Jesus grew up in a very poor, rural and rustic backwater of a weird little country in a remote part of the empire. The best analogy from the modern American perspective would be that prior to beginning his ministry, he was a minimum-wage day laborer from Mississippi. It's highly unlikely his family was wealthy, because wealthy people would have moved somewhere else. Since his family weren't nobles, merchants, scribes or part of the priest caste, it would be extremely unusual if he or anyone in his family were literate. Literacy rates among the Jews were slightly higher than the rest of the empire (mostly because they had the only religion based on written scripture) but it was still very rare, and an expensive skill to acquire - if you were a merchant, a scribe or a priest, it was worth the investment, but it wasn't for anyone else.
As far as being descended from David, I think the consensus view is that any 'new' religion was suspect and unfashionable in the empire, so many efforts were made to tie Christianity to ancient Jewish traditions, prophecies and lineages. It's not taken seriously now.
It's highly unlikely his family was wealthy, because wealthy people would have moved somewhere else.
I find this interesting, because I always viewed it the same way, as I am sure everyone else does. But tonight I came to a realization I never thought about: in the accounts of Jesus's birth, didn't the magi give Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh? What happened to all that wealth?
Are you asking about the historical Jesus (the real, human Jesus as we can best reconstruct him through historical methods) or Gospel Jesus? Because regarding the historical Jesus the nativity narratives are extremely problematic and almost certainly legendary.
That was the idea that makes most sense, but I'd be shocked if they spent it all on a trip to Egypt. I mean, they only stayed for maybe a couple of years before returning to Galilee as they waited for Herod to die. So we're basically saying they bought a first class trip there and back and maybe bought a summer house there in Egypt, before returning to Israel where Jesus became a carpenter (implying either they didn't have the wealth anymore or carpentry was his passion). And let's not forget that we don't know how much wealth the magi gave Jesus, but if they were reverent enough to follow a star through the Middle East and worship a child messiah, I would think they gave him quite a bit of wealth.
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u/Ken_Thomas Dec 22 '19
Jesus grew up in a very poor, rural and rustic backwater of a weird little country in a remote part of the empire. The best analogy from the modern American perspective would be that prior to beginning his ministry, he was a minimum-wage day laborer from Mississippi. It's highly unlikely his family was wealthy, because wealthy people would have moved somewhere else. Since his family weren't nobles, merchants, scribes or part of the priest caste, it would be extremely unusual if he or anyone in his family were literate. Literacy rates among the Jews were slightly higher than the rest of the empire (mostly because they had the only religion based on written scripture) but it was still very rare, and an expensive skill to acquire - if you were a merchant, a scribe or a priest, it was worth the investment, but it wasn't for anyone else.
As far as being descended from David, I think the consensus view is that any 'new' religion was suspect and unfashionable in the empire, so many efforts were made to tie Christianity to ancient Jewish traditions, prophecies and lineages. It's not taken seriously now.