First of all, I wasn’t entirely sure where to put this. I figured I’d like to hear answers from varying faiths, so this was a good place.
We know that Jesus was God made man, or however you might want to word it, and that he never sinned because he was God. But what about mistakes? Did the human “aspect”(for lack of a better word) of him ever have an arm spasm and knock over a glass of milk or did he ever trip on a rock, fall, and scrape his knee?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. And myself being Catholic, would love to know if there’s any official Church teaching on it.
Jesus did go through human development, and while His development excluded the kinds of “learning experiences” (read, sinful mistakes) that characterize everyone else’s development, I think it’s safe to conclude (as alluded to earlier in the thread) that He never learned certain things like quantum physics, He never used His body for sin but was not protected from all error or blemish, and in His youth, He probably did go through a learning phase in the course of gaining certain mental skills/tasks.
He didn’t exactly go through formal education or take standardized tests that compared Him to everyone else His age, but I’d imagine that if He’d taken a battery of IQ tests and achievement tests as a youngster, He would not have demonstrated scary good supercomputer-level reasoning skills on the IQ test and He would not have demonstrated perfect recall on His achievement tests. In all probability, the test-worthy aspects of His religious education had to do with memorizing large portions of the Tanakh, and I suspect that He applied Himself to it very well, but He probably didn’t have a photographic memory and perfect recall. There probably were times in the course of memorizing things that He would attempt to recall something and not do it perfectly on the first try.
He probably didn’t have perfect pitch (most people don’t even have relative pitch), so as a human (albeit consubstantial with His Father), I’d imagine that He didn’t have world-class singing ability. If He did sing at all (and I think He did at least a little of it), I’m sure He tried to hit all the right notes, but I don’t think He was able to hit all of them on a given day. I’m also pretty sure He did well for Himself as a carpenter, but if you can imagine that some of His work had survived…first, if genuine (and even if not genuine), it would at least go for a very high price and at most be receiving anything from veneration to straight up latria in a cathedral somewhere. But I wouldn’t expect His work to be any better than high-quality, and I don’t think He enjoyed protection from any and all design flaws. He was actually doing the human work of carpentry- He wasn’t assembling wood miraculously.
As a baby, while nursing, He may have been a little bit of a biter for all we know. It’s possible. And as an adult, we know He didn’t put milk in a glass, but when He consumed, cooked, or prepared this or any other food substance, I don’t think He was protected from spills or physical miscues. As a kid, He may have unintentionally spilt His beverage, and as an adult, there may have been times when the food He prepared was slightly crispy.
With much of this, we’re limited to supposition and semi-informed imagination. I think it’s fun to do, though, and something we probably should do every once in awhile. Religious art consistently depicts Jesus in certain ways that, at times, preclude or eliminate certain aspects of His humanity. Except in death, He’s always got a complexion and physique that’s perfect in every way. Even in death, an artist like Carravagio would get himself in trouble if Jesus’ body looked anything less than powerful and trumphant as He was en route from the cross to the tomb. Each painting tends to be something of an imaginary snapshot that captures what we want to capture (and, to a certain extent, create and mythologize) about Jesus. I think these questions are good because they help us examine the aspects of His life that are usually ignored or missed entirely. I doubt that anyone’s ever done a painting called “Jesus spills milk and supper is slightly burned,” “Adolescent Jesus has acne and feels awkward at times,” or “Baby Jesus bites down.” All of these things are anywhere from possible to probable, but it’s impossible to portray them in sacred art. It would be really hard to (literally) paint these kinds of pictures without offending people. That doesn’t mean these things didn’t or couldn’t have happened, though, and I think it’s good to talk about it every once in awhile.
At one point you seem to say ‘Of course He could speak English’, and later, ‘no, He couldn’t speak English’. ???
