Jesus is the eternal Son of God, yet Luke tells us that He grew in wisdom as a child. How, then, should we understand His remarkable knowledge of Scripture? The Gospels give us evidence of a genuine human childhood, though they leave many of its details unrecorded.
Jesus Truly Grew Through a Human Childhood
Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously." And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?"
Luke describes Jesus growing up in Nazareth among family, relatives, and acquaintances. Joseph and Mary traveled to Jerusalem for Passover each year. When Jesus was twelve, they began the journey home assuming He was with their company. After discovering He was missing, they returned to Jerusalem and searched anxiously until they found Him in the temple (Luke 2:39-46). He was listening to the teachers and asking questions, while His understanding and answers astonished everyone who heard Him.
I do not read His parents’ distress as evidence that Jesus had sinned against them. They did not understand His statement about His Father, and Luke goes on to describe His submission to them (Luke 2:50-51). Nor does Luke portray Him lecturing learned adults to humiliate them. He listened and asked questions while already displaying extraordinary understanding. He was learning, and His answers revealed wisdom that amazed His hearers.
Luke emphasizes Jesus’ development both before and after the temple visit. The Child grew, became strong, and was filled with wisdom; He continued increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:40, 52). Most of those years remain unrecorded. We have no biblical warrant for filling them with spectacular childhood miracles or secret journeys to foreign masters. Israel’s own Scriptures help us understand the setting in which He grew.
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
Israelite parents were to keep God’s words in their own hearts and teach them throughout daily life. Instruction belonged at home and along the road, as children went to bed and as the day began. The feasts kept God’s mighty acts before each new generation. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph observed the law’s requirements and made the Passover journey, placing Jesus’ childhood within Israel’s covenant life. His later habit of attending the synagogue gives us another recorded setting where Scripture was read and heard.
We know something of His surroundings, but we cannot reconstruct a daily curriculum or identify who first taught Him a particular passage. Children develop language, memory, and practical understanding through time and relationships. Luke describes Jesus growing in wisdom, without suggesting that an adult human mind lay concealed in a child’s body. His humanity was complete, genuinely developing, and entirely without sin. His divine nature was not becoming wiser. The one eternal Son was living a human childhood.
Jesus’ first recorded words reveal that He knew His unique relationship with God. Mary spoke of “Your father and I,” while Jesus answered that He must be about His Father’s business. The expression concerns the things of His Father and the necessity of His mission. Faithful Israelites could speak of God as Father in a covenant sense, but Luke had already identified Jesus as the Son of God through His supernatural conception. At twelve, He spoke with an awareness of the relationship that was uniquely His.
Jesus then returned to Nazareth and submitted to Mary and Joseph. Knowing His identity did not give Him reason to despise His household or excuse rebellion as a special calling. His obedience at home was part of His righteous human life. Long before people heard Him teach publicly, He was honoring God in the family. He did not emerge from a sinful youth to discover how to obey.
No Rabbinic Credential, Yet the Father’s Doctrine
Years later, at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus taught in Jerusalem’s temple. His hearers marveled at His knowledge of the sacred writings because He lacked the training they expected.
And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?" Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him."
“Having never studied” refers to recognized training in the sacred writings. It does not mean Jesus had never learned anything or could not read. The UBS and SIL translation discussions of John 7:15 explain the reference to formal instruction under recognized Jewish teachers. His mastery astonished people who did not know Him as a pupil of those teachers.
Jesus answered by directing them to the Father, who had sent Him and given Him His doctrine. Their approval of His education could neither establish nor overturn that authority. A person willing to do God’s will could recognize where the teaching came from. A teacher seeking his own glory had a different aim. Jesus sought His Father’s glory and had no unrighteousness in Him, while His opponents’ desire to kill Him contradicted their claim to defend Moses (John 7:18-19).
Their Sabbath accusation exposed that contradiction. They accepted circumcision on the Sabbath to keep the law, yet were angry with Jesus for making a man completely well. They needed to consider the commands together and judge righteously, instead of condemning Him by appearances. His careful understanding of the law revealed the inconsistency in the judgment of those who considered themselves its experts (John 7:21-24).
I cannot use this passage to despise disciplined study. A school can help someone learn biblical languages and history and become a more careful reader. It cannot give him permission to contradict Scripture. Refusing education gives an independent teacher no special authority either. We need to examine what a person teaches. Neither his credentials nor his rejection of credentials proves that he speaks for God.
The Eternal Word Became Truly Man
John identifies the Teacher who spoke with the Father’s authority as the eternal Word who became flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
John takes us back before Bethlehem to the Word who already existed in the beginning. He was with God and was God, and everything was made through Him. This eternal Person became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Jesus did not begin to exist at His birth, nor did His human growth gradually turn an ordinary child into God.
