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Selected Verse: Luke 2:49 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Lu 2:49 |
King James |
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| about my Father's business--literally, "in" or "at My Fathers," that is, either "about My Father's affairs," or "in My Father's courts"--where He dwells and is to be found--about His hand, so to speak. This latter shade of meaning, which includes the former, is perhaps the true one, Here He felt Himself at home, breathing His own proper air. His words convey a gentle rebuke of their obtuseness in requiring Him to explain this. "Once here, thought ye I should so readily hasten away? Let ordinary worshippers be content to keep the feast and be gone; but is this all ye have learnt of Me?" Methinks we are here let into the holy privacies of Nazareth; for what He says they should have known, He must have given them ground to know. She tells Him of the sorrow with which His father and she had sought Him. He speaks of no Father but one, saying, in effect, My Father has not been seeking Me; I have been with Him all this time; "the King hath brought me into His chambers . . . His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me" (Sol 1:4; Sol 2:6). How is it that ye do not understand? (Mar 8:21). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
How is it ... - "Why" have ye sought me with so much anxiety? "Mary" should have known that the Son of God was safe; that his heavenly Father would take care of him, and that he could do nothing amiss.
Wist ye not - "Know ye not." You had reason to know. You knew my design in coming into the world, and that design was "superior" to the duty of obeying earthly parents, and they should be willing always to give me up to the proper business for which I live.
My Father's business - Some think that this should be translated "in my Father's house" - that is, in the temple. Jesus reminded them here that he came down from heaven; that he had a higher Father than an earthly parent; and that, even in early life, it was proper that he should be engaged in the work for which he came. He did not enter, indeed, upon his public work for eighteen years after this; yet still the work of God was "his" work, and always, even in childhood, it was proper for him to be engaged in the great business for which he came down from heaven. |
| Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
And he said
The first saying of Jesus which is preserved to us.
Must (δεῖ)
Lit., it is necessary, or it behoves. A word often used by Jesus concerning his own appointed work, and expressing both the inevitable fulfilment of the divine counsels and the absolute constraint of the principle of duty upon himself. See Mat 16:21; Mat 26:54; Mar 8:31; Luk 4:43; Luk 9:22; Luk 13:33; Luk 24:7, Luk 24:26, Luk 24:46; Joh 3:14; Joh 4:4; Joh 12:34.
About my Father's business (ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός)
Lit., in the things of my Father. The words will bear this rendering; but the Rev. is better, in my Father's house. Mary's question was not as to what her son had been doing, but as to where he had been. Jesus, in effect, answers, "Where is a child to be found but in his Father's house?" |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Why sought ye me? - He does not blame them for losing, but for thinking it needful to seek him: and intimates, that he could not be lost, nor found any where, but doing the will of a higher parent. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
How is it that ye sought me? - Is not this intended as a gentle reproof? Why had ye me to seek? Ye should not have left my company, when ye knew I am constantly employed in performing the will of the Most High.
My Father's business? - Εν τοις του πατρος μου, My Father's concerns. Some think that these words should be translated, In my Father's house; which was a reason that they should have sought him in the temple only. As if he had said, Where should a child be found, but in his father's house? This translation is defended by Grotius, Pearce, and others; and is the reading of the Syriac, later Persic, and Armenian versions. Our Lord took this opportunity to instruct Joseph and Mary concerning his Divine nature and mission. My Father's concerns. This saying, one would think, could not have been easily misunderstood. It shows at once that he came down from heaven. Joseph had no concerns in the temple; and yet we find they did not fully comprehend it. How slow of heart is man to credit any thing that comes from God! |
21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?
6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.
4 Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
34 The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?
4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
22 Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.
43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.