home in Nazareth were humble (Matt. xiii. 55; Luke ii. 24; compare
Lev. xii. 8). Probably the house was not unlike those seen to-day, of but
one room, or at most two or three,--the tools of trade mingling with the
meagre furnishings for home-life. We should not think it a home of penury;
doubtless the circumstances of Joseph were like those of his neighbors. In
one respect this home was rich. The wife and mother had an exalted place
in the Jewish life, notwithstanding the trivial opinions of some
supercilious rabbis; and what the gospel tells of the chivalry of Joseph
renders it certain that love reigned in his home, making it fit for the
growth of the holy child.

65. Religion held sway in all the phases of Jewish life. With some it was
a religion of ceremony,--of prayers and fastings, tithes and boastful
alms, fringes and phylacteries. But Joseph and Mary belonged to the
simpler folk, who, while they reverenced the scribes as teachers, knew not
enough of their subtlety to have substituted barren rites for sincere love
for the God of their fathers and childlike trust in his mercy. Jesus knew
not only home life at its fairest, but religion at its best. A father's
most sacred duty was the teaching of his child in the religion of his
people (Deut. vi. 4-9), and then, as ever since, the son learned at his
mother's side to know and love her God, to pray to him, and to know the
scriptures. No story more thrilling and full of interest, no prospect more
rich and full of glowing hope, could be found to satisfy the child's
spirit of wonder than the story of Israel's past and God's promises for
the future. Religious culture was not confined to the home, however. The
temple at Jerusalem was the ideal centre of religious life for this
Nazareth household (Luke ii. 41) as for all the people, yet practically
worship and instruction were cultivated chiefly by the synagogue (Luke iv.
16); there God was present in his Holy Word. Week after week the boy Jesus
heard the scripture in its original Hebrew form, followed by translation
into Aramaic, and received instruction from it for daily conduct. The
synagogue probably influenced the boy's intellectual life even more
directly. In the time of Jesus schools had been established in all the
important towns, and were apparently under the control of the synagogue.
To such a school he may have been sent from about six years of age to be
taught the scriptures (compare II. Tim. iii. 15), together wi