Editors’ Note: Reprinted with permission featuring the introductory chapter from the book Yeshua: Son of Man where Bishop David brings to life the young Jesus growing up with his cousin John the Baptist. The whole book itself narrates the stories of Mary, Jesus and Peter, written from a literary perspective but anchored on the sacred scriptures. Bishop Ambo, as he is popularly known, explains in the preface that the book is a by-product of the elective course he taught in the Loyola School of Theology entitled, Reading between the Lines of the Scripture and subtitled The Role of Imagination in Biblical Interpretation, The objective of the course is the “exploration of the positive role of imagination in Biblical interpretation.” The book was published in 2020 by The Storytellers’ Society, Inc. The featured image is from the website of The Storytellers’ Society.

How did Jesus get to know the Scriptures so well? Mark tells us many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him?” (Mk 6:1-2). They knew who he was and the family he belonged to: “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” Or so they thought. They really did not know him well.

Luke tells us Jesus’ mother was related to Elizabeth, who “…was from the daughters of Aaron,” (meaning, a priestly family) and who was married to a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah.” (Lk 1:5) He also tells us that Mary stayed for three months at Ein Kerem, a village in Judea that was very close to Jerusalem, in order to assist Elizabeth in her pregnancy (Lk 1:39-45). If these two women were close to each other, it is not far-fetched to imagine that they maintained this close relationship by visiting each other’s families whenever there was occasion for it.

One of the regular occasions for encounter between these two families must have been the Passover festival in Jerusalem. Luke tells us, “Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover…” (Lk 2:41) He does not indicate exactly where they stayed whenever they came for the Passover festival, but why not Ein Kerem, which was just a short distance from Jerusalem? Who else in the whole of Judea would Mary think of lodging with if not at the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth? Joseph himself must have been a welcome guest, being a carpenter by trade. His visits must have been perfect occasions for minor repairs and renovations in their relatives’ house. It was the least he could do to reciprocate their hospitality.

Surely, Jesus, Mary and Joseph looked forward to this annual Passover festival with their relatives in Judea. It must have been quite a spectacle especially for Galileans like them who come from the rather laid back village of Nazareth. Imagine the Diaspora Jewish pilgrims they encountered along the way pouring into the great city; wearing all sorts of exotic-looking clothes and trinkets; coming with caravans of camels and dromedaries, horses and donkeys; bearing all sorts of precious things like gold and silver, frankincense and spices of sorts; coming from the Jewish communities in Alexandria in Egypt, Ethiopia, Nineveh and Babylon in Mesopotamia, the cities of Persia, Achaia and Macedonia, Rome and Dalmatia.

Surely, these pilgrims did not come regularly to Jerusalem just for the festival. Like most other enterprising Jews, they must have taken advantage of such occasions for commerce and trade as well. What lively and colorful marketplaces the streets of the old city must have turned into during such festivals! And what interesting encounters these pilgrimages must have created between the homeland Jews and their brethren in the Diaspora, who were as knowledgeable about the Scriptures as the locals were, except that the former read them in a Gentile language that had become a status symbol for good breeding and education in the whole ancient near east-Greek. I imagine the dialogues between the local elders and the rabbis of Synagogues in the Diaspora. How fascinating these must have been, especially for impressionable young men like John and Jesus. I imagine the debates between Pharisaical groups of various origins, some of them exposed only to the Scriptures as defined by the homeland tradition, and others from the Diaspora who recognized the canonicity of other writings otherwise regarded by Palestinian tradition as Apocrypha or Pseudepigrapha. Most of these were taken as part of the still-fluid section called Ketubim such as Tobit, Judith, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, and the parts considered as “Additions” to Esther and Daniel.

Jesus must have been particularly thrilled about these yearly visits, knowing that his aunt’s husband was quite well connected to the temple administration, being himself a priest “from the priestly division of Abijah.” Like a regular male Jew, he had to prepare himself for Bar Mitzvah (at the age of 13), but he had the special privilege of getting some special tutoring from his Uncle Zechariah whenever they visited Jerusalem. He could have been allowed to attend his Cousin John’s class in a rabbinical school run by the Pharisees whenever they were in Judea. And I imagine how Zechariah must have tested what these two boys were learning right in his home. Jesus must have listened intently to these lessons which involved a lot of memorizing of important passages of Scriptures such as the Great Shema, the Decalogue, lines from the Primeval and the Patriarchal narratives, and from the Tehillim (Psalms). Zechariah must have taken an extra effort to augment what his son was learning. He certainly did not want his son to be tainted by the corrupt priestly practices in the temple such as those perpetrated by the Sadducees. In short, whatever John imbibed, Jesus most likely imbibed as well.

