JC & the Law: with the priests at age 12 … (12/21/18)
In the second chapter of Luke we see a twelve-year old Jesus who had decided to remain behind in Jerusalem on his own after fulfilling the Passover obligations with his family. While it might not be especially unusual for a young man of that age1 to “rebel” by setting off on his own adventures, it most certainly was intriguing to see a young man of that age doing so by heading back into the Temple to discuss the Scriptures with the priests therein – not to mention doing so with no small measure of insight & authority (see Luke 2:42-47). As such we see right from the start that Jesus not only had a highly advanced understanding of the Scriptures (especially for the son of a menial artisan – a la Matthew 13:55 – a son who as such almost certainly had not received anything even faintly resembling a formal education regarding the texts of the Hebrew Bible) but also a keen awareness of his reformative mission related to “his Father’s house” (i.e. Judaism itself, especially the way it was being practiced at the time – see Luke 2:49‘s “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”2).
“The Law indeed was shared through Moses; while
Grace & Truth came through Jesus Christ.”
~ unknown (John 1:17)
………………………………………………………………………
1While contemporary Western cultures tend to view 12 year old males as mere “boys”, twelve was actually the year when boys “came of age” and started to be seen as young men in Jesus’ day (NOTE that the modern day practice of giving Jewish boys their coming of age “bar mitzvah” at age 13 was not yet in effect in Jesus’ day).
2The literal Greek wording of this phrase is actually “Did you not know that I must be in the ___ of my Father?” Many translations quite reasonably assume that the missing reference is best illuminated by the word “house”, and yet in the context of Jesus entire ministry “Did you not know that I must be with my Father?” is in all probability more accurate.
;