-Why doesn’t the Bible record Christ’s entire life?

Posted on August 5, 2011 in Bible study, Christianity, faith, God, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, religion, sermons, spirituality

QUESTION: Why doesn’t the Bible record Christ’s entire life? ANSWER: The Bible is a selective history of God’s dealings with mankind. It is not exhaustive, otherwise it would be too large for wide distribution (Jn. 21:25). The Bible records only the highlights of Christ’s life. These include the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah, such as His birth, life, death, and events related to God’s salvation plan. John wrote, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (Jn. 20:30-31 NIV). The Bible was written so we could know Jesus.

Luke wrote, “Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry” (Lk. 3:23). Note that thirty was the age when a Levite began to serve (Num. 4:3,23,30,35,39,43,47; 1 Chr. 23:3). Joseph was thirty when he began to serve Pharaoh, and Saul and David were thirty when each became king over Israel (Gen. 41:46; 1 Sam. 13:1 NIV; 2 Sam. 5:4). A man was considered to have sufficient maturity at 30 to exercise authority in a Jewish community. John records that Jesus’ ministry lasted for at least three years (Jn. 2:13,23; 5:1; 6:4; 11:55). The highlights of His ministry are recorded in the four gospels, with one-third of their content devoted to the last week of His life.

The years of Christ’s life, between 12 and 30, have been called the silent years, because the Bible says little about them. During this time Jesus lived with His family as a carpenter in the village of Nazareth and He “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Lk. 2:52). Some early writers tried to satisfy human curiosity about the silent years by inventing stories to cover the missing periods of Christ’s life. These so-called apocryphal gospels are fiction. Only the most important parts of Christ’s life are documented in the Bible.

Answered by George Hawke

With permission to publish by: Sam Hadley, Grace & Truth, 210 Chestnut St., Danville, IL., USA. Website: www.gtpress.org

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keijo // August 27, 2011 at 9:58 pm //

Amen to glorious the bible in many goodness and too condemntion for our sin and the way from life and in sin and that the book will give wisdom and and o´prophetic the word and knownig the Lord better and his will and this the way and the door and food and drink of water inlife and experince many heavenly realms and thanksgiving for rescue the Isreals people that not be desstroy of theys enemies, thanks to God for his amazing the book in life and in the Holy Spirit quard and knowledge in joy,thanks and bless,keijo sweden

Jared // August 5, 2011 at 8:11 am //

JunP, have you ever read The Jesus Discovery by Dr. A. T. Bradford? I’m with you on all those made up stories about Jesus’s “silent years.” I found Dr. Bradford’s book very insightful. He does a very good job of using clues in the Scriptures, as well as knowledge of history and archaeology to figure out what Jesus was really up to those years–and it wasn’t studying Buddhism or accompanying Joseph of Arimathea to Brittania or anything crazy like that.