Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 2:43
And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not [of it.]
43. fulfilled the days ] Exo 12:15.
the child Jesus ] Rather, “ the boy Jesus ” ( ). St Luke seems purposely to have narrated something about the Saviour at every stage of His earthly existence as babe (Luk 2:16), little child (Luk 2:40), boy, and man.
tarried behind ] Among the countless throngs of Jews who flocked to the Passover nearly three millions according to Josephus ( Antt. VI. 9. 3) nothing would be easier than to lose sight of one young boy in the thronged streets, or among the thousands of booths outside the city walls. Indeed it is an incident which to this day often occurs at Jerusalem in similar cases. It should be also remembered that at the age of 12 an Eastern boy is far more mature than is the case with Northern nations, and that at that age a far wider liberty was allowed him.
Joseph and his mother ] The true reading is probably His parents, , B, D, L.
knew not of it ] The fact is very interesting as shewing the naturalness and unconstraint in which our Lord was trained.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Had fulfilled the days – The days of the Passover. These were eight days in all – one day for killing the paschal lamb, and seven days for the observance of the feast of unleavened bread, Exo 12:15; Lev 23:5-6.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 2:43
When they had fulfilled the days
The gospel of the Childhood
We notice in the Child Jesus–
1.
A holy disposition. It was this which led His mother to bring Him with her to the Temple, and which led Him to tarry there after His mother had gone away. A holy disposition is the source and fountain of all goodness:
the soft wax out of which is moulded the image of love, purity, obedience Jam 3:17).
2. A love for Gods house. He loved the Temple far better than the forum or market-place. He willingly remained in the house of His heavenly Father–the attribute of a good Son.
3. A desire for holy conversation. He was found not playing with other boys; not engaged in idle sports: but conversing with the old men in the Temple; listening to words of soberness, truth, and wisdom.
4. A deep sense of spiritual relationship. Loving and obedient as He was to His earthly parents, yet He placed His spiritual Father before them. As says Augustine, He loved the Creator before the generator.
5. A loving reverence towards His parents. He was subject to them. Who? To whom? God to man. Humility seen in its highest power. CONCLUSION: The child is ever the father of the man. Let us take care to form and fashion the child-minds committed to our keeping after this glorious and pure model. (William of Auvergne.)
Filial obedience
Our Lord furnishes us with a striking example of filial obedience. He was true God, the Creator and Lord of all; yet He submits Himself to His mother after the flesh, and to His foster-father also, for our imitation. From His holy example let children learn, in relation to their parents–
1. To love them honestly, sincerely, devotedly; to repay them somewhat for the great love which their parents have expended upon themselves.
2. To answer them respectfully.
3. To render them honest obedience. (Eph 6:1-2; Col 3:20.) The disobedient child makes the sinful man.
4. To succour them in need. It is dreadful ingratitude to do nothing for those who have done so much for us. Our blessed Lord had a care for His mother even on the cross. A noble Roman lady ministered of her breast to her mother in prison. Remember, finally, that filial love ever commands a blessing. (J. Clichtove.)
Revelation of perfect child-life
The life of the child is threefold. It is lived not in the world; it is the life of home, and church, and school. Think of Jesus in His child-life as a pattern for Christian children.
I. HOME LIFE.
1. Obedience to parents. This is a prime principle in home life–the germ of all other obedience, social and national A habit of life which is needful, in order that we may be led to obedience to Christ.
2. Subjection to home authority. Too much self-will now-a-days in children; they are impatient of restraint, want to be their own masters, to strike out walks of life when very young. Our Lord probably wrought at His reputed fathers trade. Anyhow, He was subject to His parents, i.e.
(1) Never gainsaid their authority.
(2) Never crossed their wishes.
(3) Never questioned their right to His time.
(4) Never murmured or rebelled against them in word or deed.
II. CHURCH LIFE.
1. Religion is for children as well as for those grown up. Children are members of Christs Church, and should be trained as such.
