Section 2:41–52
The boy Jesus spoke with the teachers
In this section, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem. This may have been Jesus’ first time to go there for Passover. While Jesus was in Jerusalem, he went to the Temple and discussed religious matters with Jewish religious leaders.
When Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem to return to Nazareth, they traveled with a group of people. They did not realize that Jesus had stayed in Jerusalem and was not traveling with them. This may have happened because of the way Jews normally walked in smaller groups when they traveled together. The women and small children walked ahead since they traveled more slowly. A boy normally traveled with his mother. But when he became a man, perhaps as early as twelve years old, he traveled with his father. So, as they returned from Jerusalem, Mary probably thought that Jesus was with Joseph, and Joseph may have thought that he was with Mary. Joseph and Mary traveled for a whole day before they realized that Jesus was not with them. The events in this section show three things:
(a) Joseph and Mary did not know where Jesus was;
(b) they did not know exactly what he was telling them when they found him;
(c) by the age of twelve (or before), Jesus was aware that he was God’s Son.
Some other possible headings for this section are:
Mary and Joseph Find Jesus With the Teachers in the Temple Courtyard (God’s Word)
-or-
Jesus when he was twelve years old
Paragraph 2:41–48
2:41
His parents: The phrase His parents refers to Joseph and Mary. Although Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, he filled the responsibility of a father toward Jesus.
the Feast of the Passover: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Passover means “pass by” or “pass over.” The Feast of the Passover was one of the Jewish religious festivals. The Jews celebrated this festival every year.
During this festival, the Jews celebrated the time when God freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. It reminded them of how the angel of the Lord caused the Egyptian king to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. The angel did this by killing every firstborn son of the Egyptians during one night. However, the angel did not kill any of the firstborn sons of the Israelites. Instead, he spared their lives. He “passed over” the oldest sons of the Israelites (Exodus 12:21–27). Because of this, the Feast of the Passover was like an independence celebration for the Jews.
Some ways to translate the phrase Feast of the Passover are:
• Translate the meaning of the term. For example:
the Passing Over/By Feast
-or-
the Sparing ⌊of the Firstborn Sons⌋ festival
-or-
“Death did not harm us” feast
• Focus on the result of the angel “passing over,” in other words, the Jews becoming free. For example:
the Festival of Freedom
-or-
Deliverance Day Feast
-or-
the End of Slavery Celebration
You may want to include a footnote and cross-reference here about this feast. For example:
The Feast of Passover was a festival that reminded the Jews of the time when God freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. See Exodus 12:1–27.
© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.