Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 2:47
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
47. were astonished ] Similar incidents are narrated of Rabbi Eliezer Ben Azariah; of Rabbi Ashi, the compiler of the Babylonian Talmud; and (by himself) of Josephus ( Vit. 2). See Excursus VII.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 47. Answers:] The word here seems not to mean answers only, but what Jesus said by way of question to the doctors, Lu 2:46. So in Re 7:13, one of the elders is said to have answered, saying – when he only asked a question. Bp. PEARCE.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
What was the subject matter of the doctors and Christs discourses is vainly questioned, only in the general we may be assured it was something about the Divine law; what the particular themes or subjects were is not material for us to inquire. Our Saviour so answered their questions, as they were all astonished.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And all that heard him were astonished,…. All in the sanhedrim, both the doctors, and their disciples, were amazed,
at his understanding; in the knowledge of the law, and of the Scriptures:
and his answers; which he returned to the questions the doctor’s put to him, which were made with so much wisdom and judgment, that it was surprising in one of his years.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Were amazed (). Imperfect indicative middle, descriptive of their continued and repeated astonishment. Common verb meaning that they stood out of themselves as if their eyes were bulging out. The boy had a holy thirst for knowledge (Plummer), and he used a boy’s way of learning.
At his understanding ( ). Based on (), the grasp and comprehension from , comparing and combining things. Cf. Mr 12:33.
His answers ( ). It is not difficult to ask hard questions, but this boy had astounding answers to their questions, revealing his amazing intellectual and spiritual growth.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Understanding [] . From sunihmi, to bring together. Hence that quality of mind which combines : understanding not only of facts, but of facts in their mutual relations. See on Mr 12:33; where there is meant “the love of a well pondered and duly considered resolution which determines the whole person; the love which clearly understands itself” [] .
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And all that heard him were astonished,” (eksistanto de pantes hoi akouontes autou) “Then all those hearing him where astonished or dumbfounded,” at His astute questions, as both doctors and scholars were persons to whom He directed definitive questions, relative to their law, customs, and traditions.
2) “At his understanding and answers.” (epi ten sunesei kai tais apokrisesin autou) “At his astuteness or intelligence and his answers,” to the questions and issues of their law, as He engaged them in dialogue germane to law matters, Isa 1:4; Mat 7:18-19; Mar 1:22; Luk 4:22-23; Joh 7:15-16; Joh 7:46. He amazed all who listened, as He sat among them, for He was God, Isa 55:8-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
47. And all who heard him Two things here claim our attention. All who heard him were astonished: for they reckoned it a miracle, that a child should frame his questions with such correctness and propriety. Again, they heard Christ, and thus acted the part rather of scholars than of teachers. He had not yet been called by the Father, to avow himself a public teacher of the Church, and therefore satisfied himself with putting modest questions to the doctors. Yet there is no room to doubt that, in this first attempt, he already began to tax their perverse way of teaching: for what Luke afterwards says about answers, I consider as denoting, agreeably to the Hebrew idiom, any kind of discourse.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(47) At his understanding and answers.The first word seems to point to the discernment which showed itself in the questions as well as the answers. The egotism of Josephus leads him to speak of himself as having, at the age of fourteenwhen he too had become a child of the Lawcaused a like astonishment by his intelligence; so that the chief priests and principal men of the city used to come and consult him upon difficult questions in the interpretation of the Law (Life, c. 1). The fact is so far interesting as showing that the class of teachers retained the same kind of interest in quick and promising scholars.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
47. Astonished at his understanding and answers Ebrard repudiates the idea that it was upon some dry and futile rabbinical subtlety that Jesus was thus wise. “What if, on the contrary, Jesus had just heard some passages from the prophets read; had asked for explanation; put some questions; and then, from the fulness of his own innate knowledge had given answers himself which were so striking as to leave every thing the doctors had said far behind, and therefore to excite the greatest astonishment?” No subject could be more intensely absorbing to the future Messiah than the matters of type, sacrifice, and prophecy. As in a mirror, he would more and more clearly read his own features and future destiny. In a little more than twelve years he was to return to this temple, claim his rights as Messiah, and in due time make the sacrifice of which all other sacrifices were but the types.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.’
The Rabbis would each sit with a group of disciples round them. They would themselves ask questions of their listeners, and they would then teach and explain and ask for questions. And all to whom He asked His questions, and all who were listening, were amazed at this boy’s understanding, and the answer that He gave when He answered their questions (not to teach but to learn). He had truly grown in wisdom and understanding.
