Where was Jesus for 9 months

[TrueFollowerOfChrist]

I know this is dumb, but it's something I've been thinking about since Christmas. This is not intended to be a serious debate, so please don't let it lead to arguments. 

 

Where was Jesus during his time in the womb? Was his Spirit put inside the baby at birth,  or was he there the whole 9 months? If he was there the whole 9 months,  does that mean he kind of didn't exist for 9 months as an unconscious being in the womb? Was he still God even as an embryo?

 

I hope I don't offend and I don't expect a lot of thought to go into this. Just curious what the views on this are.

[AdHoc]

1 hour ago, TrueFollowerOfChrist said:

I know this is dumb, but it's something I've been thinking about since Christmas. This is not intended to be a serious debate, so please don't let it lead to arguments. 

 

Where was Jesus during his time in the womb? Was his Spirit put inside the baby at birth,  or was he there the whole 9 months? If he was there the whole 9 months,  does that mean he kind of didn't exist for 9 months as an unconscious being in the womb? Was he still God even as an embryo?

 

I hope I don't offend and I don't expect a lot of thought to go into this. Just curious what the views on this are.

God's Law of KINDS is found in Genesis 1:11-12. It is based on "seeds". That is, a KIND is formed when the two seeds meet. Jesus, was formed in the womb - not at birth (Isa.44:2, 24, 49:5, Jer.1:5). Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:35 give His origin at insemination - a woman, making Him 100% man and the Holy Spirit, making Him 100% God. As a Man He would have had a human spirit LIKE you and I, and the fullness of the GodHead dwelt in Him BODILY - UNLIKE you and I (Col.2:9).

There is therefore no "pause" from the moment of conception.

[teddyv]

My thoughts, FWIW...

If Jesus is fully God and fully human, I would expect that he was as such in the womb, as this is part of being fully human.

John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth's womb at Mary's arrival there, suggesting that the Spirit is active in utero.

[Roymond]

On 1/6/2023 at 6:46 AM, TrueFollowerOfChrist said:

I know this is dumb, but it's something I've been thinking about since Christmas. This is not intended to be a serious debate, so please don't let it lead to arguments. 

 

Where was Jesus during his time in the womb? Was his Spirit put inside the baby at birth,  or was he there the whole 9 months? If he was there the whole 9 months,  does that mean he kind of didn't exist for 9 months as an unconscious being in the womb? Was he still God even as an embryo?

 

I hope I don't offend and I don't expect a lot of thought to go into this. Just curious what the views on this are.

It's not dumb at all, it's actually an important question!  And it points to why the early church didn't celebrate Christmas but instead celebrated the Annunciation, since the Annunciation -- Latin-derived word for "Announcement" (indeed the greatest announcement ever!) -- was when Jesus became incarnate. 

In order to be fully human, Jesus had to start out the same way we all do, as an embryo.  But this embryo was different; this embryo was material flesh joined to God the Word, joined so closely that we can say that "This is the Word's own flesh", though that flesh was but a single cell.  The eternally-begotten Son the Word became flesh not as a fully-grown man the way pagans conceived but the same way any man becomes flesh, with a tiny little solitary cell -- in fact,  technically it's not an embryo until cell division begins, it's a zygote, and yes, Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, was a zygote.

It's kind of mind-boggling:  the "Editor" of the universe (God the Father being the Author) "steps down' and becomes one of the most fragile bits of that universe; He Who shaped all of material creation takes on a shape that is part of that creation.   This is why the church decided very early to call Mary "Theotokos", "God-bearer", because starting with that single cell she was bearing, i.e. carrying, God in her womb.   And by His very appearance there her womb was sanctified and became the most holy place in all of Creation, a true Temple, and a foretaste of what God has in mind for all of us, to be made holy by His touch, by His presence. 

It was of course a very unique situation:  as God, that zygote was "master of the universe", aware of every particle and wave and force, but as a human, He wasn't aware of anything -- the unborn don't get senses until much later on.  But as God he experienced something we never did:  what it's like to be an egg (there's  a memory calling for attention from the back of my brain, a story where "I am only an egg" was an important statement -- but Jesus was never "only an egg"; He was far more than an egg, and yet He was nevertheless an egg).  Only Jesus has actually experienced that drift down the fallopian tubes to implant itself in the tissues of a mother; only He has actually experienced being one cell as it divided into two, and two into four, and four into eight, the cells doubling in number and eventually starting to differentiate so they could become organs and limbs and, perhaps most importantly, a brain.

One early Father wrote about the miracle of the "in-egg-ation", the moment that the Word took on flesh, as a "holy infection", matter itself being united with God, the beginning of a process that would not just gather in people but would extend to and redeem (however it may work) the entire universe.  A later wise Christian wrote that things began to work backwards, or rather that -- since they had been running backwards ever sine the Fall -- for the first time since the plucking o the forbidden fruit things began to run forward again:  that the old way was that whatever was foul, when it touched other things it polluted them and made them also foul, but the new way is that whatever is holy, when it touches foul things (since at first that was all there was to touch!) the pollution is taken away.

But to answer the question directly:  yes, Jesus was an embryo, and He knew He was an embryo. 

[Roymond]

On 1/6/2023 at 8:56 AM, teddyv said:

My thoughts, FWIW...

If Jesus is fully God and fully human, I would expect that he was as such in the womb, as this is part of being fully human.

John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth's womb at Mary's arrival there, suggesting that the Spirit is active in utero.

I remember at least one late- or all-night disputation over whether these two examples can be extended to all humans or not.

Jesus was an 'egg', but He was also much more than an egg; but was John an 'egg' ever, or does the soul/spirit show up later (back then it was thought that the soul enters at the time of quickening).

[other one]

It appears that John recognized him when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, and both he and John were in the womb.

That sounds like a spiritual thing to me.

[teddyv]

1 hour ago, Roymond said:

I remember at least one late- or all-night disputation over whether these two examples can be extended to all humans or not.

Jesus was an 'egg', but He was also much more than an egg; but was John an 'egg' ever, or does the soul/spirit show up later (back then it was thought that the soul enters at the time of quickening).

Quickening is like 40 days? For the OP's question, that would leave only that time to question what was going on, I guess.

[Roymond]

25 minutes ago, teddyv said:

Quickening is like 40 days? For the OP's question, that would leave only that time to question what was going on, I guess.

Aristotle pegged it at 40 days, but that was for males only; females supposedly needed more time 'baking' -- more due to preconceptions about the sexes than any investigation.  Later, more observant folks put it at about ten to twelve weeks, plus or minus a bit.