The Childhood of Jesus
The Gospel of James
Biographical Gospel of the Lord
- Chapter 298 -
Twelve-Year-Old Jesus Journeys To The Temple
FROM that time onward Jesus withdrew Himself and worked no more open wonders until the time of the marriage at Cana in Galilee.
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Only in His twelfth year the Boy Jesus, when He came to Jerusalem for the first time during the holidays as told in the Gospel, worked a wonder among the scholars in the temple through His wisdom.
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Which wonder I, James, since I was not present, had the Lord describe to me only later, which briefly told was as follows:
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In the great crowd Joseph and Mary lost sight of Jesus in the temple and supposed, since He was not with them, that He would surely have traveled homeward with Salome or other relatives and friends.
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And thus they both went after the Nazarene caravan and caught up with it only that evening at the inn between Nazareth and Jerusalem.
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But since they did not find Jesus there, they became very sad, took a few companions and went back to Jerusalem during the night.
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Arrived there, Joseph promptly went to the prefect Cornelius, who at that time still governed in Jerusalem.
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Joseph informed Cornelius, who came to meet him in a most friendly manner, what had taken place,
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and the latter promptly gave Joseph a Roman guard, with which Joseph was permitted to search through all the houses.
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Thus Joseph rummaged through nearly all of Jerusalem and still did not find Jesus, after a search that lasted for three days.
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At this both became very much afraid; they sadly returned the guard to Cornelius and would not let themselves be comforted by him.
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And since the time was already very late in the afternoon, Cornelius wanted them to remain with him.
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But Joseph said, 'Oh noble friend, I will of course stay with you this night; but first I must go up to the temple and there make an offering to the Lord God from and in my sad heart.'
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At this Cornelius let Joseph and Mary go up into the temple.
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And behold, there they found Jesus sitting among the learned elders, as He questioned them, taught them and gave them such answers to their questions that all were greatly amazed thereat;
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for He taught them the obscure passages from the prophets, taught them about the stars, about their courses, about their fundamental light, about their second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh light.
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Thus He also described to them the nature of the worlds and showed them the physical, psychic and spiritual correlation of all things,
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and established the immortality of the soul to them in such an unprecedented manner, that all said thereto,
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'Truly, this has never been heard before! A Boy of twelve is wiser in one finger than all of us together!'
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At this Joseph and Mary went over to Jesus and said to Him,
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'But how could You do this to us? See, we have searched for You in great anguish for three days and could not find You!'
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Here Jesus said, 'Why did you do that? (Namely the search outside of the temple with the aid of the soldiers).
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Had you never heard of My Father's house, and that I had to do therein what concerned My Father?'
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And neither of them understood these words; but Jesus willingly followed them home at once, after He had first stayed with them that night at the home of Cornelius.
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And the learned men praised Mary happy beyond measure, in that she had such a Child.
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From this time onward Jesus withdrew himself altogether and worked no more wonders before men until his thirtieth year, and lived and worked like any other human being.