Here are the Biblical answers for where Jesus was from 13 to age 29.
Rom 15:8 Christ has become a servant OF THE JEWS on behalf of GOD'S TRUTH, to CONFIRM the PROMISES MADE TO THE (JEWISH) PATRIARCHS...
Gal 4:4 ...God sent...His Son, born of woman, BORN UNDER THE LAW, to redeem those...UNDER THE LAW...
Acts 2:36 (God) SENT HIM FIRST TO YOU (JEWS) to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."
Acts 3:26 Unto YOU FIRST God...SENT HIM to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Matt 15:24 But He answered & said, “I was SENT only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Mt 10:5,6 These 12 Jesus SENT...Go not into...Gentiles...Samaritans...go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
The Three Pilgrimage Festivals, in Hebrew Shalosh Regalim (שלוש רגלים), are three major festivals in Judaism—Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost) & Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths)—when the ancient Israelites would make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem, AS COMMANDED BY THE TORAH! (Exodus 23:14-17; Lev 23:1-3) Ex 23:17 Three times/yr all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.
Luke 2:39-41 When Jesus’ parents had done everything REQUIRED BY THE LAW of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And THE CHILD grew & became strong. He was filled with wisdom & the grace of God was upon Him. EVERY YEAR His parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. And WHEN He was twelve years old, THEY WENT UP ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOM OF THE FEAST.
43When those days were over & they were returning home, THE BOY Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but His parents were unaware He had stayed. Assuming He was in their company, they traveled on for a day before they began to look for Him among their relatives and friends. 45When they could not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for Him. Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.
48When His parents saw Him, they were astonished. “And his mother said unto him, 'Child, why didst thou thus to us? Your father & I have been anxiously searching for You.' "Why were you looking for Me?” He asked. “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand this statement He was making to them. (see also Luke 9:45)
And He went down with them & came to Nazareth & HE CONTINUED IN SUBJECTION TO THEM. And His mother treasured all these things in her heart. AND JESUS KEPT INCREASING IN wisdom & stature ( maturity) & in favor with God & men.
I Samuel 2:26 And THE BOY Samuel CONTINUED TO GROW IN STATURE & in favor with the LORD & with men. (Young's Literal Transl.) Samuel is...growing up... (This is the same pattern we see in the growing up to maturity in the prophet Samuel before he started his ministry.)
Prov 3:3,4 Never let loyalty or faithfulness leave U...Then U will find favor & good repute with God & people.
Stature comes from the Latin word statura, meaning "height, size of body, growth."
Matt 13:55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?"
Mark 6:2-4 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue & many who heard Him were astonished. “Where did THIS MAN get these ideas?” they asked. “What is this WISDOM He has been given? And how can He perform such miracles?
Isn’t this THE CARPENTER--
the son of Mary & the brother of James, Joseph, Judas & Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?” And they took offense at Him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives & in his own household.”
Do you see it now? According to God's truth, Jesus was SENT FIRST to the Jews, confirming & fulfilling the promises & prophecy God made to the nation of Israel, to send the Messiah to them, to redeem them. He was born UNDER THE LAW AS A JEW being obedient & adhering to it.
One of these commandments, as a Jew, that they were COMMANDED BY GOD & required to do was make a pilgrimmage to Jerusalem for three feasts each year. Every male was to appear before God in Jerusalem every year for these three feasts. Get the picture in your mind, especially to commemorate Passover?
We first see Jesus' parents dedicating Him in the temple as a baby, again obeying the Torah (OT law), fulfilling every requirement in it & then they RETURNED to Nazareth, where they began to raise a family. The father & the sons were expected to learn a trade & make a living.
"And THE CHILD grew & became strong. He was filled with wisdom & the grace of God was upon Him. EVERY YEAR His parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover."
Here we see the child Jesus growing & becoming strong, being filled with wisdom & having God's grace upon Him. We also see Jesus' parents & their now growing family traveling to Jerusalem EVERY YEAR for Passover. Did you catch it? EVERY YEAR WITHOUT FAIL. This was commanded by the Law & they were obedient Jews. So for eleven years straight they did this.
Then when Jesus turned twelve, guess what? The Scripture states they again returned to Jerusalem for the Passover, as was their CUSTOM. This was now a yearly tradition, in order to obey God. Jesus is no longer a child but now a boy, growing bigger & stronger each day.
On this occasion, Jesus stays behind in Jerusalem for three days & when His parents find Him, He is in the temple questioning the Jewish religious leaders & showing the wisdom His heavenly Father was teaching Him. He stated He needed to be in His Father's temple & to be about His Father's business. His parents didn't yet understand what He was talking about but Jesus was already starting to obey what His heavenly Father had called Him to do--to reveal Himself as the promised Messiah, THE prophet Moses predicted would come--the predicted 'Immanuel--God tabernacling among them.' Soon He would stop being a carpenter, known as a carpenter's son.
They were astonished, as well as the Jewish leaders. Who IS THIS GROWING BOY WITH ALL THIS WISDOM? Jesus continued to shock & amaze people the rest of His life.
