Ruth D – Is the book of JUDE written by Jesus brother?
Dave – Yes, Jude was the brother of James the Just who was the son of Mary and Joseph. James was martyred in 62 AD (or maybe 69 AD).
Ruth D – When did Jesus get supernatural powers? I believe Jesus knew he had supernatural powers right from the beginning, he is God. He wanted to fulfill the Scripture, when it was his time. I believe he was tempted so many times, but being a perfect human he was able to resist, even as a child. When he was just 12 years old he said,”I am about my father business.” I betcha he was praying as soon as he started talking. His first word was probably “ABBA’.
Dave to Ruth – When did Jesus get His supernatural powers? There have been silly fables passed down over the years about Jesus doing miracles as a little boy. One was that He made some birds out of clay, then clapped His hands and they came alive and flew away. Another had Him sliding down a beam of light when coming down off a rooftop. Uh…I don’t think so. What does make sense is that He received the power just after He was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Why?
- The is no Scriptural (authoritative, reliable) source stating He had them before.
- The nature of these 3 sudden temptations, which explains why the Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness and had Him fasting immediately after His baptism. The Spirit knew something big was coming and He had to prepare Jesus to face it.
- Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. If you got His powers suddenly, don’t you think you would hear thoughts just like the 3 temptations? “Hey, man, you don’t have to work for food anymore, you can just snap your fingers and there it will be!” “Hey Messiah, make a circus show of yourself by falling down 100 feet and survive without a scratch – you’ll be the toast of the town!” (Eat your heart out David Blaine and David Copperfield). “You can have the whole world paying you homage, just do it my way (worship me).” Therefore, the very nature of the temptations seems to reveal not only what powers were given to Jesus, but also when. If Jesus had these powers earlier in life, I am sure the devil would have come to Him then. One does not possess powers like Jesus for years and not be tempted to use them wrongly.
Ruth D – After making this statement, I began to really think about this. I think Jesus knew he was God right from the get go, but he did not receive his powers until the Holy Spirit descended upon him, when he was baptized. This brings up another question, were the disciples baptized? We know Jesus gave them the power to heal, and cast out demons.
Dave – Although the Bible does not speak of the Apostles being water baptized, I think it is safe to assume that they were.
Regarding Jesus’ knowledge of who He was, it is difficult to say to what extent. At age 12, He certainly must have been aware that He was someone very special because when His parents were looking for Him, He said to them, “Didn’t you know that I would about My Father’s business” and He was astonishing grown men with His questions and answers (I always wanted to know what He was saying then). I tend to think He had a gradual revelation about being the Savior of the world, mostly because, as a real human being, He had to gradually learn His language of the day. In other words, how could He know things about himself without knowing any words yet? So perhaps by age 12 He had full knowledge. The knowledge of how He would save souls is another issue. Perhaps the knowledge of the Cross gradually came to Him growing up as well, or perhaps at His baptism. In the end, all this is not very important, but folks like you and me do really wonder about things like this. 🙂
Feedback:
Gary R – Brother Dave, Nice work very enlightening. I appreciate all the hard work you do on our behalf.
Cindi L – This was very good dialog. I have often wondered this myself – gradual awareness seems likely – just on pure cognitive development alone (to me).
When He was tempted in the wilderness, angels did minister to him after – I do think that solidified any speculation after this point. He clearly knew the Plan from that point onward as he tried to tell the disciples prophetically how he would die, etc.
I also agree that I tend to believe he received his powers after Baptism as we don’t hear of explicit miracles until the wedding…as a young person expounding on Scriptures He obviously had gifts of wisdom and discernment (and He spoke with authority) and operated with these (natural or supernatural could be argued, I guess). Thanks for bringing it up, Ruth D.