The eternal Word, or Logos, is the Son Himself. Scripture is God’s inspired written Word and bears authoritative testimony to Him. We receive that testimony and worship the Person it reveals, while keeping the distinction clear. Ink and paper are not divine, and the pages did not become flesh. The study on The Word Logos explains John’s language more fully.
As the divine Lord, Jesus knows Scripture with divine authority. As the human Messiah, He also read and listened, learning within history as He obeyed and fulfilled what was written. John’s account directs us to more than a religious scholar: the world made through Him failed to recognize Him. Yet those who receive Him by faith become God’s children (John 1:10-13). He gives the life to which the written testimony points.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
The Son humbled Himself by taking a servant’s form and becoming truly man. He did not cease to be God. He is one Person with a complete divine nature and a complete human nature. Those natures do not blend into a third kind of being, nor do they make Him two persons. His human mind developed while His divine nature remained all-knowing. Scripture does not explain how that union worked within Him, and I would not pretend to supply an explanation God has not given us.
His hunger and fatigue were real, as were His temptation and suffering. The same Jesus spoke with divine authority and rightly received worship. We must not use His deity to erase His humanity, or His development to deny His deity. The study on The Deity of Jesus considers the wider evidence. Hebrews brings His human experience and complete sinlessness together as it explains why we can come to Him for help.
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You." As He also says in another place: "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek"; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek,"
Paul says in Hebrews that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin, and that He learned obedience through suffering. Those statements explain one another. The Son was not abandoning disobedience or discovering that rebellion was wrong. He experienced the cost of obedience as a man, remaining faithful through hunger, rejection, and suffering that led to death.
Being perfected likewise does not mean Jesus had previously sinned. It concerns His reaching the appointed goal through obedience and being fully qualified for His priestly work. The translation discussion of Hebrews 5:9 explains why the word cannot suggest an earlier moral defect. His sympathy for us rests on suffering He truly endured. We can come to our High Priest for mercy and help because He knows human weakness without sharing our sin.
Jesus Read, Obeyed, and Fulfilled Scripture
In the wilderness, Jesus answered Satan from Deuteronomy while genuinely hungry after fasting.
Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"
Jesus’ answers came from passages about Israel’s dependence on God, worship of Him alone, and refusal to put Him to the test (Matthew 4:1-11). He lived by those truths where Israel had failed. He was not reciting a formula to compel a result, or selecting quotations merely to win a debate. His answers expressed His obedient trust in the Father.
Satan also quoted Scripture, using Psalm 91 to urge Jesus to throw Himself from the temple. God’s promise of protection did not authorize a reckless demand that He prove it. Jesus answered with the command not to tempt the LORD. I need to look beyond a speaker’s ability to recite a verse. We must ask what the passage means, how it relates to the rest of Scripture, and what response it requires.
At Nazareth, Jesus followed His custom of entering the synagogue on the Sabbath. He received Isaiah’s scroll, found the passage, read it, and sat down to teach (Luke 4:16-20).
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
His declaration, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” identified Him as the Spirit-anointed One the prophet announced. He was not simply offering a clever application of an old text.
The congregation marveled at His words, but Jesus’ references to Elijah and Elisha challenged their expectation of privileged signs. God’s help had reached the widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian; His grace was not confined to Israel. Jesus applied those accounts to hearers who were resisting that grace. They became so enraged that they tried to throw Him from the hill, but He passed through their midst and left (Luke 4:22-30). Knowing Joseph’s household had not prepared them to receive the One standing before them.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained His relationship to the Law and the Prophets He knew so well.
"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus expressly denied that He had come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. He perfectly obeyed God’s will and fulfilled the promises and patterns that pointed to Him. He also taught the law’s true demand and declared even its smallest written details dependable until all is fulfilled. He warned against breaking the commandments or teaching others to break them. The righteousness He required reached deeper than outward religious performance.
His teaching exposes the heart. An impressive religious appearance cannot produce the righteousness God requires. I cannot use fulfillment as permission to discard the Old Testament or set Jesus against the writings He upheld. He corrected traditions that distorted God’s command and confronted unbelief that refused its testimony. His authority went together with reverence for Scripture.
The Sermon on the Mount ends with the necessity of hearing and doing “these sayings of Mine.”
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Both builders in Jesus’ illustration face the storm (Matthew 7:24-27). The house that stands belongs to the one who hears His words and acts on them. Our response to His teaching is decisive in the face of judgment. The crowds were astonished because they recognized an authority different from that of their scribes.
Matthew does not say that every scribe was ignorant or that citing an earlier teacher was automatically wrong. Jesus spoke with an authority no school could create. Prophets commonly introduced a message with “Thus says the LORD.” Jesus could say, “But I say to you,” and rightly define obedience. We owe Him more than admiration for His skill or memory.
