Not true. Mark 6:3 says, "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph,[1] Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
At any rate, we do know he didn't really make an appearance as a spiritual leader until the wedding at Cana -- he had to have done something before then, and given that Joseph was a carpenter, it's reasonable to assume Jesus was, too.
Not true. Mark 6:3 says, "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter?
The problem with this traditional interpretation is that Jesus had been gone for a very long time, and they responded this way merely because it was the way they LAST remembered him. A lot can happen in 20 years, and Jesus himself said he "came to do the Fathers business". Doesn't sound like carpentry to me, while in a very long holding pattern.
At any rate, we do know he didn't really make an appearance as a spiritual leader until the wedding at Cana -- he had to have done something before then, and given that Joseph was a carpenter, it's reasonable to assume Jesus was, too.
I don't really know where he went during those many years, and neither do you you. But to assume he did nothing different and went nowhere else seems very unimaginative. There are many reports of his being elsewhere during that time, all of which have at least as much credibility as the totally unsubstantiated idea that he went nowhere and did nothing.