Jesus’s PhD

People have often wondered what Jesus was doing in the “missing years”. In the New Testament, there is a gap in his CV between the age of twelve, when he briefly chats with rabbis in the Temple, and the age of thirty, when he suddenly appears out of nowhere as a preacher. Why would anyone leave it till the age of thirty to start his teaching career? And apparently have nothing to show for it by that time?

To anyone familiar with modern academic life, surely the answer is obvious. It is the same reason that is usual for smart people in their twenties who disappear for years without anything to see. He was writing his thesis. As is customary in these cases, it took forever.

Perhaps Jesus did not write a literal PhD, as there were no doctoral degree-granting institutions in those days. But intensive research is a Jewish tradition. It is clear from the gospels that he must have put in a long course of original research and reached some well-founded conclusions based solidly on…