Luke 2:46

2:46 After ¹  three days ²  they found him in the temple courts, ³  sitting among the teachers, ⁴  listening to them and asking them questions.

Luke 2:49

2:49 But ⁵  he replied, ⁶  “Why were you looking for me? ⁷  Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” ⁸ 

[2:46]  ¹ tn Grk “And it happened that after.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[2:46]  ² sn Three days means there was one day out, another day back, and a third day of looking in Jerusalem.

[2:46]  ³ tn Grk “the temple.”

[2:46]  ⁴ tn This is the only place in Luke’s Gospel where the term διδάσκαλος (didaskalo", “teacher”) is applied to Jews.

[2:49]  ⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast.

[2:49]  ⁶ tn Grk “he said to them.”

[2:49]  ⁷ tn Grk “Why is it that you were looking for me?”

[2:49]  ⁸ tn Or “I must be about my Father’s business” (so KJV, NKJV); Grk “in the [things] of my Father,” with an ellipsis. This verse involves an idiom that probably refers to the necessity of Jesus being involved in the instruction about God, given what he is doing. The most widely held view today takes this as a reference to the temple as the Father’s house. Jesus is saying that his parents should have known where he was.