Did Jesus play games as a child?

The short answer

The Gospels never show Jesus playing as a boy. They do show that he noticed how children played. Kids in his world played games just like kids today, so it is easy to picture him joining in.

What the record says

There is no Gospel story of Jesus at play. What we do have is a grown Jesus describing children’s games he must have watched many times:

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned for you, and you didn’t lament.’” (Matthew 11:16 to 17)

He is talking about kids pretending to have a wedding party or a funeral, and getting upset when their friends will not play along. Children in the ancient world played with simple toys and made up games, the same as children do now. Whether Jesus loved a certain game, nobody knows.

How Son of Man tells it

Son of Man is a novel. It imagines the years the Gospels skip. In chapter two, “Egypt”, the novel imagines Yeshua as a little boy in Alexandria. He wrestles and chases with the other children in a courtyard and builds towers out of broken pottery just to watch them fall. His best friend is a Greek boy named Demas. Mary wants to keep him close, and Joseph pushes back:

“Let him play. Let him be a child.”