2. Like the Jews, let us early teach children Holy Scripture. We are more favoured than they, in having the gospel to impart to our little ones.
3. Child-life is passed, as it were, between the font and the holy table. With confirmation child-life, strictly speaking, ends.
4. Let the child ever be taught to look forward with longing and hope to the time when he may go up to the great Christian feast, Holy Communion.
5. Let religious duties be made a custom, so that, as with Jesus, they may be instinctively kept up in later years of manhood.
III. SCHOOL LIFE.. Education a question of the day. Religious education the only legitimate form for a Christian child. But the childs part is in accepting and seeking knowledge.
1. Children must be content to learn. Teaching is necessary. Even Jesus received instruction.
2. Children should be encouraged to inquire into things. (Thos. H. Barnett.)
Ungrudging service
When they had fulfilled the days–St. Joseph and the blessed Virgin did not only attend the Passover, which was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month at even, but stayed in Jerusalem also all the days of the feast of unleavened bread; and thus did not leave the city to return home till the afternoon of the eighth day after their arrival. They were not in duty bound to stay so long; they might have gone back sooner without doing anything wrong, provided that, for all the days of the feast which followed the Passover they had been careful not to eat any leavened bread at their own home. But devout people, as they were, do not consider how little of their time they can give to God without doing wrong, but give Him as much as ever they can, and delight in worshipping Him. Think of this, when you are tempted to shorten your prayers, or to drop for the day your reading of Holy Scripture, or to feel the hours of Sunday a restraint and a weariness, and to long that they would fly faster. Prayer and Scripture and Sunday are only dull because your heart is not in them, because you do not try to throw your mind into them, and so to create for yourself an interest in them. If your heart were in them, be sure you would find them the purest of all pleasures, and wish you had a longer time to give to them, not a shorter. (Dean Goulburn.)
Passover duties and employments
It will be interesting to know how St. Joseph and St. Mary spent the days which they are here said to have fulfilled, especially when we remember that they had the Holy Child with them, whose human mind, we may be sure, would drink in eagerly everything which He saw in the Temple worship. Where, then, in the first place, did they live during these days? Some of the country people who came up to keep the Passover were accommodated in private houses. This was the case with our Lord and His disciples, who ate together His last Passover in a private house, to which He directed them by the token of a man carrying a pitcher of water, who should enter into it. It was usual in these cases for the guests to leave behind them, as a kind of payment for their accommodation, the skin of the lamb, and the utensils employed in cooking it. But very often such accommodation was not to be found; every inn and private house in Jerusalem was quite full, and in this case people from the country were obliged to lodge without the walls in a tent which they brought with them. Perhaps St. Joseph and St. Mary may have been all the more ready to do this, because, having the Holy Child with them, whose life had already been sought by those in power, they may have thought it prudent not to be seen in the city more than was absolutely necessary. St. Joseph would have to go to the Temple on the afternoon of the fourteenth of Abib to kill his Passover lamb, and probably he would take our Lord with him. The Holy Child watched the slaughter of the lamb, as the blood gushed forth from the wound into the golden cup held by one of the priests to receive it, and was then splashed out in one jet at the foot of the altar of burnt-offering. Then they returned to their tent, carrying the carcase of the lamb with them, and prepared the supper, of which, probably, as their household must have been too small for the lamb, and as ten people at least were required to make a Passover company, some of St. Josephs family or neighbours partook with them. The first thing would be to roast the lamb, which was usually done by running two skewers of pomegranate wood, one lengthwise through the body of the creature, and another crossing it through the breast and forelegs, so that the lamb had the appearance of being crucified, and then placing it carefully in the midst of an oven, the bricks of which were made red-hot, but not allowing it to touch the sides. Then they would spread the table, and place on the sideboard, ready at hand, a plate of unleavened bread (large thin biscuits), another of bitter herbs, such as endive, or wild lettuce, and a vessel containing a thick sauce, made of the consistency of clay, to remind them of the