Young/child Jesus

jfarag92

What do we know of Jesus as a child?
-How did he become conscious that he was God?
-How did he attain all the wisdom/knowledge that he taught?
-It seems that for Him to have all this - and not be taught it - he would have to be conscious and knowing immediately because all the wisdom and knowledge he had and shared would have had to been implanted in him as his physical body developed.

I'll keep it general for now, please share any thoughts or references.

George_Mina_Awad

I was just gonna post a thread on this!!

What really confuses me is Luke 2:52- "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." The entire verse gets me, especially the last part- how did Jesus grow in favor with God if He is God?

abrahamf

The word 'wisdom' in Greek has 3 meanings:
1. Wisdom (σοφία, sophia)- this is where the word philosophy came from (philo-sophia, the love of wisdom)
2. Prudence (φρόνηση, phronsie)
3. Understanding (σύνεση, sensie)

Unfortunately these meanings are often lost when it is translated into English, and are just called wisdom. 

The first meaning is a characteristic of God, a Godly wisdom. NO ONE can have wisdom by itself, simply because we wouldn't know how to use it. The second meaning refers to 'human wisdom'. So when God gave King Solomon wisdom, he in fact gave him wisdom AND prudence. Prudence serves as a form of 'mechanism' that facilitates for us the use wisdom.   

So it is always important for us to consider whether the wisdom spoken about is 'Godly' (sophia) or 'humanly' (phronsie) wisdom.

In this context i think that Jesus might have increased in prudence (part of His human nature) rather that in actual wisdom (sophia, which he always had).

Forgive me for not providing any references or any of the Father's commentaries. This is what we learned in Bible study.

PPFM

jfarag92

Christ's servant: 
That is very useful and insightful, thank you

George:
so i guess that means i get your spot in heaven?


I still am eager to hear more, so let's more people share

George_Mina_Awad

Yeah, that really was nice, Christ's Servant.

No! Shoe! Get out of here, get your own spot! I was starting to put some real work into that  :(

mabsoota

Jesus taught in the temple at age 12 with God's authority, not what could be learnt from books. that is why everyone was impressed.
john 13:3 shows that Jesus was fully aware He was God, and there is nothing in the Bible to suggest that at one time He was not aware. but when he took on the nature of a slave and came in human likeness, he also suffered all the human conditions, such as being hungry, being unable to walk as a baby, and he deliberately stayed in that situation until he had physically grown, so that we would realise just how well God understands all our weaknesses.

he showed children that it is possible to be human children and grow up nicely and live a good spiritual life by doing this himself. so in His human nature He grew and developed and worked hard at prayer and fasting, not because He was lacking anything (He was God), but in order to show us how to do it.

peterfarrington

St Cyril explains what this passage means in his commentary on St Luke which is available on line.

anba bola

Here's the link to the commentary Fr. Peter talked about

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/cyril_on_luke_01_sermons_01_11.htm

I remember seeing H.E. Metropolitan Bishoy speaking about this verse on CYC and he said that St. Athanasius said that this was according to his humanity that he grew in wisdom, and he said that St. Cyril interpreted this as meaning that he seemed to grow in wisdom so he would not look like a super child.

I don't remember exactly but I'm in a rush now so you'll have to look in the commentary to find out exactly.

mabsoota

thanks for the link, great commentary  :)