Contact: Dr. Adam Bradford, 004-42-98-858-3733
MEDIA ADVISORY, June 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- For 2000 years little has been known about Joseph, Jesus' adoptive father. Now, after researching Roman history, Jewish life and population statistics, the Greek New Testament, and applying behavioral psychology, British physician and scholar Dr A. T. Bradford's new book presents fresh insights that explain who Joseph was and cast inspirational new light on Jesus 'the man'.
Jesus was a highly educated ordained theologian at the pinnacle of first century Jewish legal society.
Three new perspectives support this discovery.
• Joseph is described as 'devout', and a 'carpenter' ('tekton', from which 'architect' is derived), and in whose working life Herod's Temple was magnificently re-built. The Roman historian Josephus records (Antiquities 15:11) that 10,000 'skilled craftsmen' built and trained 1000 priests as 'tektons' to build the holy place, which only priests could enter. In the small Judean population almost all the craftsmen were required -- including Joseph, whose 'devout' (scholarly) nature qualified him perfectly to train the priests, explaining why Jesus went to the temple when lost (the priests would have looked after him) and called the temple his 'father's house' - Joseph had built it.
• Jesus aged 12 attached himself to the rabbinic schools of the 'Doctors of the Law' who were 'amazed' by Jesus' understanding and his answers. It is inconceivable that these scholars would let such a Jewish prodigy leave without recruiting him to return aged 13 (adulthood) for scholarship. This explains the 18 'missing' years before age 30, when Rabbis taught publically, and why Jesus is addressed as 'Doctor' (often translated 'teacher') by all of Jewish society.
• Jesus is consistently addressed respectfully by the Jewish authorities, (whereas they would have despised an uneducated itinerant), until his conviction for blasphemy, when they start spitting on and hitting him (Matthew 26:67). Later Saul too described himself as 'maddened with rage' (Acts 26:11) by Christ. These extreme swings in emotion are explained by the psychology of betrayal -- Jesus' apparent blasphemy in taking the name of God was made much worse by his central role in Jewish religious life.
Jesus emerges as a senior ordained Jewish minister, altering our understanding of what was said to him. He therefore fulfils the messianic prediction of 'The Prophet Like Moses' (Acts 3:22) - Moses was a highly educated official figure who, like Jesus, emerged from within society's place of learning.
'The Jesus Discovery' -- further information may be obtained from info@templehouse-publishing.com
