THE CHILDHOOD YEARS OF JESUSForewordThe question could be asked: why a Life of Jesus? Is it not enough to read the Gospel? The Gospel is indeedcapable of throwing sufficient light on the teaching and example of Jesus. But since its compilation, almosttwenty centuries have run, and life is much changed. Palestine is an oriental country, very different from ourWest. In addition, the Semitic language in which Jesus and the evangelists thought and expressed themselves isof a completely different cultural pattern. Many passages of the Gospel are no longer clear to us. For us, theliteral meaning of a parable needs to be explained, while to the contemporaries of Jesus it would have been self-evident.The author has attempted to write a life useful to all: priests, faithful, and non-believers. His missionary activityin the Orient has thrown useful light on many passages. Indeed, life in India is much more similar to thePalestine of Jesus’ time than to that of modern industrialised Israel. The book, together with its first part,Palestine in the Time of Jesus, is the result of six years study, reading, reflection and Scripture lessons. May itspur the reader to deeper study of Holy Scripture and the imitation of our Divine Model.The Author, Abouna Robert Matheus1I. INTRODUCTION TO THE INFANCY GOSPELS1. OriginsAccounts in this connection formed no part of the earliest catechesis. The first meaning of the word ‘gospel’ is‘joyful news,’ namely the salvation brought to us by Jesus, the New Testament. That is the message of salvationpreached by Jesus. Consequently, this first meaning also includes the notion of ‘travelling preacher.’ Only in thesecond century did St. Justin first employ the word 'gospel' in the sense of a written testimony. In the beginning,there was nothing written: the apostles were, after all, eye-witnesses: they needed no books.In the Acts, we can find summaries of the earliest sermons1. And we find, each time, the same basic truth: theResurrection and the Glori...