THE MESSAGE OF THE SILENT YEARS
The Message of the Silent Years
Dr. J. Vernon McGee
When we come to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a yawning chasm, a hiatus
between His birth and the beginning of His public ministry at the age of thirty years. We have
only a few scraps of His biography, de void of factual continuity.
We are told that nature abhors a vacuum, and likewise men have rushed in to try to fill this
divine pause with tradition, folklore, and fable. Here imagination has run riot and fancy has
been substituted for facts. One church teaches that the boy Jesus performed miracles. For ex
ample, they say that when He played with other little boys in Egypt who were making clay
pigeons, He touched the clay and the pigeons flew away. We know that such traditions are
untrue, for when our Lord went over the hill from His hometown of Nazareth to attend a wedding
in Cana of Galilee, He performed His first miracle by turning water into wine. Of this the
Gospel writer states:
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana, of Galilee, and manifested forth
his glory; and his disciples believed on him. (John 2:11)
Since we must dismiss tradition, can we know any thing of these silent years? When
Scripture is examined closely, we discover that the boyhood of our Lord has been adequately
covered by the divine reporter, the Holy Spirit. He has told us a great deal about this period.
"But," you say, "we haven't much to go on." That is true. Yet we have three scraps of evidence
that we shall examine. We shall take these three capsules of facts, open them, and examine the
contents very carefully. First we shall look at a physician's chart, then we shall listen to the public
comment, and finally we shall read the prophet's copy. That is all we have, yet it covers this
period and covers it adequately.
A Physician's Chart
The physician is Dr. Luke, called by Paul "the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14) - a
wonderful title for this man. Luke, a medical doctor, used more medi ...
Dr. J. Vernon McGee
When we come to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a yawning chasm, a hiatus
between His birth and the beginning of His public ministry at the age of thirty years. We have
only a few scraps of His biography, de void of factual continuity.
We are told that nature abhors a vacuum, and likewise men have rushed in to try to fill this
divine pause with tradition, folklore, and fable. Here imagination has run riot and fancy has
been substituted for facts. One church teaches that the boy Jesus performed miracles. For ex
ample, they say that when He played with other little boys in Egypt who were making clay
pigeons, He touched the clay and the pigeons flew away. We know that such traditions are
untrue, for when our Lord went over the hill from His hometown of Nazareth to attend a wedding
in Cana of Galilee, He performed His first miracle by turning water into wine. Of this the
Gospel writer states:
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana, of Galilee, and manifested forth
his glory; and his disciples believed on him. (John 2:11)
Since we must dismiss tradition, can we know any thing of these silent years? When
Scripture is examined closely, we discover that the boyhood of our Lord has been adequately
covered by the divine reporter, the Holy Spirit. He has told us a great deal about this period.
"But," you say, "we haven't much to go on." That is true. Yet we have three scraps of evidence
that we shall examine. We shall take these three capsules of facts, open them, and examine the
contents very carefully. First we shall look at a physician's chart, then we shall listen to the public
comment, and finally we shall read the prophet's copy. That is all we have, yet it covers this
period and covers it adequately.
A Physician's Chart
The physician is Dr. Luke, called by Paul "the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14) - a
wonderful title for this man. Luke, a medical doctor, used more medi ...
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