Through the years, Jesus must have developed a special fondness for his cousin John. These two boys must have explored the hill country of Judea together, played like regular kids in the prairies, while their parents engaged in lively conversations at Zechariah’s home. If Jesus’ preparation for Bar Mitzvah was supervised by a provincial rabbi in the synagogue of Nazareth, his cousin John, being a priest’s son, must have enjoyed the privilege of being educated in the Torah right at the temple precincts or in some rabbinical school in the old city. Jesus must have insisted on joining these lessons whenever his family was vacationing in Judea, if only to be close to John. These lessons must have continued at home, with Jesus participating whenever Zechariah engaged his son in either a Halakhic or a Haggadic Midrash on the Torah, Nebi’im and Ketubim, the Holy Scriptures as known to Jewish people in the homeland.

Luke tells us in 2:42-47 that “…when he (Jesus) was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.” The scene that Luke describes here comes close to what we might call a catechetical session in preparation for Bar Mitzvah.

I have a feeling that John was there too, that he was aware that his cousin stayed behind, but chose not to inform his parents about it. After all, they were both about to complete their Bar Mitzvah and were already starting to behave like regular young men (coming of age), excited about interacting with the elders in the temple who must have come from all sorts of sectarian movements. In short, both John and Jesus were probably exposed to all kinds of schools of thought in Jerusalem. This joint exposure must have been sustained in their adult lives until circumstances forced them to part ways-Jesus taking after his father Joseph’s trade, and John probably being gradually initiated into priestly life in the temple himself.

If Joseph’s family frequented Zechariah’s home in Judea, in all likelihood, Zechariah’s family must have visited Galilee too and dropped by Nazareth. They must have organized day trips together to be able to take a dip at the lake of Galilee, and perhaps buy some fresh and dried fish from the fish markets by the shores of Capernaum and Bethsaida. As he grew into an adult, John’s occasional visits to Nazareth may have exposed him to the revolutionary ideas of the Zealot movement which had its most avid adherents in the cities and villages of Galilee. Take note that he had Galilean fishermen from Bethsaida such as Philip and Andrew enlisted among his disciples, according to the first chapter of the fourth Gospel. Remember how he found himself in hot waters when he went on a head- on collision with the Governor of Galilee and Perea, Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great? Soon, this son-of-a-priest started gravitating towards a prophetic ministry that had long been unknown in Palestine. He openly espoused some radical ideas which he spewed out in the form of oracles of judgment that came across like fire and brimstone. He spoke about salvation as the advent of a more equitable society, where valleys would be filled in, lofty hills would be made low, crooked ways straightened, and rough ways smoothened (Is 40:3-5). He did not mince words about the radical change that God supposedly demanded of those who wanted to experience spiritual rebirth through his ritual baptism. Here’s Luke’s long litany of the kind of renewal he was calling for:Lk 3:8-9: “Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance; and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Lk 3:11: To the crowds: “Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.”

Lk 3:12: To the tax collectors: “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”

Lk 3:14: To the soldiers: “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.’

And why the Judean desert setting for John’s public ministry? Could he also have encountered the esoteric Essene movement whose members withdrew into the Judean desert to a monastic common life of copying the Scriptures? Luke tells us “…the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the desert. He went throughout [the] whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…” (Lk 3:2-3). Apparently he had attracted many followers who submitted themselves to his ritual baptism. Among these followers was John’s own younger cousin from Nazareth, Jesus, who also withdrew into the desert after being baptized by him.

The Gospel of Mark notes that it was after John was arrested by Herod Antipas that Jesus embarked on his own public life as an itinerant preacher, with some of John’s former disciples as his first followers.

I imagine how profoundly John had influenced Jesus in his younger years, and how Jesus probably treated him not just as his big brother but as his role model. The call to priestly service in the Jerusalem temple should have been the most normal path for him, following in the footsteps of his father. The fact that he distanced himself from the Jerusalem temple speaks volumes about the kind of disposition John had kept towards the temple institution. Take note, for example, that in Mt 3:7, the Sadducees (who belonged to the priestly class that was in control of the temple administration) were among those who came for John’s baptism. John addressed them vehemently as a “brood of vipers.” He warned them sternly that they stood no chance of fleeing “the wrath to come” unless they produced an evidence of their repentance. Could John have fled to the desert precisely because he had gotten into conflict with the priestly authorities his own father had worked with in the Jerusalem temple? Could Jesus himself have imbibed a strongly negative view of the temple priesthood because of the influence of John? Remember how he denounced the money changing and the buying and selling of animals that the priestly authorities had allowed in the courtyard of the Gentiles? Take note, for instance, of the strongly negative caricature of the priests and Levites in his parable of the Good Samaritan in Lk 10.

A lot of research has been done on the possible connection of John with the Essene movement, which also repudiated the High Priestly family that was in power in the Jerusalem temple as a bogus priesthood. Whether or not John had any associations with the Zealots or with the Essenes, it was evident that Jesus’ association with him was a dangerous thing.