Years ago I either read or heard something which I’d briefly summarise as follows:
A Classical era writer wrote that the historical figure Jesus went to Alexandria in childhood where he learned to become a magi/magician. He returned to Israel/Palestine in adulthood. This writer was largely expunged from the record by the early Christian church/Vatican, for various reasons.This has left us with the “lost early years” of Jesus where nobody knows where he was from birth to 33.
Now I’m fairly sure I read this as a historical fact and not on some sketchy website, but it just popped into my head and I can’t find anything about this writer who’s name I’ve forgotten. I can find a couple of allusions to the theory but no reference to the writer who I’m sure had one if those classical format names like “Ted of Ohio” or “Kevin of Melbourne”.
I’m starting to think I’ve imagined the whole thing. Can a historian help?
Edit* maybe Celsus of Alexandria ??
Celsus of Alexandria and his now lost The True Word, which as you’ve identified, was one of the earliest works to associate the practices of magic with the life of Jesus emerging just before the Late Antique period. The only direct evidence of the text survives in fragments quoted in a work by Origen of Alexandra (the Contra Celsum) which was critical of the True Word. The most substantial and most recent English translation I can identify is that by Henry Chadwick: Origen: Contra Celsum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Celsus shouldn’t be confused with another writer - Clement of Alexandria (also of the 2nd century), who is associated by some scholars with having written the Mar Saba Letter, which survives only in an early modern handwritten copy. The letter, if genuine, would contain the only known quotations/fragments of the Secret Gospel of Mark – this is a fiercely debated topic involving all sorts of problems of authenticity and authorship (an article by Francis Watson (61:2, April 2010) in the Journal of Theological Studies, for example, is one such attempt at investigating this). Morton Smith is a well-known figure associated with the study of the document, which has been related in his work arguing for the relationship between Jesus and the practice of magic in their Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God published in 1978.
I hope this comment is appropriate; I don’t intend to answer in-depth about the current extent or nature of the debate of Jesus and the practice of magic as that is far beyond my ability, but I hope it might provide clarification about where this query has arisen from and to hopefully encourage anyone who is familiar to answer!