Did Jesus Ever Sin?

Was Jesus Sinless? YES!

John wrote, "In Jesus there is no sin" (1 John 3:5). Peter wrote, "Jesus committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). As Christians, we believe that the one person who was without sin--Jesus--nevertheless died for our sins.

But here I will dig a little deeper. It will surprise me if I do not lose friends over the content of this post. But please hear me out, before you push the 'unfriend' button;

"Go, and sin no more."

Can an Infant Sin?

If an infant throws a bottle out of his crib, intentionally hitting his sibling on the head, did he sin? (Same question for her/she.) After the first time, he/she may even be aware that this is a wrong action, earning parental disapproval, not to mention the disapproval of the sibling. But is this sin?

If it is indeed sin, does the infant need to repent? The Christian definition of repent is "to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life." This infant may be learning the difference between right and wrong behavior, but I find it unlikely that he/she is ready to understand the concept of repentance.

Nevertheless, wrong has been done, and in the Christian worldview, wrong must be atoned for, after repentance. But how is this possible?

The Answer From Judaism

Speaking from the first century, among Second Temple Judaism, there  is recognition that such wrong can take place, and  there is  a remedy: When an infant sins, the fault for the sin falls on the father, who must atone for the sin.  The infant--or toddler, or child--has no blame imputed to him or her, and no obligation to atone for the sin before God.

In ancient Jewish culture, there is a tradition (unmentioned in the Bible, as far as I know) called bar Mitzvah. In today's culture, this is often a coming-out party, when the youngster takes on adult responsibility--not far different from a quinceanera in Latino culture.

But bar Mitzvah in Aramaic means "son of the Law," and was originally a celebration for the father, not the child, for the day when the father no longer was responsible for the sins of the child. Cracking open a flask of wine may have been a suitable action for that celebration. From this point onward, the youngster was expected to atone for his/her own sins, at the temple if called for. It was the responsibility of the father to prepare the son for this day.

A similar tradition may have been observed for mothers and daughters, but this is unclear in the sources to which I have been exposed.

So, What About the Young Jesus?

We actually have an incident documented in the Bible when Jesus committed wrong and was responsible for damages to others. You'll find it in Luke's gospel, chapter 2 verses 41-52.

As Jesus' parents were returning from Passover, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of it. Supposing him to be in the Caravan, they went a day's journey; and they began looking for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening and asking them questions (Luke 2:43-46).

His mother said to him, "Why have you treated us this way? Look, your father and I have been terribly worried looking for you." He answered, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I would have to be in my Father?"   (This may be translated "in my Father's house" or "about my Father's business," referring to his Father in heaven.

TERRIBLY WORRIED! Two days travel and three days searching! It is likely that some  of their relatives came back with the distraught parents, to help them look for Jesus. Although Jesus thought he had a good excuse, the time had not yet been fulfilled when he would leave his family and become a wandering prophet. Besides the worry and the travel, his parents (especially Joseph) experienced a loss of honor among his acquaintances, for having such a wayward son.

Did Jesus sin? Ah, here is where Luke helps us out. At verse 42, Luke writes,"When Jesus became 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the Passover custom," as had been their yearly custom. Barely 12 years old, as Luke points out, Jesus was not old enough to have become a "son of  the Law," and no sin would be imputed to him. It was Joseph who had sinned, for not training Jesus to know that his action was inappropriate, and also for not adequately supervising Jesus in Jerusalem. Joseph likely had to make a guilt offering in the temple to atone for his sin, perhaps with Jesus in tow to show him the consequences of his actions.

At verse 52, Luke writes that "Jesus kept increasing in wisdom," pointing out that Jesus' actions were likely a result of immaturity in wisdom at age 12. 

Did Jesus sin? Before God, no he didn't. Did he cause harm to others? Yes, but it was his adoptive father's job to set things right. Did he experience what all humans experience? Yes, including what happens when he does harm to others.

WHERE'S CANA?

Where was Jesus' First Miracle Done?

Cana is the answer, but where was Cana? Or to bring this up to date, which of the five contenders is the original Cana of the Gospel story?

Mary: "They've run out of wine?"

We have one biblical measurement for locating Cana: it's in Galilee, at the end of about a two-day hike from the Jordan River.

On the next day Jesus purposed to go into Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." [Philip went to find Nathanael, and brought him to Jesus before they started on their hike, bringing along Peter and Andrew and John.] On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. (John 1:43, [John 1:44-51,] John 2:1.

By my reconstruction, Jesus found Philip on Wednesday morning, they hiked that day and all of Thursday, and arrived in Cana on Friday with plenty of time for the wedding celebration before Sabbath began Friday eve. (I place the start of their hike on the Jordan River not far from the southern outlet of the Sea of Galilee. See my blog post of November 15, 2015 for the details.)

