Childhood of Jesus
Notes:
DISCUSSION QUESTION: What places did Jesus live as a child? Jesus was born in Bethlehem as prophesied in Micah 5:2. We note that the book of Mormon incorrectly states that Jesus was born in Jerusalem (Alma 7:10). The Bible not only predicts that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem but since there were two towns in the Bible named Bethlehem, the prophet Micah specified which one (Bethlehem Ephrathah). The baby Jesus was taken to Jerusalem when he was 8 days old (Luke 2:21-40). They then returned to their home in Nazareth (Luke 2:39). Later, the baby Jesus was taken to Egypt to save Him from Herod (Matthew 2:13-18). After the death of Herod, Jesus is brought back to Nazareth of Galilee and thus was called a Jesus of Nazareth or simply a Nazarene (Matthew 2:19-23). Nazareth was not an esteemed place (John 1:46). Later, at the age of 12 Jesus is taken to the Temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:41-52). One of reasons that the Jewish religious leaders refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah was because they said that the prophecies did not describe the Messiah as coming out of Galilee (John 7:52).Although Jesus was raised in Galilee, he was born in Bethlehem as prophesied. This they had missed. Jesus also came out of Egypt as prophesied in Hosea 11:1. Thus, Jesus fulfilled a variety of prophecies as a child. These were prophecies that were fulfilled before he was old enough to have any physical control over. This is an important point in evidences that Jesus is the messiah.
Thus the known travels of Jesus as a child included, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Egypt and Nazareth.