4. How and where was Jesus educated?
Again, where the biblical gospels are silent there are stories in the Apocrypha which refer to the young Jesus being taught what today would be called the three Rs. In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Joseph took his son to a noted teacher, Zacchaeus, with a request that he “teach him his letters” (Infancy Gospel of Thomas, 6-8). Zacchaeus quickly determined that there was little he could teach the young Jesus, after his student-to-be informs his teacher, “You say what things you know, but I understand more things than you; for before the ages I am…When you see my cross than you will believe that I speak the truth” (Infancy Gospel of Thomas).
As with countless frustrated fathers since, Joseph took his seemingly difficult son to another teacher, who promised to teach the youngster Greek and Hebrew. According to the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said to the prospective teacher, “If you are indeed a teacher…tell me the power of the Alpha”. When the teacher responded by slapping the child on its head for his less-than-respectful attitude, Jesus cursed him, and the teacher collapsed to the ground, a story recounted in both the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Pseudo-Gospel of Matthew. Jesus, according to both accounts, returned to his mother and warned her about letting him out of the house.