brickmaking in Egypt, into which sauce everything eaten at the supper was to be dipped. Last would come the partaking of the supper. St. Joseph, as head of the family, would take a cup of red wine in his hand, and, after saying a grace, taste it and pass it round. Then the herbs were placed on the table and partaken of; then the unleavened bread; and, that being done, the roasted lamb was brought in and placed before the head of the family. But before it was eaten, a second cup of wine was filled; and then it was customary for some child (perhaps, in this case, it may have been our Lord Himself) to ask the head of the house, What meaneth this service? In reply, the reason of keeping the Passover was recited, &c., after which Psa 123:1-4; Psa 114:1-8. were sung. Then the lamb was carved and eaten; a third and a fourth cup of wine succeeded; and then all was concluded by singing Psa 115:-18. (Dean Goulburn.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 43. Had fulfilled the days] Eight days in the whole: one was the passover, and the other seven, the days of unleavened bread. See Clarke on Mt 26:2.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread, held seven days, during which time Joseph and Mary stayed in Jerusalem, and then returned. They usually both went to and returned from these feasts in great troops, or companies. Christ tarried behind; Mary, thinking he had been in the company, missed him not; they return to Jerusalem to seek him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
43. as they returnedIf theduties of life must give place to worship, worship, in its turn, mustgive place to them. Jerusalem is good, but Nazareth isgood, too; let him who neglects the one, on pretext of attending tothe other, ponder this scene.
tarried behind . . . Josephand his mother knew notAccustomed to the discretion andobedience of the lad [OLSHAUSEN],they might be thrown off their guard.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when they had fulfilled the days,…. The seven days of the fear of unleavened bread, for so many days that feast was observed; and though it was not absolutely necessary, and obligatory upon them to stay all that time at Jerusalem, yet Mary and Joseph seem so to have done, as did the more religious and devout persons:
as they returned; at the time when they were going from Jerusalem home again:
the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; being desirous of hearing the discourses of the doctors about the sense of the Scriptures, the meaning of the laws, and the traditions of the elders, and of conversing with them:
and Joseph, and his mother, knew not of it; of his intention to tarry longer, nor of his design in so doing: he did not ask leave of them, since his stay was about an affair of his heavenly Father’s; and therefore this action of Christ is not to be drawn into an example, or precedent for children, to act without consulting, or asking leave of their parents. They had no notion at all of his staying behind them, nor any suspicion of it; nor did they miss him for a considerable time; which might be owing to the large numbers that went in company together, so that they could not tell but that he was in the crowd, though they did not see him; or to the men and women travelling in separate companies, as is thought; so that Joseph might think he was with Mary, and Mary might conclude he was with Joseph, till they came to the end of their first day’s journey, when they came together, and then missed him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When they had fulfilled the days ( ). Genitive absolute again, but aorist participle (effective aorist). “The days” may mean the full seven days (Exod 12:15; Lev 23:6-8; Deut 16:3), or the two chief days after which many pilgrims left for home.
As they were returning ( ). The articular infinitive with , a construction that Luke often uses (Luke 1:21; Luke 2:27).
The boy, Jesus ( ). More exactly, “Jesus the boy.” In verse 40 it was “the child ” ( ), here it is “the boy” ( , no longer the diminutive form). It was not disobedience on the part of “the boy” that made him remain behind, but intense interest in the services of the temple; “involuntary preoccupation” (Bruce) held him fast.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Had fulfilled the days. Not necessarily the whole seven days of the festival. With the third day commenced the so called half holidays, when it was lawful to return home.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And when they had fulfilled the days,” (kai teleiosanton tos hemeras) “And when they had completed the days,” completed the time and religious rites and duties of the feast, that lasted for seven days, Exo 12:15.
2) “As they returned,” (en to hupostrephein autous) “When they returned,” or when they left to return to Nazareth, Luk 2:39, after worshipping. True worship and work must regularly alternate, that each may serve God and men on the highest plane, Joh 4:24; Joh 9:4; 1Th 4:11; 2Th 3:10-13.