(Had this been an invented story or a legend we would have had Jesus correcting the Rabbis).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 2:47-48. And all that heard him were astonished The words rendered astonished in this verse, and amazed in the next, are much more forcible than our translation of them. They import, that they were in a transport of astonishment, and were struck with admiration. As our Lord himself has told us, that on this occasion he was employed in his Father’s business, it is probable that in these his answers and objections, he modestlyinsinuated corrections of the errors wherewith the Jewish teachers had now greatly disfigured religion. If we recollect that the school learning of the Jews was at this time at its highest pitch, and that our Lord, at the age of twelve years, was superior to the greatest doctors whom the Jews could boast of, there will appear very just grounds for the admiration here mentioned. His parents were particularly and beyond measure surprised, to find him engaged in such an employment; and hismother in particular, not able to express the emotion she was in, chid him with a tender vehemence for leaving them without their knowledge, and putting them to so much pain. The word rendered sorrowing, , is expressive of the most racking anguish, and is often applied to the distress and pain of a woman in travail; it has therefore been rendered, with great concern,with inexpressible anxiety and distress.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 2:47 ff. . . .] over His understanding in general, and especially over His answers.
] Joseph and Mary. They were astonished ; for they had not expected to find Him either in this place , or so occupied .
] not merely because maternal feeling is in general more keen, quick, and ready to show itself, nor yet because Joseph had not been equal to this scene (Lange), but rightly in accordance with Luke’s view of the maternal relation of Mary. Bengel: “non loquebatur Josephus; major erat necessitudo matris .”
] wherefore? See on Mar 2:16 .
] i.e. in the house of my Father . See examples of this well-known mode of expression in Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 100. So, following Syr. and the Fathers, most modern commentators. Others, such as Castalio, Erasmus, Calvin, Maldonatus, Jansen, Wolf, Loesner, Valckenaer, Rosenmller, Bornemann, de Wette, Ewald, al.: in the affairs of my Father . This also is linguistically correct. See 1Ti 4:15 ; Bornemann, Schol. p. 29; Bernhardy, p. 210; Schaefer, Melet. p. 31 f. But as Jesus in His reply refers expressly to the search of the parents, which He represents as having been made needlessly , it is most natural to find in this answer the designation of the locality , in which they ought to have known that He was to be found, without seeking Him in rebus Patris . He might also be elsewhere . To combine both modes of taking it (Olshausen, Bleek) is a priori inappropriate.
] as Son . This follows from . This breaking forth of the consciousness of Divine Sonship [61] in the first saying which is preserved to us from Jesus, is to be explained by the power of the impressions which He experienced on His first participation in the holy observances of the festival and the temple. According to Luk 2:50 , it must not have previously asserted itself thus amidst the quiet course of His domestic development (“non multum antea, nec tamen nihil, de Patre locutus erat,” Bengel on Luk 2:50 ), but now there had emerged with Him an epoch in the course of development of that consciousness of Sonship, the first bursting open of the swelling bud. Altogether foreign to the ingenuous, child-like utterance, unnatural and indelicate, is the intention of drawing a contrast which has been imputed to Him: , , , , , Theophylact. Erroneous in an opposite manner is the opinion of Schenkel, that the boy Jesus named God His Father, “ just as every pious Jewish child might do .” Such a conclusion could only be arrived at, if He had said . ; but with Jesus in the connection of His entire history . points to a higher individual relation. And this too it was, which made the answer unintelligible to the parents. What every pious Jewish child might have answered, they would have understood. See, besides, Keim, geschichtl. Chr. p. 48 f.
[61] At all events already in Messianic presentiment, yet not with the conception fully unfolded, but in the dawning apprehension of the child, which could only very gradually give place to clearness, ver. 52.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
Ver. 47. At his understanding ] Which was so large, even as man, that some have affirmed it to be infinite, and uncreated; but of this, his manhood being a creature, was incapable. Howbeit here our Saviour put forth a beam of his Deity, which yet he soon drew in again, and lay long after obscured.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luk 2:47 . , were amazed, not at His position among the doctors , or at His asking questions, but at the intelligence ( ) shown in His answers to the questions of the teachers; something of the rare insight and felicity which astonished all in after years appearing in these boyish replies.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 4:22, Luk 4:32, Psa 119:99, Mat 7:28, Mar 1:22, Joh 7:15, Joh 7:46
Reciprocal: Pro 20:11 – General Isa 52:14 – many Mat 22:33 – they Luk 2:18 – wondered Luk 2:40 – filled
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7
Understanding refers to his ability to ask proper questions. for a person needs to know something about a subject to be able to ask intelligent questions about it. His answers refers to the questions these doctors (teachers) were asking Jesus about the things that pertained to the business of God.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 2:47. Were amazed at his understanding; as manifested in His comprehension of the subjects (undoubtedly religious) under discussion.
His answers. This is added as the special ground of amazement. None of these answers have been preserved, but the subsequent reply to Mary indicates the wisdom of His words. But we must beware of the improbable and unwarranted view that He spoke as a teacher, or oracularly. A lecturing, demonstrating child, would have been an anomaly, which the God of order would never have exhibited (Olshausen). There is nothing premature, forced, or unbecoming His age, and yet a degree of wisdom and an intensity of interest in religion, which rises far above a purely human youth.