It sounds absurd to ask what Jesus did on his summer vacation. Except that we know exactly what he did on his summer vacation, because the gospels make that very clear. Jesus Had a Day Job Let’s start by noting the obvious fact that Jesus had a day job. He worked as a “tekton,” according to Mark 6:3. (This is the only verse in the Bible that says what Jesus did for a living.) Note that “tekton” is a Greek word that means a manual laborer in stone, metal, or wood. This has been often translated into English as “carpenter,” but …
galilee
Around Galilee With Jesus
In a previous blog post, I talked about what it was like to go On the Road With Jesus. Jesus took a lot of road trips. He seems to have gone often to the major feasts in Jerusalem (Passover in the spring, Pentecost in early summer, Tabernacles in the fall). It was a long trip to go from his home region of Galilee down to Jerusalem. Each trip must have taken several weeks. But he also took a lot of local trips inside Galilee. What was Galilee like? Galilee Was Small Galilee was a pretty small region in the time …
Jesus in the Big City
You sometimes hear it said that Jesus was a country boy from a tiny village in Galilee. That is true, sort of, but it’s a bit misleading. Yes, Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a small village covering maybe 10 acres. At that time, Nazareth had a population of somewhere around 200, give or take. It might possibly have had as many as 400 souls. A small village, typical in first-century Galilee. But Nazareth was also only about 3 miles away from the big city of Tsipori. When Jesus was a boy, Tsipori was the capital city of Galilee. (When Jesus …
On the Road to Jerusalem With Jesus
According to the gospels, Jesus routinely took the road to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. The main feasts were Passover (in early spring), Pentecost (in late spring), and Tabernacles (in early fall). But we know Jesus also spent at least one Hanukkah (early winter) in Jerusalem. For most of his life, Jesus lived in Nazareth, a village in Galilee about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. And for the last few years, he made his headquarters in Capernaum, another 20 miles or so east of Nazareth. Today, you can drive from Jerusalem to Galilee in less than two hours. But …
On the Road With Jesus
According to the gospels, Jesus did a lot of walking. For starters, he walked “all through Galilee.” That sounds like an exaggeration. Galilee was a big area, right? How could anyone walk all through Galilee? How long would that take? Where would you stay? It turns out we can make some good guesses on that. Over the last few years, while working on my Crown of Thorns series of novels, I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about what it was like to go on the road with Jesus. The answers might surprise you. How Far Across Galilee? In …