the people go. At this feast the youngest in the family traditionally asked why it was celebrated and, while the family gathered around to listen, the father told once again the thrilling story of how the Children of Israel had been selected by God as His very own, how the land had been promised to Abraham, and how David the king had welded the tribes into a great and prosperous nation. Religion in a Jewish home was a thing of joy, the guiding spirit of every activity.
Because the works of the heathen in any form were considered outside the Jew’s sphere of study, education was almost entirely religious in character. Almost from His first words, Jesus began to learn verses from the sacred writings, wise sayings, blessings, and benedictions used every day, and other bits of religious lore. Being a precocious child He read the Scriptures early and eagerly. Indeed, His mind could be said to resemble that of the ideal scholar described in the ancient writings, a well-plastered cistern from which not a drop of water could escape.
School met daily both morning and afternoon with a long midday recess in summer. The synagogue was used as the schoolhouse in most cases, but in larger towns there was sometimes a special building for this purpose. Presided over by the chazan, the leader of the congregation, the school was a place of strictest discipline. Children of five or six began their studies by reading the Book of Leviticus in Hebrew, first learning the letters from a board, and then learning how to form them into words. Leviticus contained the provisions of the Law which every Jew must know, hence its use as the first text. As the student grew older he learned to read from the writings of the prophets, the Torah, and the apocalyptic books, which were the most recent in origin of all the holy writings.
Not all students were taught to write but being an apt pupil, Jesus was. Ink was made from lampblack, although colored ink was sometimes used by the ostentatious. Reed quills were trimmed with a knife and used for pens. Writing could be on parchment rolls but in Israel was usually on very thin, dried skins, often split into an outer layer for rough work and an inner for more precious writings such as the mezuzah. Occasionally tablets of baked clay were used, as had been the custom in very ancient times.
II
As the years passed and Jesus grew in stature and knowledge like any other intelligent boy, the memory of the strange events which had accompanied His birth grew fainter in the minds of Mary and Joseph. They had recognized early that He was not exactly like the other boys of their household or of the village, being more studious in nature, more religious by inclination, and more tolerant and warmhearted in His love for others and His interest in them. These were qualities which all parents hoped to see in their children, however, and Mary and Joseph thanked God that Jesus showed every indication of growing up into a man who would be respected by His fellows for His piety, His kindness, and His intelligence, worthy of being a leader in the synagogue and in the community.
Jesus had long since outgrown the loving designation of taph and had become elem, meaning firm and strong. At the age of twelve He was approaching the state of naar, or youth, and in another year would take the ritual step from boyhood to young manhood by becoming bar mitzvah, literally the “Son of the Commandment.” In keeping with rabbinical law, it was customary for a boy of this age to go up with his parents to Jerusalem for the first time to attend the services in the temple, in preparation for the impressive rite of putting away his boyhood. This Mary and Joseph arranged at the season of the Passover when Jesus was twelve years of age.
Traveling to Jerusalem was a thrilling event for a boy at any time, but on the occasion of the religious festivals many others of his own age, including friends and relatives, were also going to the temple, so it was naturally an occasion of considerable excitement. The party from Nazareth left a week before the beginning of the Passover, in order not to be forced to hurry over the distance of about a hundred miles. Actually, it was as much a social occasion as a journey, with the children running ahead to see every new sight, playing games and leaving the road to explore whatever struck their fancies.
From Nazareth they skirted the Sea of Galilee and came to Tarichaea near its southern end. A much straighter route led directly southward through Samaria, but Jews and Samaritans hated each other and travel through that land made a pious Jew unclean and entailed considerable personal risk as well. From Tarichaea the road descended rapidly as it wound along the west bank of the Jordan and they soon came to Scythopolis, a Greek city about the size of Jerusalem, where they crossed over to the east side of the river. Great fields of flax grew all around the city, watered by irrigation ditches from the Jordan.
Coursing like a giant snake in its narrow valley, the Jordan dropped steadily and the climate grew hotter, the strain on the travelers greater as they moved southward. The children stayed close to the others now and made frequent visits to the waterskins. No rain ordinarily fell at this season, so the travelers were quite comfortable sleeping in the open. All along the river were fig trees and date palms and broad fields of wheat and flax, flourishing in spite of the heat because of the plentitude of water from the Jordan. At the fords opposite Jericho, the travelers recrossed the river and set out on the last stage of the journey to the Holy City.
