Jesus of Nazareth as known in esoteric traditions

Jesus's childhod: 8 to 11 years of age

Jesus at 8 years old

His Eighth Year (A.D. 2)

This was an interesting year at school.

Although Jesus was not an unusual student, he was a diligent pupil and belonged to the more progressive third of the class, doing his work so well that he was excused from attendance one week out of each month.

This week he usually spent either with his fisherman uncle on the shores of the Sea of Galilee near Magdala or on the farm of another uncle (his mother's brother) five miles south of Nazareth.

Although his mother had become unduly anxious about his health and safety, she gradually became reconciled to these trips away from home.

Jesus' uncles and aunts were all very fond of him, and there ensued a lively competition among them to secure his company for these monthly visits throughout this and immediately subsequent years.

His first week's sojourn on his uncle's farm (since infancy) was in January of this year;

the first week's fishing experience on the Sea of Galilee occurred in the month of May.

About this time Jesus met a teacher of mathematics from Damascus, and learning some new techniques of numbers, he spent much time on mathematics for several years.

He developed a keen sense of numbers, distances, and proportions.

Jesus began to enjoy his brother James very much and by the end of this year had begun to teach him the alphabet.

This year Jesus made arrangements to exchange dairy products for lessons on the harp. He had an unusual liking for everything musical.

Later on he did much to promote an interest in vocal music among his youthful associates

. By the time he was eleven years of age, he was a skillful harpist and greatly enjoyed entertaining both family and friends with his extraordinary interpretations and able improvisations.

While Jesus continued to make enviable progress at school, all did not run smoothly for either parents or teachers.

He persisted in asking many embarrassing questions concerning both science and religion, particularly regarding geography and astronomy. He was especially insistent on finding out

why there was a dry season and a rainy season in Palestine.

Repeatedly he sought the explanation for

the great difference between the temperatures of Nazareth and the Jordan valley.

He simply never ceased to ask such intelligent but perplexing questions.

His third brother, Simon, was born on Friday evening, April 14, of this year, A.D. 2.

In February, Nahor, one of the teachers in a Jerusalem academy of the rabbis, came to Nazareth to observe Jesus, having been on a similar mission to Zacharias's home near Jerusalem. He came to Nazareth at the instigation of John's father.

While at first he was somewhat shocked by Jesus' frankness and unconventional manner of relating himself to things religious, he attributed it to the remoteness of Galilee from the centers of Hebrew learning and culture and advised Joseph and Mary to allow him to take Jesus back with him to Jerusalem, where he could have the advantages of education and training at the center of Jewish culture.

Mary was half persuaded to consent; she was convinced her eldest son was to become the Messiah, the Jewish deliverer; Joseph hesitated; he was equally persuaded that Jesus was to grow up to become a man of destiny, but what that destiny would prove to be he was profoundly uncertain. But he never really doubted that his son was to fulfill some great mission on earth.