Jesus wasn't Poor
"'How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? (Jeremiah 8:8 - NIV)
As many of the followers and converts could not read, and as the expense of manuscripts was considerable, copies of the sacred books were not in the hands of all Christians but were instead in the hands of the rich who could afford it. However, their frequent rehearsal in the public assemblies made the multitude familiar with their contents, and some of the brethren possessed an amount of acquaintance with these records which would be deemed most extraordinary. Eusebius spoke of several individuals who could repeat, at will, any required passage from either the Old or New Testament.
Most of the misinterpretations and distortions of what Jesus said happened before it was ever written down. " I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face." (3John 1:13-14) What they said was passed down by word of mouth from one person to another. This way of passing down sayings and stories will often change them, sometimes almost completely.
Back then, people could not understand the truth, so what Jesus and the Apostles said was turned into myths as it was passed down. Even after they were written down, they continued to be misinterpreted and distorted during translations from one language to another. This is why scholars seek the oldest Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the oldest New Testament that is available when they are trying to decide what Jesus and the Apostles really said.
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20:29-30)
Then came the brutal Roman emperor Constantine and the corrupt Council of Nicaea whom he completely controlled. This was the men who created the "official" Bible, from which some Bibles today are still copied. It was created to serve their political agenda in 325 AD simply because Constantine was losing much of his power and control throughout the Roman empire. It was created by the enemies of Christianity, the same empire that had been trying to destroy the religion. It was not created to enlighten people; it was created to control people. Much of the wording was changed to suit their purpose and many of the original books that should have been included were not. Then Constantine went on to try and completely destroy any copies of the "Lost Gospels" that he could. Fortunately, he was not totally successful in doing this and several copies survived.
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. " (2 Timothy 3:16)
The above information was presented with the purpose of hopefully helping you to open your mind to the rest of the article. Some folks will read it and say, "That makes sense". Others will read it and believe it to be filled with falsities and goes against what they have been taught in church. But it was not presented for the purpose of trying to change anyone's mind about their beliefs; it was presented to give you "Food for Thought".
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Jesus is Born
Joseph is called the carpenter in Matthew 13:55, so he was obviously employed and was a trade worker and that information implies that he was never poor. Carpenters were skilled laborers and not house builders like we think today. Houses were not framed by carpenters in those days when Jesus was born; they were made of clay or brick or stone. Carpenters built more furniture and things out of the wood for the inside of the house, and they built doors made from exotic woods for those who could afford them.
Jesus is born in a manger in Bethlehem because why? Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Apparently Joseph tried to stay at the inn but they were full? Do you know you have to have money to stay at any Inn? By the time Joseph and Mary arrive at Bethlehem the inn is full of people and there is nowhere else for them to stay so they stay in the manger. Better than outside, but not what they had in mind either. Jesus was only born in the manger because the INN was FULL!
Tradition shows that there were three wise men who came to pay honor to Jesus, but that is not true because the bible only says "wise men" and does not say how many there were. So there could have been anywhere from two at the least to an unlimited number of wise men all presenting to Jesus their treasures. Matthew 2:1-2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Tradition also says the wise men came to the stable, but in Matthew 2:11 it says And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. So when these wise men met Jesus for the first time, they came to present their gifts to a young child in a house, not a baby in a manger
Apparently from this information we can see that Jesus, at the very least, was a child who lived in a house with his mother and father.
Next did you notice what these men brought to Jesus? It says they brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We all know what gold is. Frankincense: the English word is derived from old French "franc encens" and is used in incense and perfumes. Myrrh: was an ingredient of Ketoret, the consecrated incense used in the Temples at Jerusalem, as described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud. An offering was made of the Ketoret on a special incense altar, and was a costly and important component of the Temple service. Myrrh is also listed as an ingredient in the holy anointing oil used to anoint the Tabernacle, high priests, and kings.
So if men traveled a great distance to see a newborn king, would they have brought small insignificant trivial gifts or abundantly sized extravagant gifts fit for a living king?
The House That Jesus Owned
The Magi came to a house that Jesus (a young child) was living in with Mary and Joseph. This would imply that it was Joseph's house and would therefore have been in Nazareth, and not in Bethlehem, and that Joseph owned this house before the Magi came to present their gifts to Jesus.
The home of Joseph and Mary was a one-room stone structure with a flat roof and an adjoining building for housing the animals. In the back yard, near the animal annex, was the shelter which covered the oven and the mill for grinding grain. Next to this was Joseph's shop. After the birth of Martha, Joseph built a large addition onto the house which would serve as bedrooms for all their children.