3) “The child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem;” (hupemunen lesous ho pais en lerousalem) “The [ad Jesus remained in Jerusalem,” among the countless throngs, near three million (according to Josephus) who annually flocked to the annual Passover.
4) “And Joseph and his mother knew not of it.” (kai ouk egnosan hoi goneis autou) “And his parents (Joseph and Mary) knew not of it,” that He had been left behind, as they started their journey back to Galilee, with relatives and friends, a milling mass of travelers. They were accustomed to discretion, obedience, and good behavior of Jesus, so that they had come to trust Him implicitly, without misgivings or doubts.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(43) The child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem.The words do not imply that He intentionally stayed behind. If we deal with the history on its human side, the probable course of things was this:The Passover Feast lasted seven days; on each of those days, after the first, we may well believe the child Jesus was seeking wisdom to do His Fathers work at the hands of the appointed teachers who sat in Moses chair. This had become habitual. He went, as usual, when the Feast was over; but Joseph and Mary, instead of seeking Him there, took for granted that He had started with the other boys of the same age who had come from Nazareth. He was therefore left in the strange city by Himself, finding shelter for the night, probably, in the house where Joseph and Mary had lodged during the feast, and spending the day, as before, in drinking in the wondrous things of Gods Law, and asking questions which showed that He demanded more than traditional or conventional explanations. His question, Wist ye not . . .? implies that they ought to have known where He would be.
Joseph and his mother knew not of it.The better MSS. read, his parents, the alteration having probably been made in the received text on the same ground as that in Luk. 2:33.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
43. Fulfilled the days The seven of the Passover week
Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem In their annual visits to Jerusalem the parents of Jesus must have formed acquaintances and made friends in different parts of the city. The parents of Jesus may then have started for home at a time unknown to him, supposing that he was with some of their traveling friends or relatives. Meantime with joy is he in his own Father’s house; and the topics which he is hearing discussed fill his whole mind, and exclude all thoughts of his Galilean home. The obvious inference is, that the human mind of Jesus may be unknowing of a fact beyond the reach of its natural finite faculties.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Luk 2:43 f. ] the well-known seven days of festival, Exo 12:15 ; Lev 23:6 f.; Deu 16:2 .
How it happened that the parents knew nothing of the staying behind of their son, is not expressly narrated by Luke. The charge, however, of negligent carelessness (Schuderoff in the Magaz. von Festpred. III. p. 63 ff., and in his Jahrb. X. 1, p. 7 ff.; Olshausen) is unwarranted, as presupposes a circumstance unknown to us, which might justify that want of knowledge. In the case of Jesus it was an irresistible impulse towards the things of God, which carried Him away to postpone His parents to the satisfaction of this instinct, mightily stimulated as it was on this His first sojourn in Jerusalem, a momentary premature breaking forth of that, which was the principle decidedly expressed and followed out by Him in manhood (Mar 3:32 f.).
] company sharing the journey . See Kypke, I. p. 220 f. The inhabitants of one or more places together formed a caravan ; Strabo uses the word also of such a company (iv. p. 204, xi. p. 528).
] when they assembled together to pass the night.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it .
Ver. 43. Joseph and his mother knew not ] One would wonder they should be so careless of so peerless a pearl; they might well think there were enough at Jerusalem, among the Herodians especially, that would have been glad to have despatched any that should take upon them to be Messiah the Prince, as Daniel calleth him, Dan 9:25 . When they fled into Egypt for fear of Herod, they lost not the child Jesus; as neither there, nor in their return from thence; but at the feast they did, and in that greatest solemnity. Hence Stella observeth, that there is far greater danger of losing Christ in time of prosperity, and worldly affluence, than in days of persecution and tribulation. In mundi faelicitate et affuentia, potius quam in persecutionibus et tribulationibus Christum amitti.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
43. ] ., seven days , Exo 12:15 ; Exo 12:17 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 2:43 . . . This naturally means that they stayed all the time of the feast, seven days. This was not absolutely incumbent; some went home after the first two days, but such people as Joseph and Mary would do their duty thoroughly. , tarried behind, not so much intentionally (Hahn) as by involuntary preoccupation His nature rather than His will the cause (Act 17:14 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
as they returned = in (Greek. en. App-101.) their returning.
the Child. Now the Greek is pais = the youth as be = coming Jehovah’s servant. See App-108.