The climb from the deep rift in which the Jordan flowed to the high elevation of the hilly country around Jerusalem was laborious and the whole group traveled close together with grim-faced men bearing clubs guarding the flanks, since this area was heavily infested with robbers who preyed on travelers going to and from the Holy City. It was worth the discomfort, the thirst, and the aching feet bruised by the rocky road, however, when finally they climbed the steep incline of the Mount of Olives and saw Jerusalem lying across the Kedron Valley, with the roof of the temple shining in the sunlight like purest gold and the black smoke from the altars of sacrifice curling upward into the afternoon sky. No Jew could fail to be moved by this sight, for here was the center of his faith, a golden monument to the glory of his God.
The pilgrims from Galilee did not go into Jerusalem on the day of their arrival
but busied themselves selecting a campsite and setting up their tents on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. The Passover was the most sacred of all the Jewish religious festivals and more people came to it than to any other, so that space for camping was at a premium. In fact they had left early partly to find a place near enough to the city so they could come and go daily.
Jesus helped set up the camp but His eyes were constantly drawn to the beautiful city and particularly toward the temple, the place holiest in all the world to the worship of the Most High. As darkness began to fall and lights winked into flame across the narrow Kedron Valley to the west, while hundreds of campfires began to glow on the hillsides surrounding Him, Jesus’ heart was filled with thanksgiving to the God to whose commandments and service He would soon be dedicated in the ceremony of bar mitzvah.
Seeing the glow of wonder and adoration in Jesus’ eyes, Mary was happy, too. But as she looked across to where the massive stadium built by Herod the Great loomed, she could not help being reminded of another occasion when the angel had appeared to Joseph in a dream with the warning: “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” Remembering the desperate flight southward from Bethlehem, she could not repress a shiver of fear.
III
By rising before dawn, the visitors from Nazareth were able to squeeze themselves into a synagogue inside the city. When the service there was ended, Joseph took Jesus into the temple with him, while Mary went on to the Court of Women where she could see without encroaching upon the area from which women were barred.
The men of Nazareth had joined together, as was allowed by the Law, to purchase a lamb for the sacrifice. When the blast of a trumpet and the singing of the Levites, who were the lay assistants to the priests, announced the beginning of the sacrifices for the day, one of them hurried to the Gate of the Sheepfold at the northern sector of the terrace to claim his purchase.
The lamb obtained, the leader of the Nazareth delegation pushed through the Gate of the Sheepfold into the Court of Israel and the Place of Slaughter. Each placing his hands upon a lamb, thereby laying his sins upon it, the twenty men allowed to sacrifice at one time threw the animals to the floor and quickly cut their throats while the priests gathered the blood in bowls of gold and silver and dashed it against the base of the altar from which it drained away through openings in the floor. The dead lambs were quickly dressed and the fat removed and burned on the altar of sacrifice. As the Levites sang the hallel, the hymn of praise and thanksgiving, the carcasses of the animals were carried off by their buyers to be cooked and eaten at the paschal feast that evening.
All this Jesus watched with wide-eyed interest, but when it was over He did not go with the other boys to the booths where the animals for sacrifice were sold with much excited haggling over prices, or to the tables where the money-changers argued over the value of foreign coins. Instead, He hurried to the Porch of Solomon where the teachers sat, each with his back against a column, in the midst of a small circle of his disciples and students. Around them the crowds came and went, pausing to listen or ask a question before going on to hear what subjects were being discussed by other teachers who held forth here, especially during the festival season, interpreting the Law, in which they claimed to be expert. To a studious boy, this was the most exciting of the temple activities, and Jesus reluctantly left the Porch of Solomon when Joseph called to Him that they must return to the Mount of Olives so that the lamb could be prepared for the Passover feast.
At the camp on the hillside there was much bustling back and forth. While Joseph and several of the men from Nazareth dug a pit and built a fire to obtain a hot bed of coals, others prepared the lamb which had been slaughtered in the sacrifice. Early in the afternoon it was spitted upon a wooden stake, care being taken not to break any bones, and placed over the coals. The children took turns in rotating the spit so that the lamb would cook evenly, while the women prepared the unleavened cakes and dates and raisins mixed in vinegar which were an important part of the paschal meal. Meanwhile the children were rounded up and dressed in their best clothes, as were the adults, in preparation for the feast.
As darkness fell, the gleam of hundreds of cooking fires shone on the hillsides where paschal offerings were being prepared and the aroma of roasting flesh pervaded the entire area. When it was time for the ceremony to begin, each family gathered in its own tent, while the men distributed the meat of the lamb according to the number who would eat and the women arranged the children in a group around the improvised table upon which the food was placed.
