Luke 2:50?

Question

What did Mary and Joseph not understand? I am having a little trouble with this verse.

Answer 1

I think it is the saying that Jesus need to be in the Temple. This is what Mary and Joseph don't understand.

But again, why the trouble? These are minor.

Answer 2

Luke 2:49-50
And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?"

But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them.

I think what Mary and Joseph didn't understand was that Jesus, at the tender age of twelve as we are led to believe, comprehended already that he was the Son of God. He was in the temple, astonishing the priests there with knowledge that they knew he could scarcely have gained from simple people like Mary and Joseph.

Perhaps it was because they had not explained to him at that age the events surrounding his birth, and had merely taught him that Joseph was his father. If, then, Jesus claimed to be in his father's house at the Temple, I would be a little confused as well.

Thirdly, I think it may have been merely a moment of storytelling, a precursor to the many times when Jesus would teach something, and either the apostles or the crowd would be noted to not understand his teaching.

Answer 3

In Luke 2:48, Mary told him that her and his father (meaning Joseph) were worried and did not know where He was. In vs. 49, Jesus says that He was about His Father's business (meaning God). Even at this early age, Jesus knew why He was here on Earth. While Mary and Joseph knew He was conceived of God, they did not know/understand why He was here. I think that is what is referred to in vs. 50.

Answer 4

Okay - here is the set up.
The family was on their way back Nazareth, their family home, from Jerusalem.....Jesus is missing.
His earthly parents Mary and Joseph are getting worrkied and start anxiously searching.
After 3 days of searching they finally find him - in the temple.
He is sitting with the teachers (and others) at the temple, listening to them and asking insightful questions.
He is showing an understanding of God (Jesus' Father) that is astounding, especially in one so young.
Mary and Joseph ask "Son, why have you treates us like this? Your father and I have been anxiouly searching for you."
Jesus' response was "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Mary and Joseph are confused because "his father's house" is in Nazareth.
They are thinking for lack of a better term, inside the box.
In terms of His earthly father's house.
Jesus is speaking outside the box......the temple is were God lives.
This is the home of His FATHER (God).

As you will notice the more you read the bible the more you realize that things have several meanings.
It is like and onion - there are layers and layers of meanings for everything.
As your faith goes deeper, and as you mature and have more life experience, you will undertand more and more the complexities of it all.
The more you read and learn, the more you want to read and learn, that is one of the meanings of "being on fire with the Holy Spirit".

Good question - keep asking.

Answer 5

According to one commentary, "Jewish teachers had determined that at twelve, a boy must begin to learn his trade," and, "in that day, there was nothing more natural than a son taking up his father's business." Thus, when Jesus said to Joseph and Mary, "I must be about My Father's business," He was referring to the business His Father God had given Him to do. However, by "father" Joseph and Mary naturally assumed Jesus was speaking about Joseph (Jesus' adoptive father), and so there was some confusion about how Jesus could have been doing "his father's business" given that Joseph's business was carpentry, not preaching in the temple.

Answer 6

Because he told them that they should have expected him to be at his Father's house, yet Joseph is his worldly father, so that obviously didn't make sense to them. To them his father's house would be where Mary and Joseph live. To him his Father's house is the church.

Answer 7

Jesus, of course, continued to be God’s Son when born as a human, even as he had been in his prehuman existence. His birth was not the result of conception by the seed, or sperm, of any human male descended from Adam, but was by action of God’s holy spirit. (Mt 1:20, 25.) Jesus recognized his sonship in relation to God, at the age of 12 years saying to his earthly parents, “Did you not know that I must be in the house of my Father?” They did not grasp the sense of this, perhaps thinking that by “Father” he was referring to God only in the sense that the term was used by Israelites in general. Lu 2:48-50.

Answer 8

Read Luke 9:45, and 18:34.

Mom and dad knew they had a special gift from God in their son, but they still did not realize he was to be the one who had been chosen to be man's redemption.

Answer 9

They did not understand that Jesus was speaking in reference to God His Father. They were confused because He had been missing for the last three days.

Answer 10

46 Well, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers and listening to them and questioning them. 47 But all those listening to him were in constant amazement at his understanding and his answers. 48 Now when they saw him they were astounded, and his mother said to him: “Child, why did you treat us this way?

Here your father and I in mental distress have been looking for you.” 49 But he said to them: “Why did YOU have to go looking for me? Did YOU not know that I must be in the [house] of my Father?”

OTHER SCRIPTURES :

(Psalm 26:8) Jehovah, I have loved the dwelling of your house And the place of the residing of your glory.

(Psalm 27:4) One thing I have asked from Jehovah— It is what I shall look for, That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, To behold the pleasantness of Jehovah And to look with appreciation upon his temple.

(Proverbs 20:11) Even by his practices a boy makes himself recognized as to whether his activity is pure and upright.

(John 2:16) And he said to those selling the doves: “Take these things away from here! Stop making the house of my Father a house of merchandise!”