The men of Galilee had become indifferent to the works which their forefathers wrote with toil and reverence; they had had to wait too long for the fulfilment of the prophecies, and began to doubt that a Messiah would ever come to the Jews, so that they were quite pleased to give the parchments to that nice boy of Joseph's.

If they wanted to know anything, they had only to ask him, and he explained it so clearly and concisely, and sometimes so impressively, that they never forgot it again.

That was much easier than awkwardly searching for themselves, and labouring hard to decipher the words only to be unable to understand them when they had done so.
Many a night, by the light of the moon, did Jesus read in his books.
They were the same as those we read to-day when we open the Old Testament.

So that it is as if we sat with Jesus on the same school bench.

He read of Adam and his sin, of Cain and his murder, of Abraham and his promise, of Noah and the deluge.