PAPER 123: Section 2.
The Fifth Year (2 B.C.)
P1357:5, 123:2.1
In something more than a year after the return to Nazareth the boy Jesus arrived
at the age of his first personal and wholehearted moral decision; and there
came to abide with him a Thought Adjuster, a divine gift of the Paradise Father,
which had aforetime served with Machiventa Melchizedek, thus gaining the experience
of functioning in connection with the incarnation of a supermortal being living
in the likeness of mortal flesh. This event occurred on February 11, 2 B.C.
Jesus was no more aware of the coming of the divine Monitor than are the millions
upon millions of other children who, before and since that day, have likewise
received these Thought Adjusters to indwell their minds and work for the ultimate
spiritualization of these minds and the eternal survival of their evolving
immortal souls.
P1357:6, 123:2.2
On this day in February the direct and personal supervision of the Universe
Rulers, as it was related to the integrity of the childlike incarnation of
Michael, terminated. From that time on throughout the human unfolding of the
incarnation, the guardianship of Jesus was destined to rest in the keeping
of this indwelling Adjuster and the associated seraphic guardians, supplemented
from time to time by the ministry of midway creatures assigned for the performance
of certain definite duties in accordance with the instruction of their planetary
superiors.
P1357:7, 123:2.3 
Jesus was five years old in August of this year, and we will, therefore, refer
to this as his fifth (calendar) year of life. In this year, 2 B.C.,
a little more than one month before his fifth birthday anniversary, Jesus
was made very happy by the coming of his sister Miriam, who was born on the
night of July 11. During the evening of the following day Jesus had a long
talk with his father concerning the manner in which various groups of living
things are born into the world as separate individuals. The most valuable
part of Jesus' early education was secured from his parents in answer to his
thoughtful and searching inquiries. Joseph never failed to do his full duty
in taking pains and spending time answering the boy's numerous questions.
From the time Jesus was five years old until he was ten, he was one continuous
question mark. While Joseph and Mary could not always answer his questions,
they never failed fully to discuss his inquiries and in every other possible
way to assist him in his efforts to reach a satisfactory solution of the problem
which his alert mind had suggested.
P1358:1, 123:2.4
Since returning to Nazareth, theirs had been a busy household, and Joseph
had been unusually occupied building his new shop and getting his business
started again. So fully was he occupied that he had found no time to build
a cradle for James, but this was corrected long before Miriam came, so that
she had a very comfortable crib in which to nestle while the family admired
her. And the child Jesus heartily entered into all these natural and normal
home experiences. He greatly enjoyed his little brother and his baby sister
and was of great help to Mary in their care.
P1358:2, 123:2.5
There were few homes in the gentile world of those days that could give a
child a better intellectual, moral, and religious training than the Jewish
homes of Galilee. These Jews had a systematic program for rearing and educating
their children. They divided a child's life into seven stages:
- The newborn child, the first to the eighth day.
- The suckling child.
- The weaned child.
- The period of dependence on the mother, lasting up to the end of the fifth year.
- The beginning independence of the child and, with sons, the father assuming responsibility for their education.
- The adolescent youths and maidens.
- The young men and the young women.
P1358:10, 123:2.6 It was the custom of the Galilean Jews for the mother to bear the responsibility for a child's training until the fifth birthday, and then, if the child were a boy, to hold the father responsible for the lad's education from that time on. This year, therefore, Jesus entered upon the fifth stage of a Galilean Jewish child's career, and accordingly on August 21, 2 B.C., Mary formally turned him over to Joseph for further instruction.
P1358:11, 123:2.7 Though Joseph was now assuming the direct responsibility for Jesus' intellectual and religious education, his mother still interested herself in his home training. She taught him to know and care for the vines and flowers growing about the garden walls which completely surrounded the home plot. She also provided on the roof of the house (the summer bedroom) shallow boxes of sand in which Jesus worked out maps and did much of his early practice at writing Aramaic, Greek, and later on, Hebrew, for in time he learned to read, write, and speak, fluently, all three languages.
P1358:12, 123:2.8 Jesus appeared to be a well-nigh perfect child physically and continued to make normal progress mentally and emotionally. He experienced a mild digestive upset, his first minor illness, in the latter part of this, his fifth (calendar) year.
P1359:1, 123:2.9 Though Joseph and Mary often talked about the future of their eldest child, had you been there, you would only have observed the growing up of a normal, healthy, carefree, but exceedingly inquisitive child of that time and place.