In the tent of Jesus’ family the ceremony was opened by sipping a cup of wine which Joseph blessed, followed by a ceremonial washing of the hands as all spoke a prayer together. Next each ate a small amount of the bitter herbs and vinegar mixed with raisins and dates, symbolic of the clay from which Israelites had been forced to make bricks while slaves in Egypt. Now, according to custom, the youngest child asked the reason for the feast and Joseph answered with the well-known story of how the Israelites had been spared while the firstborn of Egypt were struck down. Only when this traditional tale had been told did they turn to roasted flesh of the lamb and the unleavened cakes that were the main courses of the feast.
Many of the children were asleep in the tents before the ceremony ended, just before midnight, with the singing of the beautiful hallel:
Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!
As He stood alone to one side of the group, Jesus’ heart swelled with pride and His eyes shone when He looked out across the glowing campfires to the great shadow of the temple.
IV
While they were camped on the Mount of Olives, Jesus visited the temple every day, spending most of the time listening to the rabbis who taught there. Knowing His studious nature and His deep-seated love of God and religious worship, Joseph and Mary had not been surprised. But when they left Jerusalem early one morning in the group returning to Nazareth and other cities of Galilee, it did not occur to them that He was not among the boys who raced ahead, eager to be on the way.
The end of the first day’s journey brought them almost to Jericho, but Joseph and Mary did not begin to worry until Jesus failed to appear for the evening meal, which He would hardly have missed without obtaining their permission. They started looking for Him then but the camp was large; the Galileans were devout people and many came each year to Jerusalem for the Passover. It was late that evening before Joseph and Mary could be sure Jesus was not with them.
Knowing how heavily infested the area was with brigands, they were much disturbed by His absence, but reason told them robbers would hardly take a boy of twelve, especially one whose parents were not wealthy enough to pay a ransom of any size. A more likely presumption was that He had somehow failed to leave Jerusalem with them; acting upon it, they returned to the city the next day and began to search for Him.
Jerusalem was a large city in which to find a boy of twelve, and at first their efforts were fruitless. Mary could not see how the threat of Herod, which had sent them into Egypt, could hang over Jesus now, for Herod was dead and none of his offspring ruled here. Yet she could not help feeling that the two happenings were somehow closely allied. The strange events which had accompanied Jesus’ birth came back to her now with renewed force and, as she and Joseph continued their efforts without avail, she was seized with more and more dread.
Distraught and almost convinced that Jesus had been destroyed for reasons which they could not at the moment understand, Joseph and Mary came finally to the temple on the afternoon of the third day of their search. And there they found Him where, had fear not distorted their thinking, they would have known He would be—listening to the doctors of Law.
Members o
f the Great Sanhedrin sat ordinarily as a court of law from the close of the morning sacrifice until the beginning of the evening ceremony. At this time they heard cases and pronounced sentence or settled civil disputes. On the Sabbath and on feast days, however, it was their custom to appear upon the terrace of the temple to teach and expound the Law to any who listened. Since this was not done on the first and holiest days of the Passover ceremony, but only on the moed katon, the minor festive days between the second and final days of the paschal season, they had not been teaching during the first days of Jesus’ stay but only on the day before Joseph and Mary had departed with the Galilean group for the homeward journey. Crowds always thronged the terrace to hear them then, for complete liberty of questioning was allowed, even from boys of Jesus’ age. It was this magnet, irresistible to a boy of His interest and concern with religious affairs that had drawn Jesus back to hear those considered to be among the finest minds in all of Israel.
“Son, why have you dealt with us thus?” Mary asked reproachfully when they found Him.
Jesus had been listening to a teacher, one of the principal followers of the great Shammai. When He turned to look at her, it was for a moment as if she were a stranger and He were seeing her for the first time.
“Why did you seek Me?” He asked, as if genuinely surprised that they should do so. “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
Neither Joseph nor Mary understood what He meant but they did not question Him concerning it; their relief at finding Him was too great for further reproof. As soon as they told Him how they had searched in the camp and had returned to Jerusalem, Jesus went with them willingly.
Mary, who was closer to Him than any others of the family, recognized that Jesus was changed after the visit to Jerusalem. There seemed to be a new purpose in His studies, an eagerness for knowledge that could hardly be satiated. But since sons almost always took up the occupation of their father, Jesus now began to work in the carpenter shop more actively, under Joseph’s quiet direction. There was much to learn here too, and He devoted Himself to it with all the intensity that He put into everything He did.
The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ Page 7