Joseph and His mother. All the Texts read “His parents”.
knew not = did not get to know of it. Greek ginosko. App-132.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
43.] ., seven days, Exo 12:15; Exo 12:17.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 2:43. [, when they had completed (fulfilled). It is not always profitable to be satisfied with what is trite and customary.-V. g.-, tarried behind) We may presume, on chronological grounds, that this happened on a Sunday. Thus then we have the prelude to the subsequent celebration of the Lords day.-Harm., p. 58.]- , the boy Jesus) Luke describes in successive order, [as he promises in his preface, ch. Luk 1:3], Jesus as the fruit of the womb, ch. Luk 1:42; as the babe, ch. Luk 2:12; the child, Luk 2:40; the boy, in this ver.; the man ( , a man that was a prophet), ch. Luk 24:19, with which comp. Joh 1:30. His full stature was not manifested at once, as in the case of the First-formed Man; but He hallowed by participation all the successive steps of human life. Old age (alone) was unsuitable to Him.- , and did not know) Jdg 14:6; Jdg 14:9 (the Antitype to Samson, who told not his father and mother the first of the mighty acts he did in the Spirit). [Jesus might have informed them of the fact by a single word; but it was becoming that His wisdom should be proved demonstratively in their absence. For thus He showed, that He was not indebted to them for the wisdom which He had: comp. Luk 2:50. He gave satisfactory proof thereby, that it was not they, but Himself, who was fully adequate to direct Himself, and that His subjection to them, Luk 2:51, is of the freest kind.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Ch 30:21-23, 2Ch 25:17
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3
Fulfilled the days refers to the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month and the seven days immediately following (Lev 23:4-8). Jesus began to manifest the “special wisdom” referred to at verse 40, and he remained at Jerusalem after his parents departed. There being a large group traveling together toward Galilee, the child was not missed for a while.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
[And when they had fulfilled the days.] Here ariseth a question, Whether it was lawful to depart from Jerusalem before the seven days were ended? If not, why did Peter and Cleophas go away on the third day? If they might, how then is that precept to be understood about eating the unleavened bread throughout the whole seven days?
I. It is controverted amongst the doctors about that passage, Deu 16:6-7; “Thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at the even, at the going down of the sun, and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go into thy tents,” whether it be lawful, after they had eaten the lamb, to go every one to his own house. This is denied, and that not without reason. For as it is in the Gloss, “On the day of the feast,” (that is, the first day of the seven,) “the sabbatical limits forbade it.” For on the feast day no man ought to exceed the bounds of a sabbath day’s journey. “That therefore, (say they) that is said, ‘Thou shalt go into thy tents,’ is to be thus understood, ‘Thou shalt go into thy tents that are without the walls of Jerusalem; but by no means into thine own house.'”
II. Was it lawful then to return home on the second day of the feast? No, it was not. For on that day was the general appearance in the court, and presentment of their offerings. And this seems hinted by R. Elhanani in another Gloss upon the place newly cited: “There were two reasons (saith he) of their lodging in Jerusalem: the one because of the feast day; the other because of the offering.”
III. It was not unlawful to depart on the third day, if necessity of affairs required it. But as in many other cases the doctors were wont to speak, so might it be said in this it was much more commendable for them to abide in Jerusalem till all the seven days were ended; and that especially because of the last day, which was a festival or holy day.
“R. Jose the Galilean saith, There are three things commanded to be done in the feast; 1. the Chagigah; 2. the appearance in the court; 3. the rejoicing.” The Chagigah or the peace offerings were on the first day; the appearance in the court was on the second day; the rejoicing might be on any day.
