Post by Zadkiel on Jan 12, 2016 22:56:34 GMT
The census that Emperor Augustus ordered Quirinius to conduct in Samaria, Judea and Idumea happened in the year 6. Luke thus renders Jesus' "spiritual" or symbolic rebirth when he was 12 years old. Because of the chronological confusion in Luke about Jesus' physical birth and his symbolic rebirth twelve years later, the story of Jesus that remained behind in the Temple in March 17 (Luke 2:41-50) has also been distorted and displaced in time. Jesus was not 12 years old when this happened, but "in his twelfth year after the symbolic rebirth", i.e. he had just celebrated his 23rd birthday. Instead of joining his parents for further festivities among the strictest of the Essenes, he remained in the Temple to discuss "his Father's affairs" with the priests in the Temple, not "God's things", but things in relation to his spiritual leader Eleazar Annas, who still used the title "Father".
