Was Jesus Born Jesus?

I wonder to what extent Jesus was born Jesus. How much of the man He was destined to become was already part of Him at the moment of His birth? How much wisdom did He have then? How much did He know about Himself? Mary certainly knew who He was, but did He? Was He born knowing who He was, or did He learn later?

On the other hand, whether or not Jesus was born with the knowledge that He was Jesus somewhat detracts from the original question. Whether or not a person knows he or she possesses certain traits is irrelevant to whether or not they possess those traits. If I never saw myself, I could have blue skin and not know it, and my lack of knowledge would have no effect on the color of my skin. Whether or not Jesus was born knowing His identity would have had no effect on whether or not He possessed that identity at that time.

We know Jesus as a wise teacher, and we know that Jesus grew in knowledge and wisdom over time, so He couldn't have been born with the knowledge and wisdom for which He was later known. In that sense, Jesus the Master Teacher was not born the Master Teacher.

Jesus was also known for working miracles, yet His first recorded miracle took place in His adulthood. Was it that He didn't have the power to work miracles until then? Unlikely. I think He had had the ability to work miracles since long before then. Mary seemed to expect something of Him when she told Him of the problem that He miraculously solved. It's possible that He had worked miracles before then, perhaps even in his childhood. But again, it's not clear whether He was born with that power or gained it later.

The same goes for Jesus' perfection. Jesus was perfect in that He never committed sin. Even in His childhood, Jesus was sinless. Then again, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we believe that all children are sinless, in a manner of speaking. I suppose it's possible that, some time in His early childhood, before the age  of accountability, Jesus might have done something that would otherwise be considered a sin. Yet, I don't think He would have. Jesus may not have been completely perfect at first, but I don't think He was ever mean. It's not in His nature, and that's something that I think He was born with.

I don't know much about children, but I do know that they develop and display personality traits fairly quickly. In fact, some might say that children are born with their personalities, and our belief in a pre-mortal existence supports that. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we believe that people exist as spirits long before they're born. Our spirits essentially are us: our consciousness, our identity, ourselves, just without our bodies. Before Jesus was born, His spirit was all He had, yet in terms of His personality, personal traits, and identity, I'd say that He was already Jesus. And since He had His spirit inside Him by the time of His birth, baby Jesus must have been born Jesus.

Still, I'm not fully satisfied with that conclusion. When we're born, we pass through a veil of forgetfulness. We forget our pre-mortal lives, everything we had learned when we were just spirits, and even that we have spirits at all. I think that forgetting our past may alter our personalities, and perhaps even change our identities. However, the question of how much of our identity is dependent on our past experiences may be a bit too deep of a question to tackle when one is growing tired. Perhaps I'll wrestle with that subject another day.

For now, let it suffice to say that no matter which of Jesus' other characteristics were developed rather than inherited, it's clear that Jesus was born with His spirit, His heart, already fully developed and firmly in place. Everything else is secondary. Jesus was born with the soul of Jesus, and that, in my opinion, is what made Him who He was.