Legends have sought to fill in the missing or “silent” years of Jesus. Suggestions abound that he traveled to India, or encountered Buddhist missionaries in Alexandria in Egypt, or studied magic with Egyptian magicians, or was part of the Qumran community on the shores of the Dead Sea. But all such suggestions are extremely hypothetical speculations, about which one might say, “It is possible (virtually anything is possible), but why should one think so?” We can account for everything we see in Jesus without needing to hypothesize influences from outside of the Jewish tradition.
