After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the middle of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions.
Parallel translations
- KJV 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.
- BSB Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
- NKJV Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.
- NASB Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.
- NLT Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
After three days they find Jesus in the temple among the teachers, listening and asking questions. It matters because it reveals His remarkable spiritual insight even as a boy.
Overview
Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple, seated among the teachers, both learning and engaging them. His place among the rabbis hints at His extraordinary understanding. The boy Jesus is drawn to His Father's house and the things of God above all else.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Isa 49:1–2Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother he has mentioned my name.
- Luke 5:17On one of those days, he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal them.
- Acts 5:34But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, and commanded to put the apostles out for a little while.
- Isa 50:4The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
- Matt 12:40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
- Matt 27:63–64saying, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’
- 1 Kgs 12:5He said to them, “Depart for three days, then come back to me.” The people departed.
- Matt 16:21From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
- 1 Kgs 12:12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king asked, saying, “Come to me again the third day.”
- Luke 2:44–45but supposing him to be in the company, they went a day’s journey, and they looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 2:46 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.