JESUS , THE RABBI

The Gospels give us scant information about Jesus before his journey to Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptizer, but the information that we do have which is derived from the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Luke give us some clues that Jesus perhaps was more educated and not as impoverished as we have been led to believe.   What I am about to say is pure speculation based on very scant information, but it is speculation that I feel is worth some consideration. 

If we are to understand how Jesus was able to attract a following and debated with Jewish scholars, we need to move beyond the idea that Jesus knew everything simply because he was God's only-begotten son from all eternity.   That idea would not have had any weight with those to whom Jesus was preaching to, but something about Jesus did attract not only the sick and poor, but the scribes (Jewish legal experts) and the Pharisees to Jesus.  Jesus was a human being just like us, and just like us the knowledge that Jesus possessed had been handed down him by those who taught him.  

According to the Gospels, Jesus was frequently called "Rabbi" when addressed by scribes and Pharisees.  The Gospels portray Jesus as being able to read and write, something most of his disciples would not have been able to do.  Reading and writing means that Jesus has some formal education.   After all he was invited to read from the prophet Isaiah at his hometown synagogue.  The leaders of the synagogue knew that he was educated; that he may have been trained, had been in training as a scribe, or even ordained as a rabbi. To suggest that he simply knew how to read and write because he was the Son of God borders on absurdity.  

The term rabbi is often portrayed by Christian preachers as a respectful term given to anyone who was a teacher of some kind.  While there may be some truth in that, the likelihood is that Jesus being recognized as a rabbi is simply due to his being one, as evidenced by the fact that in the Gospels he was addressed  as such throughout his ministry by the scribes and Pharisees who knew him or knew of him.  What also supports this speculation is Jesus' use of parables as a primary teaching tool to engage his audience in thinking about his message.  Storytelling is an art form that most rabbis utilized then and now.  Jesus was a master story-teller.

An educated Jesus begs the question, who his teachers were.   In particular, where did he obtain his particular understanding of the Torah and the Prophets?  

The Synoptic Gospels significantly records that Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum at the start of his prophetic ministry.   Unlike Nazareth which was rather remote, Capernaum was a thriving community that boasted two synagogues and was located on various trade routes.  Capernaum became Jesus' home-base for his prophetic ministry and its attraction may be due to Jesus' familiarity with it.

Having two synagogues, Capernaum was likely an educational center where Jesus could have received  at least some rabbinical training.  Trade routes converged in Capernaum, which exposed its residents to the outside world and new ideas like all cosmopolitan environments.  Jesus choice of living in such an environment lends itself to the notion that Jesus was a seeker of knowledge who was open to the universal and perennial wisdom found throughout the world that can be traced in some of his teachings; as in Luke 11:34 where Jesus talks about the singular eye filling the whole body with light, a concept associated with  the Far East and not found elsewhere in the scriptures.

Regarding Jesus' early education, one is drawn to the intriguing story found in Matthew of Joseph taking his family to Egypt to protect Jesus from King Herod.   While this story is not corroborated by the other Gospels, there is a strong possibility that the story is correct since trouble was brewing in Galilee around the time of Jesus' birth as a zealot by the name of Judas of Gamala who was encouraging people not to pay Roman taxes. There was a significant Jewish population living in Egypt, particularly in the city of Alexandria.  Had Jospeh taken his family to Egypt,  they would have likely settled in Alexandria where there was a notable Jewish community.   

Regarding their return to Galilee, the only information is given that when they heard Herod had died and was replaced by one of his sons they decided to move back.  How long they stayed in Egypt is unknown.  Jesus could have been approaching his teenage years by the time the family returned.  If so,  a young Jesus could have been encountered or have been taught by someone like the Jewish philosopher Philo or one of his students.  Many scholars have noted the similarities between the teachings of these two men. If nothing else, Jesus might have been familiar with Philo's views  or influenced by sages (wise men) who traveled the trade routes from the East passing through Capernaum.

We know from the Gospel of Luke that by the time Jesus was twelve and on the cusp of being declared a son of the law in his bar mitzvah at age thirteen, he was taken to the Temple by his parent.  The Jewish Talmud records a tradition that during the Second Temple period (the time in which this story took place) it was customary for families to take their first born sons to the Temple, particularly on the Feast of Passover, to do their first fast recalling of the 10th plague of the Exodus story in which the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain.  After such a fast, the firstborn son would be taken to the Temple to be blessed by the sages. [See Exodus 13].  Jesus is depicted in Luke as being able to converse with the Temple sages regarding the scriptures during this visit. It is also a story that depicts an inquisitive Jesus capable of being disobedient to his parents by staying in the Temple after his parents headed back home to continue his conversation (his education) with these sages (teachers).  

If Jesus was a rabbi, he appears more drawn to the prophets than to the Torah.  It is not that Jesus was disinterested in the Torah, but rather that Jesus interpreted the Torah through the prophets or with a prophetic vision.  As such, when Jesus took to the road, he did so more as a prophet while maintaining a rabbinical teaching style.  He identifies himself in the Gospels as the Son of Man, the title God conferred on Ezekiel and Daniel.  In doing so he identifies himself as an exemplar, a teacher of a particular way of life.  

Jesus was not teaching something new.  Everything that Jesus taught was a reflection of what can be found in the law and the prophets of the Old Testament.  Jesus was no scriptural literalist, however.  While he honored the scriptures as any practicing Jew does, he stopped short of insisting that the scriptures were the inviolable Word of God; that everything in Scripture had to be taken literally.   For instance, in the collection of Jesus' teachings compiled as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus famously says, "You've heard and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say...." [See Exodus 21:23 and Matthew 5:38].    He offended the Pharisees by plucking grain from the fields on the and healing someone on the Sabbath, taking to task their rigid, literalist view of the Torah. 

Jesus had an astute knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures that allowed him to argue his perception of the world based on them.   Jesus went a step further than sticking with a rabbinical, open-to-debate style.  Jesus practiced his understanding of the scriptures in order to expose the hypocrisy he saw evident in many of the religious practices of his day.  The Gospels note that the scribes and the Pharisees "marveled" at his assertive teaching style, or to put it the words of Gospels, "as one who spoke with authority, an authority most rabbis wouldn't have attempted to display publicly..

In my next post, I offer an overview of Jesus' message.

Until next time, stay faithful.

Norm