Joseph was well able to support his family; he was a carpenter who had a shop at his home. Then he accepted a position of foreman of a large group of workmen employed on the governor's residence that was in the process of construction. In order to work as a foreman, Joseph turned the shop over to his brothers. And from whatever profits he had coming from his shop along with his income from being a foreman on the governor's residence, the family's income had more than tripled. So Joseph would have no need to spend the gold given to Jesus by the Magi, or to sell the very valuable frankincense and myrrh in order to support his family.
All was going well until that fateful day when a runner from Sepphoris brought to this Nazareth home the tragic news that Joseph had been severely injured by the falling of a derrick while at work on the governor's residence. The messenger from Sepphoris had stopped at the shop on the way to Joseph's home, informing Jesus of his father's accident, and they went together to the house to break the sad news to Mary. Jesus desired to go immediately to his father, but Mary would hear to nothing but that she must hasten to her husband's side. She directed that James, then ten years of age, should accompany her to Sepphoris while Jesus remained home with the younger children until she should return, as she did not know how seriously Joseph had been injured. But Joseph died of his injuries before Mary arrived.
In truth we do not know when Joseph died; but it is most unlikely that he attained a ripe old age. We may well suppose that Jesus's foster-father died before the beginning of Jesus ministry . In several circumstances, indeed, the Bible speaks of the latter's mother and brothers (Matthew 12:46, Mark 3:31, Luke 8:19, John 7:3), but never does it speak of His father in connection with the rest of the family; they tell us only that Jesus, during His public life, was referred to as the son of Joseph (John 1:45 and 6:42, Luke 4:22) the carpenter (Matthew 13:55). But would Jesus, when about to die on the Cross, have entrusted His mother to John's care, had Joseph been still alive?
Upon Joseph's death it would have been Jesus, as eldest son, who would have inherited Joseph's home and finances. Women [wives], under Jewish laws, could not inherit any type of property to include their own home and any wealth that may have been accrued. If there were not any sons, then the property and finances would have been passed on to one of Joseph's brothers and they would have assumed responsibility to care for Joseph's family. But,in this case, that was not necessary.
Mark 6:4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.”
Jesus himself spoke some words and said that He owned a house. Did you notice that? The Greek word translated as “house” literally means a residence. The inclusion of a personal pronoun of ”own” before the noun house (residence) conveys ownership responsibility and is directly associated to the speaker of the words and that was clearly Jesus.
Jesus now owned a home!
Jesus the boat builder
Jesus, the carpenter, also became a boat builder before he began his ministry at age 30.
Jesus had fully and finally separated himself from the management of the domestic affairs of the Nazareth family. He continued, right up to the event of his baptism, to contribute to the family finances and to take a keen personal interest in the spiritual welfare of every one of his brothers and sisters. And always was he ready to do everything humanly possible for the comfort of his widowed mother.
All the family had slowly awakened to the realization that Jesus was making ready to leave them. The sadness of the anticipated separation was only tempered by this graduated method of preparing them for the announcement of his intended departure. For more than four years they discerned that he was planning for this eventual separation.
In January of the year A.D. 21, on a rainy Sunday morning, Jesus took unceremonious leave of his family, only explaining that he was going over to Tiberius and then on a visit to other cities around the Sea of Galilee. And thus he left them, never again to be a regular member of that household.
He spent one week at Tiberius, and finding little to interest him, he passed on successively through Magdala and Bethsaida and then on to Capernaum, where he stopped to pay a visit to his father's friend Zebedee. Zebedee's sons were fishermen; he himself was a boat builder. Jesus of Nazareth was an expert in both designing and building; he was a master at working with wood; and Zebedee had long known of the skill of the Nazareth craftsman and the excellent reputation he had built. For a long time Zebedee had contemplated making improved boats; he now laid his plans before Jesus and invited the visiting carpenter to join him in the enterprise, and Jesus readily consented.
Jesus worked with Zebedee a little more than a year, but during that time he created a new style of boat and established entirely new methods of boat-making. By superior technique and greatly improved methods of steaming the boards, Jesus and Zebedee began to build boats of a very superior type, craft which were far more safe for sailing the lake than were the older types. Shortly after they started this venture Zebedee had more work, turning out these new-style boats, than his small establishment could handle. Jesus became well known to the Galilean fisher-folk as the designer of the new boats.
In March, A.D. 22, Jesus took leave of Zebedee and of Capernaum. He asked only for a small sum of money to defray his expenses to Jerusalem. While working with Zebedee he had drawn only small sums of money, which each month he would send to his family at Nazareth. One month Joseph would come down to Capernaum for the money; the next month Jude would come over to Capernaum, get the money from Jesus, and take it up to Nazareth. Jude’s fishing headquarters was only a few miles south of Capernaum.
