Luke 2:41-45

1. The separation: Luke 2:41-45.

The idea of fidelity to the law is prominent also in this narrative. According to Exodus 23:17; Deuteronomy 16:16, men were to present themselves at the sanctuary at the three feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. There was no such obligation for women. But the school of Hillel required them to make at least the Passover pilgrimage.

The term γονεῖς, parents, is found at Luke 2:41 in all the MSS., even in those in which it does not occur at Luke 2:27; Luke 2:43, which proves that in these passages it was not altered with any dogmatic design.

Ver. 42. It was at the age of twelve that the young Jew began to be responsible for legal observances, and to receive religious instruction; he became then a son of the law.

The partic. pres. of the Alex. reading, ἀναβαινόντων, must be preferred to the aor. partic. of the T. R., ἀναβάντων. The present expresses a habit; the aor. is a correction suggested by the aor. partic. which follows. The words εἰς ῾Ιεροσόλυμα should be erased, according to the Alex. reading, which evidently deserves the preference. It is a gloss easily accounted for.

The words, after the custom of the feast, perhaps allude to the custom of going up in caravans.

Jesus spent these seven days of the feast in holy delight. Every rite spoke a divine language to His pure heart; and His quick understanding gradually discovered their typical meaning. This serves to explain the following incident. An indication of wilful and deliberate disobedience has been found in the term ὑπέμεινεν, He abode. Nothing could be further from the historian's intention (Luke 2:51). The notion of perseverance contained in this verb alludes simply to Jesus' love for the temple, and all that took place there. It was owing to this that, on the day for leaving, He found Himself unintentionally separated from the band of children to which He belonged.

When once left behind, where was He to go in this strange city? The home of a child is the house of his father. Very naturally, therefore, Jesus sought His in the temple. There He underwent an experience resembling Jacob's (Genesis 28). In His solitude, He learnt to know God more familiarly as His Father. Is not the freshness of a quite recent intuition perceptible in His answer (Luke 2:49)? The Alex. reading οἱ γονεῖς has against it, besides the Alex. A. and C., the Italic and Peschito translations.

It was only in the evening, at the hour of encampment, when every family was gathered together for the night, that the absence of the child was perceived. When we think of the age of Jesus, and of the unusual confidence which such a child must have enjoyed, the conduct of His parents in this affair presents nothing unaccountable.

The partic. pres. seeking Him (Luke 2:45) appears to indicate that they searched for Him on the road while returning.