Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
Parallel translations
- WEB After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the middle of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions.
- 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.
- 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 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 5:17One 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.
- Acts 5:34But 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.
- Isa 50:4The 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.
- Matt 12:40For 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.
- Matt 27:63–64“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
- 1 Kgs 12:5Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So the people departed.
- Matt 16:21From 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.
- 1 Kgs 12:12After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”
- Luke 2:44–45Assuming He was in their company, they traveled on for a day before they began to look for Him among their relatives and friends.
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.