others deliberately due to cunning and evil intentions—claim that the Holy Gospels supposedly preserve secretive silence on the subject of Christ's life between the ages of twelve (when He appeared in the Temple) and the age of thirty (when He began to preach publicly).
This allegation, of course, is totally false and unsupported. Most people make this assertion with ill intentions, hoping through such slander to somehow support and prove that Jesus Christ is not God. Unfortunately, their impetus and hidden motive is to disprove and reject the miraculous power of Christ's divinity, and thereafter to proclaim that Jesus worked His miracles aided by the knowledge and skill He supposedly acquired in India!
If, however, such people had ever read the New Testament carefully, they would realize that Jesus Christ
lived within the borders of Israel throughout His entire life, and had no need to obtain human knowledge
from others.
Let us begin by examining the words of St. Luke the Evangelist, who describes Christ at the age of twelve: “And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast...And after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers
...And His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have You done this to us? Look. Your father and I have sought You anxiously.’ And He said to them, ‘Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that it is necessary for
me to be in My Father’s dwellings?’...And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and submitted Himselfto them” (Lk. 2:41-52)
.
They who claim that the Gospels henceforth ceasedetailing Christ’s life speculate that He must have left His homeland and travelled to eastern regions where He found medicine men and shamans who taught Him how to perform sorcery and exorcisms, and then returned to His country eighteen years later with newly acquired knowledge and skills. Every earnest reader, however,will realize from the above text that Christ was not in need of travelling to India in order to acquire literacy and magical powers. Fora twelve-year old child who
has the ability and wisdom to converse with teachers in such a way as to “astonish all the listeners on account of His understanding and answers” is not a common child, but a Divine Child and Son of God. Furthermore, when responding to His mother, “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s dwellings?” Christ refers to the Temple as the home of His Father, intending with these words to reveal to everyone who was present that He is the true Son of God. Unfortunately, they “did not understand” what He said concerning His relationship with God the Father and the Temple, just as all who seek to defame Him throughout the centuries fail to understand.