Before leaving Capernaum, Jesus had a long talk with his new-found friend and close companion, Zebedee's son John. He told John that he contemplated traveling extensively until “my hour shall come” and asked John to act in his stead in the matter of sending some money to the family at Nazareth each month until the funds due him should be exhausted. And John made him this promise: “My Teacher, go about your business, do your work in the world; I will act for you in this or any other matter, and I will watch over your family even as I would foster my own mother and care for my own brothers and sisters. I will disburse your funds which my father holds as you have directed and as they may be needed, and when your money has been expended, if I do not receive more from you, and if your mother is in need, then will I share my own earnings with her. Go your way in peace. I will act in your stead in all these matters.”
Therefore, after Jesus had departed for Jerusalem, John consulted with his father, Zebedee, regarding the money due Jesus, and he was surprised that it was such a very large sum.
And John fulfilled his promises to Jesus: John 19:26-27 (NIV) "When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home."
Jesus starts His Ministry
Mat 8:14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.
So reading about Peter in the Bible we can clearly see that Peter was a businessman who made a living and had a job and thus was not homeless or a man of poverty. Jesus came into Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law. So the house was large enough to accommodate more than just his wife. Jesus did not pick men who were homeless and poor to associate with, so why do people think Jesus was homeless and poor himself? Somehow it makes people feel good on the inside to think that Jesus had nothing, owned nothing, and depended upon others for everything that He needed. This is exactly how Satan wants you to envision your Jesus so that you will never rise above the level of His poor example.
Did Jesus ever ask for money? Did Jesus ever go around asking people to support his itinerant ministry?
We can only speculate. One thing, however, is sure. He was financially supported by the women who followed him (Luke 8:3). In some ways, we can say that the itinerant ministry of Jesus and his disciples (men) were successful because of the support of the women supporters. They provided for their food, cooking, clothes, and other peripheral needs. Luke 8:1-3 (NIV) says: "After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means."
Money that was given to Jesus and His disciples was held in community and used to feed the poor. Jesus, deliberately it seems, gave charge of the money-bag to Judas, who stole from it. John 12:4-6 (NIV) "But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 'Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?' It was worth a year’s wages.He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it."
If Jesus only had a little bit of money and Judas took a little bit of it out, it would easily be missed? But, if Jesus had a lot of money in the bag and Judas slowly took out a little here and a little there, it would never be missed by anyone? Using this story of Judas alone we discover that Jesus did carry large sums of money, enough so that a little bit is never missed.
Frederick K.C. Price states: "If Jesus didn't have anything, what do you need a treasury for? A treasury is for surplus. It's not for that which you're spending. It's only for surplus-to hold it until you need to spend it. Therefore, He must have had a whole lot that needed to be held in advance that He wasn't spending. So He must have had more than He was living on." ("Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN [23 November 1990.)
Mar 6:36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.
We have an interesting story of many people following Jesus in the wilderness. In the Bible verse before this one it says that it is very late in the day and the disciples come to Jesus and ask Him to send the people away so that they can still make it home to get something to eat. However, Jesus had a different lesson to teach them and said this:
Mar 6:37 “You give them something to eat.”They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
Jesus told the disciples to get all of the people something to eat and since there were thousands of them, the disciples ask Him a very strange question for poor homeless men. If these disciples did not have in their possession the coins to buy this bread they would have said let’s go take up a collection so that we can go buy them some bread. But, they did not say that, did they? They asked Jesus, do you want us to go and spend a half a year's wages to buy all of these people bread to eat? The Bible tells us that there were approximately 5000 men in this group and we know these men had wives and children along with them. so there could have been about 15000 people there around Jesus. So why would the poor disciples ask Jesus if He wanted them to go and buy food for all of them, if they did not already have the money to do it? That would really be a stupid question to ask wouldn’t it. The disciples had enough money on them to feed everyone, but still there were no bread stores in the wilderness to buy this food, so Jesus goes with His original plan of multiplying the loaves and fishes of a boy’s lunch. The disciples could have solved the problem in a natural way, but Jesus was teaching them a supernatural method of supply.
Conclusion
In his youth Jesus was given gifts of great value: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. His foster-father, Joseph, was a skilled craftsman who's income was above average, so there was no need to use the valuable gifts given to Jesus to support his family. Joseph taught Jesus the skills he possessed as a master carpenter. Upon Joseph's death, Jesus inherited his foster-father's home and workshop. Jesus spent a little over a year designing and building boats that were highly desired, and used this income to also provide for the comfort of his mother and siblings. And shortly after He actually started his ministry He had women who provided, out of their own means, for His and His disciples needs. Jesus and His disciples had enough money in their treasury to buy food and feed a meal to thousands of people.
Does this sound like the poor Savior that traditional myths and stories often tell us about?
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20:29-30)