as they returned = in (Greek. en. App-101 .) their returning. the Child . Now the Greek is pais = the youth as be = coming Jehovah's servant. See App-108 . Joseph and His mother . All the Texts read "His parents". knew not = did not get to know of it. Greek ginosko. App-132 . read more
43. as they returned—If the duties of life must give place to worship, worship, in its turn, must give place to them. Jerusalem is good, but Nazareth is good, too; let him who neglects the one, on pretext of attending to the other, ponder this scene. tarried behind . . . Joseph and his mother knew not—Accustomed to the discretion and obedience of the lad [OLSHAUSEN], they might be thrown off their guard. read more
D. The birth and early life of Jesus ch. 2Luke followed the same pattern of events with Jesus’ birth and early life as he did for those of John. His purpose was to compare and contrast these two important individuals. read more
II. THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS 1:5-2:52This section contains material unique in Luke. The only repeated statement occurs in Luke 2:39 and Matthew 2:23. Other unique features are the way Luke alternated the reader’s attention between John and Jesus, and the joy that several individuals expressed (Luke 1:46-55; Luke 1:68-79; Luke 2:14; Luke 2:29-32). [Note: For studies of the structure of this passage, see Robert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts , 1:15-20; R. E. Brown, The... read more
6. Jesus’ visit to the temple as a boy 2:41-50This is the only inspired incident that God has given us of Jesus’ experiences during His boyhood. Luke stressed Jesus’ wisdom and His conscious awareness that He was the Son of God so his readers would have confidence in Jesus’ deity. There is a strong contrast between Jesus’ earthly parents and His heavenly Father. Stories of the precocious condition of a great person in his or her youth were and are common. They demonstrate the uniqueness of the... read more
Luke noted that Mary and Joseph stayed for the duration of the eight-day festival, another tribute to their piety. Mary and Joseph probably did not miss Jesus for a whole day because each may have supposed He was with the other since men often traveled with men and women with women. [Note: Liefeld, p. 852.] Perhaps they assumed He was with the other children or the other adults in their caravan of pilgrims. One of my colleagues once left his children at the church where he was the guest... read more
Birth and Childhood of Jesus1-5. The census of Quirinius. There are two historical difficulties in connexion with St. Luke’s mention of the census of Quirinius: (1) There is no direct evidence, except St. Luke’s statement, that Augustus (31 b.c.-14 a.d.) ever held a census of the whole Roman empire. (2) Quirinius was not governor of Syria at the time of our Lord’s birth (about 7 or 6 b.c.), but either Sentius Saturninus (9-6 b.c.), or Quinctilius Varus (6-4 b.c.).As to (1), the absence of... read more
(43) The child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem.—The words do not imply that He intentionally stayed behind. If we deal with the history on its human side, the probable course of things was this:—The Passover Feast lasted seven days; on each of those days, after the first, we may well believe the “child Jesus” was seeking wisdom to do His Father’s work at the hands of the appointed teachers who “sat in Moses’ chair.” This had become habitual. He went, as usual, when the Feast was over; but... read more
The Love of the Cradle (For Christmas Day) Luke 2:7 The Church has ever held that in all the estate of His Humiliation in the whole sad three and thirty years of His earthly life, our Lord offered up an atoning sacrifice. He suffered life as well as death for us. But a great saint and doctor has well reminded us that we are ready to be so dazzled by the love of the Cross that we often forget the love of the Cradle. We forget that our Lord endured the weakness of death and the weakness of... read more
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Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Luke 2:41-52
13. Jesus twelve years old (Luke 2:41-52)Joseph and Mary, being sincere and faithful Jews, went to Jerusalem for the Passover each year. Jesus, who accompanied them on the occasion recorded here, was twelve years old at the time. At this age Jewish boys were being prepared for entrance into the adult affairs of the synagogue (Luke 2:41-42).In the Jewish form of instruction, teacher and student often took turns at asking and answering questions, many of which were concerned with details of the... read more