"It's a somewhat different version of the greatest story ever told. Rather than being born in a stable to a carpenter father, Jesus was actually the son of a successful, middle class and highly intellectual architect. The claim comes from biblical scholar Dr Adam Bradford, who also says that between the ages of 12 and 30 - the so-called 'missing years' of Jesus's life, when little is known about him - he was studying at religious schools and became the highest-ranking rabbi in Judea. The radical revision of Christian history would suggest that, in preaching the spurning of worldly possessions for an austere life, Jesus may have been speaking from experience. Dr Bradford has analysed the Bible's original Greek and Hebrew scriptures to try to establish the truth about Christ's background. He says a mistranslation of the Greek word 'tekton' to describe the profession of Joseph, Jesus's father, is one of many mistakes that have led to a fundamental misunderstanding of Christ's character. Dr Bradford claims that while 'tekton' is usually said to mean carpenter, it more accurately means master builder or architect. As an architect, Joseph would have had a higher social status that enabled him to better educate his son. In most English translations of the Bible furthermore, Joseph is a 'just man'. But Dr Bradford says the word 'man' is not in the original Greek text and the word translated as 'just' really means a senior religious scholar involved in the judiciary. 'If Jesus was the son of a poor itinerant carpenter with some radical ideas nobody would have been that concerned about what he said." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-claims-Jesus-son-middle-class-architect.html That's really too bad. Jesus might have been better off if daddy was a lawyer instead some architect.
According to Christopher Moore the missing years were spent in China. "Blessed are the dumbfucks." — Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal)
publishing.com Seems the new connection is that Joseph Jesus' (step)father trained the priests which King Herod needed to build the Temple. If so that would place Jesus at the heart of the Temple, which was the place of learning. Seems that 30 is the age Rabbis are given the all-clear to go public. So maybe the 'missing years' are not so mysterious after all. Jesus was called Rabbi often enough. What if he really was ordained as one? It wouldn't alter the effect of what he did but it might help explain the way people related to him.
I checked this out and there is an mp3 link to a lecture the guy gave at www.templehouse-publishing.com - interesting!
