On the other hand, according to a very early version of the New Testament (the Sinaitic palimpsest, dated to200), ‘Jacob begat Joseph; Joseph to whom was espoused Mary the virgin, begat Jesus, who is called the Christ.’89 On this reading, can Jesus be regarded as divine at all? In the same way, in Luke, the twelve-year-old Jesus amazes the learned men in the Temple with his understanding. But when his worried parents come to find him, he rebukes them: ‘Wist ye not that I must be in my father’s house?’ The gospel continues: ‘They understood not the saying which he spake unto them.’ In other
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