Luke 2:21-52

Jesus Presented in the Temple

21On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
22When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord"), 24and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons."

25Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
30For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
32a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."

33The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

36There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

39When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

The Boy Jesus at the Temple

41Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
49"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" 50But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

51Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

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As per Jewish custom, Jesus is circumcised and taken to Jerusalem to be "presented to the Lord." Mothers had to wait 40 days after giving birth before they could go to the temple and do this. An old, holy man named Simeon is there, and apparently he had been told that he would see the Lord's Christ before he dies. He sees the child Jesus and gets pretty excited, and he praises God. He even says to Mary, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel." That's quite a proclamation, and you wonder what the rulers and leaders would have thought, had they heard it.

A similar thing happens with an old prophetess named Anna. She came up to Joseph and Mary and the boy and gave thanks to God, telling everyone around about this child.

Many people often note that the Bible says almost nothing about Jesus' childhood. You have the story in verses 41-52 about him talking to the teachers in the temple when he was 12, but apart from that, the Bible doesn't mention much until Jesus is 30 years old! But let's discuss that for a moment.

Education was important to the Jews. They believed that the best way to live life was to study and follow the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Bible -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They believed that these books were a copy of what God had said.

The main passion of the people in Jesus' world was teaching and living the Torah. Jewish children were taught the Torah beginning at the age of six, when they went to school. The first level of education, taught be a local rabbi, was Bet Sefer ("House of the Book"). This lasted until the student was about 10 years old. Teaching the Torah was so important that generally by the age of 10, many students would have the whole thing memorized.

That's insane for me to think about. I went to a Christian school for many years as a child, and we had to memorize verses. I always found it difficult, and it was just a few verses at a time.

So from an early age, Jewish people are studying and memorizing their scriptures. They didn't have a lot of copies. There was no easy way to *make* copies. An entire village might only have one copy of the scriptures. Learning was a very "oral" tradition.

By the age of 10, students were to the point where they would either go on to the next level of education, or they would continue learning the family business. Farming, making baskets, whatever. The best students would continue their education, and this was called Bet Talmud ("House of Learning"). This lasted until around the age of 14.

By that point, the top students would have the entire Bible (what we now refer to as the Old Testament) memorized. I can't even begin to fathom that.

In verse 42 above, we see that when Jesus' parents find him in the temple area, he is 12 years old. He probably would have been right in the middle of Bet Talmud, and he's throwing questions around with the teachers! He's inquisitive. He's asking questions.

At the end of Bet Talmud, only the best and brightest were still studying. The majority had gone home to begin learning the family trade (farming, fishing, whatever). The remaining few would apply to a well-known rabbi to become one of his talmidim (disciples). Kind of like an internship, I suppose. This level of education was called Bet Midrash ("House of Study").

If a rabbi accepted you as a talmidim, you'd follow him around everywhere. You'd want to be just like him. You'd learn everything you could from him. Your life would be devoted to learning how to do what the rabbi did. Only the best were accepted as talmidim. If the rabbi believed that a kid had what it took, he would say, "Come, follow me."

But many weren't good enough. A rabbi very well might say, "You aren't good enough. Go home and learn the family business."

It was at the age of 30 that a rabbi would generally begin his public teaching and training of disciples. This is the age we'll see Jesus begin his ministry.

The last, yet perhaps most interesting thing we'll see later is when Jesus begins to call his own disciples. His talmidim. Who does he call? The best and brightest students? The ones who follow him around and beg to be his talmidim?

No. He calls fishermen. People learning the family business, perhaps not even out of their teen years. Jesus calls the not-good-enoughs. Jesus says to them, "Come, follow me." Jesus believes they can be like him.

Anyway, this stuff is all fascinating to me, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.


(Note: I'm definitely not so smart as to know all of this stuff on my own. I got most of the information about Jewish education from a fantastic book I'm reading called "Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith," by Rob Bell. It's a great book, go out and find a copy right now. This stuff is NOT the main subject matter of the book, but it was a lot of information that I didn't know, prior to reading it.)