6 Stone Pots, 20 to 30 Gallons Each

Here are the five contenders for the location of Cana:

1: Qana, Lebanon. A whole bunch of fervent Lebanese Christians promote this south Lebanon town as the real Cana, despite the fact that the town isn't even in Galilee. But unless Jesus and company use holy teleportation, they are not going to reach Lebanon on a two-day hike. And if they did use supernatural transportation, the Gospel of John would surely have mentioned it. We can toss this one out.

2. Kafr Kanna, Israel. If you ask the "Jesus Trail" tour guides for Cana, they will bring you here, where the ornate and imposing Franciscan Wedding Chapel is built next to where some ancient water jars were found. But there is no mention of any other archaeological support for this location. It is just the "traditional" site, four miles northeast of Nazareth..

3. Karm-er-Rasm, Israel. This recently excavated site is favored by the excavating archaeologist, having found evidence of a Roman town with a significant Jewish population in the right time period. It is just north of Kafr Kanna, which may have picked up its Cana reputation when Karm-er-Rasm disappeared below the sands. Other scholars, though, remain unconvinced.

Fanciful Re-enactment of the Wedding Procession at Cana

4. Khirbet Kana, Israel (translation: Ruins of Cana.". These extensive ruins sit on a limestone outcropping 300 feet above the floor of a valley which is 5.6 miles north of Kafr Kanna. A guidebook to the Holy Land written between AD 517 and 527 by one Theodosius confidently names this as the Cana location. Later explorers and cartographers of the Middle Ages also placed Cana here, saying that the spots where the six water jugs had stood could be plainly seen. 

5. Ain Qam, Israel, "the Spring of Cana." The name of the place fits well, but this location has not been excavated. Plus, at one mile north of Nazareth it seems too close to be its own unique spot. If there were a major town here, it would have overshadowed Nazareth.

My vote for the true location of Cana is Khirbet Kana, #4 above.

The Wedding at Cana is the Largest Painting in the Louvre

Post #68

John and Caiaphas

Did the High Priest know John the Apostle?

Although Annas was the senior high priest according to the Jews, his son-in law Caiaphas was the functioning high priest appointed by the Romans. John was by tradition the youngest and "least" of the apostles. Could Caiaphas have known John?

"Let him in. That's my friend."

The answer comes from the gospel written by John himself:  "Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest" (18:15). That is the un-named disciple that runs like a thread through the length of the gospel, and always refers to John himself.

How could a man at the pinnacle of priestly power in Jerusalem know a young commercial fisherman from the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, 90 miles away? It is less improbable than it seems, for the markets in Jerusalem were where you could fetch the highest price possible for dried, salted fish guaranteed to be prepared according to the dietary customs of the Jews. Either alone or with his brother or his father Zebedee, in the past John had been known at the back (market) gate of Caiaphas' place, hawking his wares.

This need not have been a close relationship between Caiaphas and John. John's presence at the house had been known, and perhaps the fish he brought to sell had been greatly appreciated. Caiaphas would not have been in the habit of answering the door, for that was always the job of a servant girl, and the household staff would have been in charge of buying food from merchants such as John.

And the servant girl was doing her job well: Simon Peter, who was with John, was a stranger at Caiaphas' house and was therefor barred from entering, even though he was following the crowd that had arrested Jesus.. John had to intercede with the servant girl and vouch for him, perhaps saying "It's okay, he's my friend."

"You Aren't One of That Man's Disciples, Are You?"

"Nope. I'm not a disciple."

Yes, she's doing her job, although you and I might fault the security system at Caiaphas' house. She probably had backup available to screen out unwanted visitors. But now, inside the perimeter, were two dedicated followers of "that man" that had just been arrested on orders of her boss and was being held at another level of the courtyard. 

You can spot John in movies or paintings, because he is always portrayed as beardless because of his youth. Just check out the paintings of Rembrandt or the portrayal of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. By the time of Jesus' arrest, John had been with Jesus for three years, yet he's still been unable to grow the beard worn by any self-respecting Jew of the first century.

"I Tell You, I Don't Know the Man!"

"I tell you, I don't know the man!"

Peter is digging himself deeper in his denials. The third time he denied Jesus, he made eye contact with him across the courtyard, and realized what he had been doing. A rooster crowed as Jesus had foretold, and Peter began to weep bitterly, leaving John behind in the courtyard.

But the story of John and Caiaphas (and Peter) does not end there. About a year or two later, John and Peter healed a lame beggar outside the temple in the name of Jesus. They were arrested and brought before Annas and Caiaphas.

"By What Power, Or in What Name, Have You Done This?

"There is salvation in no one else but Jesus."

By this time Peter was a changed man. He had been teaching and preaching with great power, and many were becoming followers of the "Way" of Jesus. Peter said, "There is salvation in no one else but Jesus; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

The priests conferred in the high council, then told John and Peter not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But they said, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge, for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard." Then the high council released them, for no laws had been broken that they could charge to John and Peter.

