The child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. — The words do not imply that He intentionally stayed behind. If we deal with the history on its human side, the probable course of things was this: — The Passover Feast lasted seven days; on each of those days, after the first, we may well believe the “child Jesus” was seeking wisdom to do His Father’s work at the hands of the appointed teachers who “sat in Moses’ chair.” This had become habitual. He went, as usual, when the Feast was over; but Joseph and Mary, instead of seeking Him there, took for granted that He had started with the other boys of the same age who had come from Nazareth. He was therefore left in the strange city by Himself, finding shelter for the night, probably, in the house where Joseph and Mary had lodged during the feast, and spending the day, as before, in drinking in the wondrous things of God’s Law, and asking questions which showed that He demanded more than traditional or conventional explanations. His question, “Wist ye not...?” implies that they ought to have known where He would be.
Joseph and his mother knew not of it. — The better MSS. read, his parents, the alteration having probably been made in the received text on the same ground as that in Luke 2:33.