The life of Jesus Christ in the four gospels of the New Testament is not exactly a comprehensive biography. In Luke and Matthew we get the birth story and earliest years of his life and then a yawning gap until we reach the last months of his life – the ministry of Jesus. So, what happened to the Messiah in those intervening years? In the Middle Ages – the faithful tried to fill the gaps by telling stories about the missing teenage experiences of Jesus.
Childhood of Jesus depicted on medieval tiles
In the British Museum’s medieval gallery, it’s easy to miss a group of earthenware wall tiles dating from 1320 in a glass display case to the left hand side of the entrance. People drift past them without giving the innocuous objects a second glance but to me, they’re the most interesting items in that room.
Discovered in an antiques shop in the nineteenth century, the Tring Tiles detail stories about Jesus that you won’t find in the bible. All of them related to his childhood – the period of his life ignored by the gospel writers. The stories, it has to be said, are very odd.
Jesus kills bullies
There is a recurring theme of boys who bully Jesus falling dead. So in one tale depicted on a tile, Jesus is making pools by the river Jordan but a bully destroys one of them. He promptly falls down dead. But Jesus brings him back to life by touching his foot. Another boy leaps on Jesus’ back and also dies immediately but after the boy’s parents complain to Joseph, Jesus brings him back to life.
This one might stretch your imagination to try and visualise – but a man locks up his son in a tower to stop Jesus playing with him. So Jesus pulls him out through the lock! Seems there’s quite a few parents who don’t want their kids to play with the youthful Messiah – well, they do appear to run the risk of dying for a start. One Mum and Dad even shut their children in an oven to stop them hanging out with Jesus.
Teenage Jesus goes on a long gap year
Over the centuries, some very outlandish theories have arisen to explain the absence of Jesus from the record. Some speculated that he travelled as far away as India, China, and even Japan. Those who believe he is buried in the Japanese village of Shingo refer to him as Daitenku Taro Jurai. The evidential base for this assertion is thin to put it mildly.
The notion behind these teenage travels of Jesus is that he imbibed the philosophies and religions of different places – from Hinduism to Buddhism – which then influenced his ministry. In 1894, a forged gospel was published claiming that Jesus spent time with the Brahmins of India being taught ancient wisdom. This was entirely made up by a Russian journalist, Nicolas Notovitch.
If you have a keen interest in the Templars, why not buy my new book – The Knights Templar: History & Mystery – published by Pen & Sword – available on Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith, and Barnes & Noble.
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