IV. In Moed Katon; a treatise that discourseth on things lawful or not lawful to be done in the intermedials of the feast, or in those days of the feast that were not kept holy; in the very entrance of that discourse there are several things allowed, which plainly argue absence and distance from Jerusalem.
As to eating unleavened bread, the precept indeed was indispensable, neither that any thing leavened should be eaten, nor that any leaven should be found in their houses for seven days together: but no one would say that this command was restrained only to Jerusalem. It is said in Jerusalem Kiddushin, the women’s Passover is arbitrary; that is, the women’s appearance at Jerusalem at the Passover was at pleasure. But let them not say that eating unleavened bread was arbitrary, or at the women’s pleasure: for although they sat at home, and did not go to Jerusalem to the Passover, yet did they abstain from leaven in their own houses: the unleavened bread was eaten in every house.
VI. It seems from the very phraseology that Joseph and Mary continued at Jerusalem all the seven days; which was indeed generally done by others for devotion’s sake. And then think what numerous companies of people must be going away to this or that country, yea, particularly, how great a crowd might be journeying, together with Joseph and Mary, towards Galilee. So that it may be less strange, if Jesus had not been within his parents’ sight, though he had been among the crowd; nor that though they did not see him, yet that they should not suspect his absence.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Luk 2:43. Fulfilled the days. The seven days of the feast. (Exo 12:15 Lev 23:6; Deu 16:2.)
Tarried behind in Jerusalem. This and the next clause are the emphatic parts of the sentence (Luk 2:42-43).
And his parents did not know it. This does not imply want of proper care on their part. Such a child had not been wont to cause anxiety. How it happened is not stated. The main point is, that He, afterwards (Luk 2:51) and before so obedient, remained without consulting His parents, and justified Himself for so doing (Luk 2:49). His action was occasioned by an irresistible longing to remain in the sacred city and in the house of God. This longing He gratified without consulting those to whom He ordinarily owed obedience. Such conduct would have been disobedience, implying moral imperfection, if Jesus were not more than man. The sole justification is in the higher relationship He asserts (Luk 2:49).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The service of the temple being ended, they return home to Nazareth. Religious duties are not to be attended to the prejudice and neglect of our particular callings. God calls us, as well from his house as to his house. They are much mistaken, who think God is pleased with nothing but devotion: he that says, Be fervent in spirit serving the Lord, says also, Be not slothful in business. Peity and industry must keep pace with one another; God is as well pleased with our return to Nazareth, as with our going up to Jerusalem.
Observe farther, though Joseph and Mary returned home, the child Jesus, unknown to them, stays behind. Their back was no sooner turned upon the temple, but his face was towards it; Christ had business in that place which his parents knew not of. They missing him, seek him in the company, concluding him with their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
From whence we may gather, that the parents of Christ knew him to be of a sweet and sociable, of a free and conversative, not of a sullen and morose, disposition. They did not suspect him to be wandering in the fields or deserts, but when they missed him, sought him among their kinsfolk: had he not wanted to converse formerly with them, he had not now been sought amongst them.
Our blessed Saviour when on earth, did not take pleasure in a wild retiredness, in a froward austerity, but in a mild affability, and amiable conversation; and herein also his example is very instructive to us.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Verse 43
For an account of the institution and mode of celebrating the passover, see Exodus 12:1-36; Leviticus 23:4-8:
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Luke noted that Mary and Joseph stayed for the duration of the eight-day festival, another tribute to their piety. Mary and Joseph probably did not miss Jesus for a whole day because each may have supposed He was with the other since men often traveled with men and women with women. [Note: Liefeld, p. 852.] Perhaps they assumed He was with the other children or the other adults in their caravan of pilgrims. One of my colleagues once left his children at the church where he was the guest preacher and only became aware of their absence when he arrived back home. It seems unlikely that Mary and Joseph would have been this preoccupied, however.