“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.”
After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions — the temple courts are the natural place for the Passover week's teaching exchanges. Sitting among the teachers (en mesō tōn didaskalōn) in the posture of a student. Listening and asking questions: the two activities of genuine learning — attentive reception and active inquiry. The twelve-year-old is not lecturing the teachers but engaging with them in the question-and-answer method of rabbinic exchange.
Church Fathers on Luke 2:46
The Evangelist having said before that the Child grew and waxed strong, verifies his own words when he relates, that Jesus with the holy Virgin went up to Jerusalem; as it is said, And when he was twelve years old, &c.
His indication of wisdom did not exceed the measure of His age, but at the time that with us the powers of discernment are generally perfected, the wisdom of Christ shows itself.
Or the twelfth year was the commencement of our Lord’s disputation with the doctors, for this was the number of the Evangelists necessary to preach the faith.
Read all 27 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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