The Scriptures Testify of Christ
In John 5, Jesus confronted people who searched the Scriptures while refusing the One those writings revealed.
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
Jesus named the witnesses to His identity (John 5:31-40). John the Baptist had testified, as had the works the Father gave Him, the Father Himself, and the Scriptures. His opponents searched those writings while refusing to come to Him for life. Diligent reading was not their offense. They were handling testimony to the Son while rejecting Him.
Their appeal to Moses became an accusation against them. If they believed his writings, they would believe the One about whom he wrote (John 5:45-47). Jesus did not separate Himself from Scripture or identify Himself with the book. The written Word testified to Him. Receiving its testimony in faith meant coming to the living Son for life.
After His bodily resurrection, Jesus met two disciples on the road to Emmaus and explained from Moses and the Prophets why the Christ had to suffer before entering His glory.
Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
The two disciples recognized Jesus when their eyes were opened at the meal in Emmaus. They returned to Jerusalem to tell the gathered disciples what had happened. While they were speaking, Jesus Himself stood among them (Luke 24:28-36).
He showed them His hands and feet, invited them to handle Him, and ate in their presence. Luke records a bodily resurrection: the risen Lord stood before them in flesh and bones (Luke 24:37-43). He then opened their understanding of the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Himself. Explaining His suffering and resurrection, He commissioned them to proclaim repentance and remission of sins in His name to all nations (Luke 24:44-47).
Their message rested on the written promises and the events they had witnessed. Reading with Christ at the center means following Scripture’s promises and patterns to their fulfillment in Him, including its offices and covenants. It does not give us permission to assign secret meanings to any detail we choose. Jesus taught His disciples to believe what God had written and recognize what He had brought to pass.
Paul reminded Timothy that he had known the Holy Scriptures from childhood and told him to continue in what he had learned.
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All Scripture is inspired by God, literally God-breathed. Its writers lived and worked in real historical settings, yet the Holy Spirit carried them so that their words were God’s truthful Word. Scripture makes us wise for salvation through faith in Christ. It also teaches and reproves us, correcting us and training us in righteousness so that we are equipped for good work.
The Son shares in Scripture’s divine authorship because He shares the one divine nature with the Father and the Spirit. Scripture also calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ and describes the prophets testifying beforehand to Christ’s sufferings and glories. Even so, inspiration is ordinarily described as the Spirit’s work through human writers. The slogan “Jesus wrote every verse” can obscure that explanation. We need to hold together what Scripture says about His divine authority and what it records of His human growth, sinlessness, and anointing by the Spirit.
Our own study should lead to more than collecting information. Pastors must be able to teach, handle the Word rightly, and correct error. Languages and history can help us read carefully, but neither credentials nor independence from institutions can make error true. No modern teacher possesses Jesus’ deity, sinlessness, or immediate authority. A faithful teacher explains the passage, admits what he does not know, and submits his conclusions to Scripture. I need to apply that standard to teachers I already like as well as to those I question.
Peter describes the sinless conduct of the Savior who bore our sins, directing us to what His obedience accomplished.
"Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.
The Savior to whom Scripture points willingly carried out the work it announced. He committed no sin, spoke without deceit, and refused sinful retaliation when abused. Because He was without sin, He could willingly give Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men inflicted His bodily torture and death, shedding His innocent blood. His sacrifice was for the whole world, and His saving work through His blood and death was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit acted in unity to accomplish redemption.
God genuinely offers salvation, though people may resist His grace. Everyone who repents and believes in Christ receives forgiveness and is justified, meaning declared righteous before God. That person is born again, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and eternally secure in Christ. Our actions give evidence of new life; they neither earn salvation nor keep us saved. A profession of Christian faith alone does not prove new birth, and security never excuses lawlessness.
Receiving that salvation changes how I study. I read as someone accountable to the King, willing to accept correction when a passage overturns a cherished idea. We should follow the writer’s thought and ask honest questions, comparing related passages and obeying what God has made clear. Trustworthy teachers can help without becoming our final authority. The study on How to Study the Bible Properly develops those habits.
The risen Jesus led His disciples into Scripture, so meeting Him does not mean bypassing the text. The Holy Spirit will not lead us away from the Word He inspired. We seek wisdom from God while doing the careful work of reading, so that we trust the Son Scripture reveals and build our lives on His words.
My Final Thoughts
Jesus’ growth in wisdom was genuine, and He was always more than a gifted student. He is the eternal Son who became truly man, lived without sin, and knew His Father’s will. He read and obeyed Scripture, fulfilling it with an authority no human training could give. I want His example to make me a more careful student, willing to test every teacher, including myself, by God’s Word. Above all, I need to receive its correction and trust the Savior it reveals.