Some 30 years later, when John was writing his gospel, he remembered what he had learned that happened in the high council before they arrested Jesus. Caiaphas had declared, "It is better for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." John wrote that Caiaphas, because he was high priest, had been inspired to speak those words prophetically, even though he did not understand what he was saying.

Jesus Rose From the Dead,

But Caiaphas' Bones Were Collected into this Bone Box.

Ossuary of Caiaphas

Post #67

Pop Quiz: Name Jesus' First Four Disciples!

NOPE, WRONG.  GUESS AGAIN.

The first few times I read the Gospels, I was amazed, each time. Here comes this dude out of nowhere, and addresses a company of commercial fishermen at work. He says, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of Men." Simon (later called Peter), Andrew, James, and John, drop what they're doing, and follow Jesus down the road to Capernaum.

I don't know about you, but I considered that if this happened to me, I'd look around to see if there were any cops available, or better yet, a team of mental health professionals. No way would I follow this weirdo, and I'm not so sure that I want to "fish" for men. Were Simon, Andrew, James, and John that gullible, or what?

The Gospels are arranged in the Bible according to early ideas as to the order in which they were written: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. So that's the order in which I read them, and wondered how Jesus really got his first disciples. The early church scribes got at least one thing right: The Gospel of John was written last, probably many years after the first three. And we should note: it was three or four hundred years before the 27 "books" of the New Testament began to be bound together in a single volume.

I found the Gospel of John so different from the others that I was not sure it was written about the same dude. But gradually I learned that this last Gospel had been written in large part to include certain things that happened (or were said), but never made their way into the first three. One of the things it made clear is that Jesus didn't call his first disciples near the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. No, his first disciples were called when Jesus was many miles from there, at the southern end of the sea of Galilee, down by the Jordan River. And this took place many months before Jesus called these four men out of their boats.

Down by  the Jordan:

Jesus, John, and Andrew

( I picked this image because it portrays John the Apostle without a beard. John has always been recognized as the youngest of the Apostles and portrayed with no beard, even three years after he met Jesus. Check out paintings of the Last Supper, for example. If this is true about John, he must have been a teenager when he met Jesus.)

Who were the first disciples? For the first two disciples, check out the Gospel of John chapter one verses 35 to 39:

The next day John [the Baptist] was standing again with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Look! The Lamb of God!"  The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him, and said to them, "What are you seeking?" And they said to him, "Teacher, where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and you will see."  So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was [already] about 4:00pm.

So who were these two young men? The writer of the Gospel says that one of them was Andrew, the brother of Simon (Peter). He leaves the other one nameless, although most scholars through the years have surmised that the second one was John the future apostle himself, the traditional author of the Gospel of John. The author remains un-named throughout the Gospel, although he does get described as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He is also mentioned at the end of the book along with his brother James, identified only as "sons of Zebedee" (John 21:2).

Now we know the first two disciples, Andrew the son of Jonas and younger brother of Simon, and John the son of Zebedee and younger brother of James. But that day one more new disciple was brought to Jesus, as shown in John 1:40-42:

One of the two who heard John [the Baptist] speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah." He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "So you are Simon the son of Jonas? You  shall be called Peter."

Since it is not mentioned, we may guess that Peter was not a disciple of the Baptist, which is why he missed hearing "Look! The Lamb of God!"  But what about James, the older brother of the Gospel writer? If he had met Jesus this same day, it is hard to fathom why that would be left out of the Gospel. In any case, James would almost certainly have met the Master when Peter invited Jesus to live in his house in Capernaum for a while. Or maybe our first guess was right after all.

But there were two more disciples to follow Jesus the very next day: Philip of Bethsaida and Nathanael of Cana. Philip would have been known to the three fishermen (Peter, Andrew, John) for all of them hail originally from Bethsaida. Nathanael son of Tholmai was a friend of  Philip, who was a proficient speaker of Greek. Nathanael's name in Aramaic was Nathanael bar Tholmai, from which comes (in Greek) his other name: Bartholomew.

Now Jesus has five disciples (at least), and the first thing Jesus does is to invite them to a wedding in Cana, where his mother will be helping to supervise the servants. At the wedding Jesus picks up his four older step-brothers (from a previous marriage of Joseph) and they all go to Capernaum at the invitation of Peter.

Jesus's first move was to offer friendship. From that point forward he discipled them to the point that they trusted and believed in him. At exactly the right time, Jesus walked down the beach and invited his four fisher-men disciples to leave their occupation and follow him into the strange territory of "fishers of men."

By observing how Jesus worked, we can draw lessons for ourselves as we disciple others. Friendship is a good first step.

Post #66