The Boy in the Temple

The words

1. Acquaintance

   Supposing Jesus to be in the traveling company, the parents search among their kinsfolk and acquaintance; when they do not find him, they return to Jerusalem.

   Luke 2:44–45 (opens a new tab)

2. Business

   Jesus answers with “my Father’s business” in the KJV; the NET renders his words “my Father’s house,” as his parents find him in the temple.

   Luke 2:46 (opens a new tab) · Luke 2:48–49 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Luke 2:48-52 (opens a new tab)

3. Doctors

   The parents find Jesus sitting among the doctors, listening to them and asking them questions; Luke says those who hear him marvel at his understanding and answers.

   Luke 2:46–47 (opens a new tab)

4. Feast

   Luke says the parents go to Jerusalem every year for Passover; at this visit Jesus is twelve, and the family follows the custom of the feast.

   Luke 2:41–42 (opens a new tab)

5. Jerusalem

   Luke names Jerusalem as both the city Jesus stays in after the feast and the place to which his parents return to search for him.

   Luke 2:43–45 (opens a new tab)

6. Kinsfolk

   Relatives, in the NET’s rendering.

   Luke places kinsfolk beside acquaintance in the parents’ search: they look through the traveling company before turning back to Jerusalem.

   Luke 2:44–45 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Luke 2:41-47 (opens a new tab)

7. Passover

   Luke names Passover as the family’s annual feast in Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 16:1–8 gives instructions for Passover and the accompanying days of unleavened bread.

   Luke 2:41 (opens a new tab) · Deuteronomy 16:1–3; Deuteronomy 16:8 (opens a new tab)

8. Questions

   Luke describes Jesus hearing the teachers and asking them questions, then records the hearers’ astonishment at his understanding and answers.

   Luke 2:46–47 (opens a new tab)

9. Sorrowing

   Anxiously, in the NET’s rendering of Mary’s words.

   Mary asks why Jesus has treated them this way and says that she and his father have been searching for him “sorrowing.”

   Luke 2:48 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Luke 2:48-52 (opens a new tab)

10. Stature

    Years, in the NRSVue’s main text; its footnote retains stature.

    Stature appears in Luke’s closing description of Jesus’s growth after the return to Nazareth, alongside wisdom and favor with God and people.

    Did you know?

    1 Samuel 2:26 also joins a child’s growth with favor before the Lord and other people, speaking there of Samuel.

    Luke 2:51–52 (opens a new tab) · NRSVue: Luke 2:52 (opens a new tab) · 1 Samuel 2:26 (opens a new tab)

11. Tarried

    Stayed behind, in the NET’s rendering.

    Jesus tarries behind in Jerusalem after the feast, while Joseph and his mother begin the return journey without knowing he has stayed.

    Luke 2:43–44 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Luke 2:41-47 (opens a new tab)

12. Temple

    After three days, the parents find Jesus in the temple among the teachers; he later goes back with them to Nazareth and is obedient to them.

    Luke 2:46 (opens a new tab) · Luke 2:51 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Luke 2:48-52 (opens a new tab)

13. Twelve Years

    Luke gives Jesus’s age as twelve when the family goes up for the feast, then places the temple conversation before their return to Nazareth.

    Luke 2:42; Luke 2:46 (opens a new tab) · Luke 2:51 (opens a new tab)

14. Understanding

    The people who hear Jesus are astonished at his understanding and answers; later Luke says his parents do not understand his reply to them.

    Luke 2:47 (opens a new tab) · Luke 2:49–50 (opens a new tab)

15. Wisdom

    Luke closes the episode by saying Jesus increases in wisdom, stature and favor with God and people, following his return to Nazareth with his parents.

    Did you know?

    Before the temple visit, Luke 2:40 describes the child growing and being filled with wisdom; verse 52 returns to growth and wisdom afterward.

    Luke 2:51–52 (opens a new tab) · Luke 2:39–40 (opens a new tab)