This broad lapse in the Scriptures is filled by one
simple sentence in the gospel of St. Luke. "And he was in the desert
till the day of his showing into Israel." Where he was, why he had gone,
and what he was doing are left to the imagination of the scholar and
commentator.
Many theories have been advanced, and the one most accepted, was that he
had followed the trade of his terrestrial father, Joseph, and was near
Jerusalem among the tools of carpentry, helping his parents to feed the
hungry mouths of his brothers and sisters.
But there appears another plausible theory advanced by the Buddhist
historians, and sustained by the Buddhist traditions, that as Moses had
fled into the wilderness to spend forty years in fasting and preparation
for his life work, so Jesus had fled, not to the wilderness, but to the
ancient culture and learning and the wisdom of centuries to prepare
himself, by a knowledge of all religions for the day of the redemption.
Among the Jews of that day, and even among the more conservative
descendants of Abraham yet, there existed, and exists a law which
accustoms the marrying of the sons, especially the oldest son, at the
age of thirteen. It is supposed that Issa, resisting the thraldom and
carnal temptation of the marital state, fled from the importunities of
the wise men, who would fain unite their offspring with such a wise and
serious youth.
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