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Jesus: The Untold Years
Thousands have written about Jesus Christ, the best-known figure in history. Aside from the New Testament words recorded by the people who knew him, his life is a mystery. Theologians and scholars of multiple disciplines have given us learned insight.
Speculators have him married, traveling to Gaul and China and one casts him as a Japanese rice farmer. What about his boyhood years, the trials of a teenager, education, a boy mourning the death of his grandparents and later suffering the loss of his earthly father? How do you run a carpentry business? What about the challenges of a young human Jesus growing into his divinity? " The Untold Story" suggests some answers. Simon Peter is the opening chapter narrator, and one gets the sense that he and Mary, Jesus’ mother, are not on the best of terms. Then Mary becomes the narrator, and her discussion with Jesus is laden with foreboding. The story then goes back to Egypt where the Holy Family has lived for nearly four years. Joseph learns that Herod the Great has died, and they head back to Nazareth.
However, the Herod paranoia and power hang over much of their life thereafter. It’s an adventurous trip home but good friends and Jesus’ recall about a dog’s habits are key.
Once back in Nazareth, Jesus deals with the usual elements of growing up in First Century Galilean culture – education of the Hebrew Scriptures, making friends, playing games and doing chores. He suffers the death of grandparents and later the demise of his earthly father. His teen years involve running in relays, more studying of Jewish Scripture and learning the rudiments of carpentry. While training for a race at nearby Nain, he meets a girl from Synagogue. That and a growing sense of his divine destiny created new challenges. After Joseph died, the son of a carpenter had a business to run. As his ministry progressed, there were not only disappointments in developing his kingdom on Earth – such as real love for one’s brother and forgiveness – but the arguing among his disciples. In the end, there is the anguish of the unknown. Mary prays that the final days will not be the horror that she imagines. She accepts Simon, renamed Peter, as the leader of the Apostles, the Rock.
Speculators have him married, traveling to Gaul and China and one casts him as a Japanese rice farmer. What about his boyhood years, the trials of a teenager, education, a boy mourning the death of his grandparents and later suffering the loss of his earthly father? How do you run a carpentry business? What about the challenges of a young human Jesus growing into his divinity? " The Untold Story" suggests some answers. Simon Peter is the opening chapter narrator, and one gets the sense that he and Mary, Jesus’ mother, are not on the best of terms. Then Mary becomes the narrator, and her discussion with Jesus is laden with foreboding. The story then goes back to Egypt where the Holy Family has lived for nearly four years. Joseph learns that Herod the Great has died, and they head back to Nazareth.
However, the Herod paranoia and power hang over much of their life thereafter. It’s an adventurous trip home but good friends and Jesus’ recall about a dog’s habits are key.
Once back in Nazareth, Jesus deals with the usual elements of growing up in First Century Galilean culture – education of the Hebrew Scriptures, making friends, playing games and doing chores. He suffers the death of grandparents and later the demise of his earthly father. His teen years involve running in relays, more studying of Jewish Scripture and learning the rudiments of carpentry. While training for a race at nearby Nain, he meets a girl from Synagogue. That and a growing sense of his divine destiny created new challenges. After Joseph died, the son of a carpenter had a business to run. As his ministry progressed, there were not only disappointments in developing his kingdom on Earth – such as real love for one’s brother and forgiveness – but the arguing among his disciples. In the end, there is the anguish of the unknown. Mary prays that the final days will not be the horror that she imagines. She accepts Simon, renamed Peter, as the leader of the Apostles, the Rock.
298 pages, Paperback
Published September 25, 2024
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About the author
Dale Kueter
6 books8 followersDALE KUETER wrote for Iowa newspapers for 41 years, 34 at The Gazette in Cedar Rapids. He attended Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and was graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1958. He served six years in the Iowa Army National Guard.
Kueter grew up on a farm near Bellevue, Iowa. After college he married Helen Hayes. They are parents of five daughters and have 14 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He has published a children’s book, “Hide the Daddy,” two full-length non-fiction books,“Vietnam Sons” and “The Smell of the Soil,” and a historical novel, “Motel Sepia.” Another novel, “Ma Bremer’s Boys,” was published in May 2021.
He is a proponent of family story writing as a means of sustaining family history. That is the essence of his book,“The Smell of the Soil.”
Kueter grew up on a farm near Bellevue, Iowa. After college he married Helen Hayes. They are parents of five daughters and have 14 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He has published a children’s book, “Hide the Daddy,” two full-length non-fiction books,“Vietnam Sons” and “The Smell of the Soil,” and a historical novel, “Motel Sepia.” Another novel, “Ma Bremer’s Boys,” was published in May 2021.
He is a proponent of family story writing as a means of sustaining family history. That is the essence of his book,“The Smell of the Soil.”
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May 27, 2025
Fictional presentation of how Jesus' early years might have been. Very well written - has a few current references.
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