Episode in the Temple

We have got into the way, some of us, of thinking that the twelve-year-old Jesus was teaching some of the most learned men of Israel. But that is not what Saint Luke says. What was happening was an example of a daily custom in the Temple. Groups would gather round a rabbi, and ask him questions, on theology or morals or ritual. He would give them the benefit of his learning, which would usually be very considerable learning. As part of his teaching, he would put questions to them. It was in one such group that his parents found Jesus.

He was not teaching the doctors, he was "hearing them and asking them questions." It is clear that he was answering the questions put by the learned men who conducted the group: but we must realize that they were not searchers after truth asking him to enlighten them, but teachers using questions as part of their teaching method. His replies must have been brilliant, at any rate for a boy: because Luke tells us that all who heard him "were astonished at his wisdom and his answers" -- and the Greek verb used is a great deal stronger than our word "astonished," they were quite "taken out of themselves!" ...

Mary and Joseph wondered too, and once again the Greek verb is stronger than the English: it was if they had a sort of electric shock. Why? Not, one imagines, because his answers were brilliant. Most probably what startled, almost stunned them,was to see him showing his brilliance.

To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed