Luke 2:46

after three days This, in the Jewish idiom, probably means -on the third day." One day was occupied by the journey to Beeroth; on the second, they sought him in the caravans and at Jerusalem; the next day they found him in the Temple. The unsettled state of the country would add to their alarm.

in the temple Probably in one of the numerous chambers which ran round the Court, and abutted on the actual building.

sitting Doubtless at the feet of the Rabbis, as was the custom of Jewish boys when sitting began to be permitted.

in the midst of the doctors Rather, teachers. The most eminent Rabbis of this period some of whom may have been present were Hillel, his rival Shammai, and his son Rabban Shimeon, Babha ben Butah, Nicodemus, Jochanan ben Zakkai, &c.

hearing them, and asking them questions Obviously with all modest humility. The Apocryphal Gospels characteristically degrade this scene, and represent the boy Christ as behaving with a forwardness which most flagrantly contradicts the whole tenor of the narrative, and would have been specially displeasing to Jewish elders (Pirke Abhôth, V. 12. 15).