The most interesting thing about Jesus’s growing up years is that we know so little about them. Even though he became a popular and notable figure in adulthood, there is no record of anyone claiming friendship with him as a youth. No best friends came forward to share in the fame—a most notable thing. This leads me to speculate that Jesus had a lonely childhood and youth—with an absence of best buddies from his peers. He was thus probably somewhat lonely and needed to fill the unfulfilled need to have the close male companionship he missed in his youth. My speculation is that Jesus chose close male associates, apostles, for this primary reason. He needed them as much as they needed him. This, of course, views Jesus as someone with very human needs. But believers have long held that Jesus was fully human, as well as divine. Jesus found his own humanity and maleness in the humanity and maleness of others.
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