Luke 2:46

Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The narrator reports that Jesus’ parents located Him in the temple courts after a three-day search. This moment occurs during the Passover journey when the twelve-year-old Jesus remains behind in Jerusalem while His family departs.

The words — The verb εὗρον (heuron) literally means "they found," marking the conclusion of the search. The preposition ἐν (en) places the discovery specifically within the temple courts rather than a generic location.

The thread — The pattern of divine calling from the womb echoes Isaiah 49:1, while Jesus’ posture of listening and questioning anticipates the teaching ministry recorded in Luke 5:17. His receptive stance also parallels the discipleship tongue described in Isaiah 50:4.

Why it lands — The text states that Jesus sat among teachers, listening and asking questions before anyone records His answers. It requires the reader to acknowledge that spiritual authority is cultivated through attentive inquiry rather than immediate declaration.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

Cross-references

Isaiah 49:1 Listen to Me, O islands; pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.
Luke 5:17 One day Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. People had come from Jerusalem and from every village of Galilee and Judea, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.
Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of discipleship, to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
Acts 5:34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a short time.
Matthew 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 27:63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
1 Kings 12:5 Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So the people departed.
1 Kings 12:12 After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”
Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Luke 2:44 Assuming He was in their company, they traveled on for a day before they began to look for Him among their relatives and friends.