The pattern & custom of His life as an obedient Jewish boy under the Law is now set. It has been the same for the last 12 years STRAIGHT, without deviation. So what does the Scripture CONTINUE to teach us about what Jesus did from 13 to 29, as an obedient Jewish boy in an obedient Jewish family?
The truth of the Bible states that Jesus RETURNED to Nazareth with His parents and:
1) He CONTINUED in subjection (obedience) to them;
2) He CONTINUED to grow up--from a boy to a man--through the process of maturation, stature
3) He CONTINUED to increase in godly wisdom & grew in favor with God & with men.
How would He continue to please His heavenly Father & find favor with Him? Continue to obey the Torah & every year continue to travel to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. We see Jesus AFTER the start of His ministry at age 30--CONTINUE. as was His custom, to travel to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover every year.
How would He continue to please His adopted earthly father? He would continue in the footsteps of Joseph, learning the trade of being a carpenter. He was the oldest son. This became their livelihood. Does Scripture teach He did this? Yes. When Jesus returned to Nazareth, we see that the people who watched Him grow up in Nazareth, CALLED Him a carpenter & the son of a carpenter. He learned a trade & was practicing it as He was growing up, being watched by all the people in the small town of Nazareth. Learning a trade like that takes much time & effort & practice, in order to make a living at it.
He had to be a good carpenter since He grew in favor with men. His work pleased them & His heavenly Father's grace was upon Him. We all know about small towns & how everybody knows practically everything about each other.
We also know that these townspeople watched Jesus growing up there, along with all his brothers & sisters. This was the carpenter's family & they could recite each of their names & the name of Jesus' mother! They knew all of them & had watched them 'grow in stature,' in maturity.
We also have the issue with Jesus' family, especially with his younger brothers, now grown up like Himself. I would encourage all reading this to read this article, better said than I could do it. I will pick a few things out in it.
https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-...-late-a-d-32/jesus-ridiculed-by-his-brothers/
Luke 4:14-30 indicates that His hometown rejected Him. They could not believe He was the Messiah referred to in Isaiah 61:1-2, which Jesus said He was fulfilling, when He read that passage in their own synagogue. Famliarity breeds contempt. They had watched & knew he & his family & consequently they could not accept the idea that He was the Messiah. The old adage is that a prophet is not welcome in his hometown.
Jesus was born under the Law & born a Jew, their Messiah. He was sent first to them, to redeem & save them. He was obedient to the Law, like His parents. He was fulfilling prophecy & God's promises He made to the nation of Israel.
Now at this time in John 7, his brothers show their unbelief (vs 5) & their trying to push Him to show Himself to the crowds openly & prove to His disciples who He truly is & not to act in secret. They also knew that if Jesus did this openly in Judea, the Jews there were seeking to kill Him. It was a dangerous time.
Remember: this was the time of the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. It was one of the three feasts requiring Jewish males to travel yearly, to Jerusalem to attend. Jesus had done this every year with His family & brothers. Now they were challenging Him to again go up with them openly, rather than in secret. Jesus told them to go up by themselves, without Him. He, wisely, went up in secret, as Scripture says that the Jews WERE looking for Him, knowing as an obedient Jew, that He was required to be there.
John 7:14,15 About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts & began to teach. The Jews were amazed & asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?” He CONTINUED to amaze people, whether as a boy in the temple or in His home town or within His family or wherever He went in Israel.
Jesus' mother was pushing Him also in John 3 at the wedding in Cana. His family couldn't help but notice something was special about Jesus, living a perfectly obedient life. Mary was pondering all these things in her heart as she observed Jesus. Now it was time for Him to act. Jesus told her his 'hour had not yet come.' It states that when Jesus turned the water to wine, that was the first miracle He performed. (vs 7) This refutes the spurious Infancy Gospel of Thomas as being untrue.
So we see from Scripture, the testimony concerning the truth where Jesus was during the ages of 13 to 29. It is all there. He never was in India. He was an obedient Jew in both family & practice, every year attending the Jewish feasts, as was His custom & continuing to learn & practice His trade as a carpenter, under the apprenticeship of Joseph. Later, we see that two of his step-brothers did believe & went on to write two of the New Testament books!
All I can continue to say is the word, 'AMAZING!' Everywhere He went people kept saying this & knowing Him personally & walking with Him as His disciple & continuing (abiding) in His Word for over 40 years, I have to confess the same thing.
John 7:45,46 Why didn't you arrest Him? "Never has anyone spoken like this man!"
John 9:18-33 The Jews still did not believe that the man had been blind & had received his sight until they summoned his parents & asked, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he can now see?” His parents answered, “We know he is our son & we know he was born blind...”
24So a second time they called for the man who had been blind & said, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” 25He answered, “Whether He is a sinner I do not know. There is one thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see!”
26“What did He do to you?” ...How did He open your eyes?” 27He replied, “I already told you & you did not listen...Do you also want to become His disciples?” 28Then they heaped insults on him and said, “You are His disciple; we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man is from.”
30“That is remarkable indeed!” the man said. “You do not know where He is from & yet He opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him & does His will. 32Never before has anyone heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33If this man were not from God, He could do no such thing.”
