THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS

John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of his Parents, 1849-50

Millais' painting idealizes the simple life of a carpenter/craftsman and his family.

It shows

• Joseph as an industrious worker
• Mary as a mother who kneels reverently before her son
• Jesus as a russet-haired, rather spindly boy who extends his cheek for his mother's kiss.

The whole picture fits nicely into the 19th century ideal of a perfect family - hard-working father, submissive mother, obedient child.

But when it was first exhibited, it was attacked as blasphemous, because the figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph were seen as too 'ordinary'.

JESUS - CHILD AND MAN

They say that the concept of childhood is a modern invention, but if you look at Jewish customs in biblical Israel you'll see that there was a definite demarcation line between child and adult.

A child was a child until the age of twelve. Then he was an adult.

This is why the Finding of Jesus in the Temple marks a pivotal moment in Jesus' life. He was a boy; now he is a man.

With the assumption of adult status went everything entailed in being a adult. Jesus took his place, rightfully as he saw it, among the adults in the Temple. He was no longer confined to the Women's Court when he visited the Temple in Jerusalem with his family.

Now twelve years old, he moved naturally to the space reserved for men - the Court of the Israelites. He assumed the status of an adult man, with the particular responsibilities assumed by men.

With these responsibilities went privileges as well, the most immediate being his right to converse with the high-status scholars who dominated the Temple colleges open to promising young men.

This is why he failed to join his parents when they left Jerusalem. It was not careless disregard for his family, but the assumption of adult rights and responsibilities.

This came as something of a shock to Joseph and Mary. Like all parents, they were accustomed to thinking of their child as just that - a child.

Jesus gently corrected them. Now, legally, he was a full Jewish man.

Some other paintings of Jesus and his family at Nazareth:

St Joseph the Carpenter, George de la Tour

Father and Son, by Corbert Gauthier

The Carpenter's Shop, Edward Stott

St Joseph with the Infant Jesus, Guido Reni

The Youth of Our Lord, John Herbert 

'The Family', John Dickson Batten