Jesus Christ

December 14
When Larry Lawrence was a seventy, Laurel was asked to write a script for a Christmas luncheon of teh General Authorities' wives on the Life of the Savior. This is taken from the script she wrote.

What we know about Christ's earthly family
The Old Testament prophets spoke of Him:

Side note: The Old testament was written in Hebrew; the New Testament was written in Greek because it was written for the whole Roman Empire and Greek was the most common language there.

So names of Prophets are different in the Old Testament than New Testament.
Esaias, is the same as Isaiah
Jonah is Jonas
Elijah is Elias
Joses is Joseph
Jacob is James
Miriam was Mary - her parents spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, so her real name was Miriam. It was written Mary in the New Testament  for the people.

Mary (or Miriam) was a very common name because it was in the scriptures that the Savior would come from Mary, so when people had a baby girl, they hoped she would be the one, or hoped if they named her after the chosen one, she would grow up like her. John 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 

There were 3 Marys right there.

Mary would have been a royal princess if they hand't been under Roman rule. They were good, humble people who didn't act like royalty.

Usually women were betrothed by 14 and married by 15. Mary was betrothed to her first cousin. (In the New Testament "cousin" can also mean  "related") He was sensitive, kind, and had a spiritual gift of dreams. He was probably 18; men usually married before they were 20. The bridegroom was to prepare a house for the bride before the marriage.

Tradition always says Joseph was a carpenter, but wood was very scarce there, so it is better translated that he was a skilled craftsman - probably a stone mason.

Per Nephi's vision, Mary was beautiful. She was chosen way before. IN the time before their marriage, she was probably occupied sewing for her trousseau.

When the angel appeared, she was surprised, then terrified. She was the same age as Joseph Smith when the angel appeared to him. The angel was Gabriel (Noah as a resurrected being)
Mary and Joseph weren't ready to be married. He had to prepare a house and she had to ready her trousseau.

It says Mary was "carried away" by the Spirit. there are no details, but as soon as it happened,she wanted to talk to another woman who would understand - her 'elderly' cousin, Elizabeth.

Mary saw that Elizabeth believed and was relieved. Mary began to praise God and her language shows that she was intelligent, studied, and a scholar.

When Mary returned to Joseph, he could see that she was pregnant and was distraught. He had heard the gossip. Even when Christ was grown and teaching, people questioned his inception - John 8 41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

Joseph wondered how she could have been unfaithful and knew he could have her stoned. Finally an angel appeared to him and said to him, "Thou son of Abraham" which shows that he was royal lineage also and legal heir to the throne. Jesus inherited royalty from both earthly parents. When the people greet him in the New Testament, they call Him the Son of David. Nobody doubted his earthly lineage (except the Romans and Scribes and Pharisees.)

But Joseph was kind and didn't want to press charges.

Where id Luke get all the information for chapter 2? He wasn't there with them at the time. Some believe he went to Ephesus (where Mary was living with John) to preach and sought out Mary and asked her many questions. The quotes sound like they came from Mary herself, like that she 'treasured all these things in her heart'. There are details that only Mary would have known or felt.

The manger was an animal trough. The manger was probably a cave where animals were kept. It would have been dark and cold with a low ceiling. The swaddling clothes were like diapers. There may have been lots of sheep and shepherds around the area. 

Wise men weren't at the manger but saw Him later when he was a toddler. It says in the scriptures the they came to the "house".

When Jesus was a child, he also had a veil of forgetfulness. Mary and Joseph probably taught Him to pray and taught Him the scriptures. By age of 12 He knew who His Father was and what His mission was. He could explain the scriptures to adults. Mary and Joseph probably weren't so knowledgeable in the scriptures to explain them to the learned men, so I think Jesus was taught by angels through His life, like Joseph Smith was.

He grew up with His family and worked with Joseph. He learned his trade. In those days if a man taught a boy his trade, it became an adoption. Boys were sent to other men's places to learn their trade, and it was as if that man had adopted the child. So if Joseph taught Jesus his trade, that also made Joseph the "adopted" father of Jesus. So He was also in this way made legal heir to the throne.

The definition of spirituality is to learn truth and act on it. Jesus learned quickly and had to have been taught from above to know more than adults.

Jesus' brothers were James, Joses (Matt 13:55), Simon, Judas. We know he had more than one sister (Matt 6:3), so there were a minimum of 8 children.

It may have been a heartbreak to Mary that all her sons did't believe that Jesus was the Christ. (John 7:5 For neither did his brethren believe in him.)

Mary was possibly a widow by the time Jesus was 12; it doesn't mention Joseph at the wedding and o mention of Joseph after the temple incident. In those days there was no life insurance. Young women with 8 children had to have a hard time.

The reason the oldest child always got a double portion of the inheritance was that he was responsible for the support of the entire family when the father died. That's why Jesus gave the responsibility of Mary's support to John, who was his 1st cousin.

1st Cor 15, one of the first appearances after His death was to his brother James. AFter that, all of his brothers were converted and faithful. - Acts 1, Epistle of James (brother of Jesus) and Epistle of Jude (brother of Jesus). James (brother of Jesus) was a Bishop in Jerusalem. James of the 1st Presidency of the Church was the first beheaded by Herod. He was replaced by James who was Jesus' brother. James and John (sons of thunder) were Jesus' cousins.

Mary was happy that all of her children were faithful and lived a long life. We don't worship her but we respect her. She is not yet resurrected and is still in the Spirit World.