SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:49
Entonces l les dice: ¿Qu hay? ¿Por qu me buscabais? ¿No sabíais que en los negocios que son de mi Padre me conviene estar?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Luke 2:49
Verse 49. 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?] en toiv tou patrov mou, 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!
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 49. And he said unto them, how is it that ye sought me ? etc.] That is, with so much uneasiness and distress of mind, not trusting in the power and providence of God, to take care of him; and in other places, besides the temple, where they had been inquiring for him: wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? or in my Father's house, as the Syriac and Persic versions render it; where, as soon as you missed me, you might, at once, have concluded I was, and not have put yourselves to so much trouble and pains in seeking for me. Christ seems to tax them with ignorance, or, at least, forgetfulness of his having a Father in heaven, whose business he came to do on earth; and which they should have thought in their own minds he was now about, and so have made themselves easy. The business that Christ came about was to preach the Gospel, and which he afterwards performed with great clearness and fulness, with much power, majesty, and authority, with great constancy and diligence, with much concern for the souls of men, arid with great awfulness; and in which he took great delight, though he went through many dangers and risks of life; as also to work miracles in proof of his deity and Messiahship, and for the good of the bodies of men, and in which he was very assiduous, going about every where doing good this way: but the main, and principal part of his business was, to work out salvation for his people, by fulfilling the law, making reconciliation and atonement for their sins, and obtaining eternal redemption: this was a business which neither angels nor men could do; was very toilsome and laborious, and yet he delighted in it; nor did he desist from it until it was accomplished: and this is called his Father's business, because he contrived and assigned it to him; he called him to it, and sent him to perform; he enjoined it to him as man and mediator, and the glory of his perfections was concerned in it, and secured by it: and it was a business that Christ must be about, be concerned in, and perform, because he engaged to do it from all eternity; and because it was the will of his Father, which must be done, and was necessary in order to show himself dutiful and obedient; and because it was foretold in prophecy again and again and promised that it should be done; and because it could not be done by another. Now our Lord's conversing with the doctors, and which was a branch of his prophetic office, and was, no doubt, with a view to the good of the souls of men, and nothing less than miraculous, was a show, a prelude of, and a sort of an entrance upon the business he came about.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 41-52 - It is for the honour of Christ that children should attend on publi worship. His parents did not return till they had stayed all the seve days of the feast. It is well to stay to the end of an ordinance, a becomes those who say, It is good to be here. Those that have los their comforts in Christ, and the evidences of their having a part in him, must bethink themselves where, and when, and how they lost them and must turn back again. Those that would recover their los acquaintance with Christ, must go to the place in which he has put his name; there they may hope to meet him. They found him in some part of the temple, where the doctors of the law kept their schools; he wa sitting there, hearkening to their instructions, proposing questions and answering inquiries, with such wisdom, that those who heard wer delighted with him. Young persons should seek the knowledge of Divin truth, attend the ministry of the gospel, and ask such questions of their elders and teachers as may tend to increase their knowledge Those who seek Christ in sorrow, shall find him with the greater joy Know ye not that I ought to be in my Father's house; at my Father' work; I must be about my Father's business. Herein is an example; for it becomes the children of God, in conformity to Christ, to atten their heavenly Father's business, and make all other concerns give wa to it. Though he was the Son of God, yet he was subject to his earthl parents; how then will the foolish and weak sons of men answer it, wh are disobedient to their parents? However we may neglect men's sayings because they are obscure, yet we must not think so of God's sayings That which at first is dark, may afterwards become plain and easy. The greatest and wisest, those most eminent, may learn of this admirabl and Divine Child, that it is the truest greatness of soul to know ou own place and office; to deny ourselves amusements and pleasures no consistent with our state and calling __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 CONJ ειπεν 2036 5627 V-2AAI-3S προς 4314 PREP αυτους 846 P-APM τι 5101 I-NSN οτι 3754 CONJ εζητειτε 2212 5707 V-IAI-2P με 3165 P-1AS ουκ 3756 PRT-N ηδειτε 1492 5715 V-LAI-2P οτι 3754 CONJ εν 1722 PREP τοις 3588 T-DPN του 3588 T-GSM πατρος 3962 N-GSM μου 3450 P-1GS δει 1163 5904 V-PQI-3S ειναι 1511 5750 V-PXN με 3165 P-1AS
Vincent's NT Word Studies
49. And he said. The first saying of Jesus which is preserved to us. Must (dei). 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 Matt. xvi. 21; xxvi. 54; Mark viii. 31; Luke iv. 43; ix. 22; xiii. 33; xxiv. 7, 26, 46; John iii. 14; iv. 4; xii. 34. About my Father's business (en toiv tou patrov). 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?"
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:49 {Son} (teknon). Child, literally. It was natural for Mary to be the first to speak. {Why} (ti). The mother's reproach of the boy is followed by a confession of negligence on her part and of Joseph ({sorrowing}, odun"menoi). {Thy father} (ho pater sou). No contradiction in this . Alford says: "Up to this time Joseph had been so called by the holy child himself, but from this time never." {Sought} (ezetoumen). Imperfect tense describing the long drawn out search for three days. {How is it that} (ti hoti). The first words of Jesus preserved to us. this crisp Greek idiom without copula expresses the boy's amazement that his parents should not know that there was only one possible place in Jerusalem for him. {I must be} (dei einai me). Messianic consciousness of the necessity laid on him. Jesus often uses dei (must) about his work. Of all the golden dreams of any boy of twelve here is the greatest. {In my Father's house} (en tois tou patros mou). Not "about my Father's business," but "in my Father's house" (cf. #Ge 41:51). Common Greek idiom. And note "my," not "our." When the boy first became conscious of his peculiar relation to the Father in heaven we do not know. But he has it now at twelve and it will grow within him through the years ahead in Nazareth.
