Luke Chapter 2

[JonathonofOhio]

…but you must truly take the text out of context in order to make it relevant to Jesus’ previous engagement with the religious–as well as make a backwards leap in order to place any spectators as the subject of the narrator’s observation (remember, the sources must be either Mary (which is the higher possibility), Joseph, the religious, a keen spectator or two) the comment outside of the immediate context (Jesus’ reply to Mary’s query) seems arbitrary.

Maran atha!

Angel

Not really out of context, because Jesus is sitting among the teachers in the temple who are astonished by him. The setting does not change when Mary and Joesph show up. The doctors of the Law were astonished that a boy could know so much, and they were asking Him questions. They would have been looking for the Messiah, and He was sitting in their midst as a child…they were not looking for a boy, they were looking for a man. So it could mean that they (those around them) did not understand what He said.

Upon pondering this further though, I feel that it is more than likely meant to show that Mary and Joesph did not understand what He meant by “I must be about my father’s business.”, because the mystery of the Blessed Trinity had not yet been revealed. Since the author indicates “and his mother kept all these words in her heart.”, it is Mary who is the ultimate source of this story. So if she was telling the story, it is likely that she would say something like: “we didn’t understand what He meant by that at the time.”

I should also add that some bibles render it “in my Father’s house.”, even though the literal translation seems to be “about my Father’s business”. The passage is meant to show that He was doing the work He came to do even when He was a child…‘in my Father’s house’ seems to change the meaning of the passage a little.