Luke 2:46 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

They found him in the temple— On the morrow after their arrival, the parents of Jesus, to their great joy, found him in one of the chambers of the temple, sitting among the doctors, who at certain seasons, and particularly at the great festivals, taught there publicly; a custom hinted at in Jeremiah 26:5-10. See also John 18:20. There were no less than three Sanhedrim, or assemblies of the doctors, who had apartments in the temple, two of these consisted of twenty-three persons each, one of which sat at "the east gate of the mountain of the house," the other "at the gate Nicanor," or, "the east gate of the court of Israel;" as the great Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy-one, did in the room named Gazith, near the great altar. The doctors sat on seats in the form of a crescent, but the disciples on the ground, till after the death of Gamaliel. Into which of these courts our Lord came; is quite uncertain: however, it was customary in these assemblies to propose doubts concerning the meaning of the precepts of the law, and the traditions of the elders, which was generally done by way of question. The wordhearing, is used in the rabbinical writingsto imply such skill in the traditions of the elders, as to be capable of proposing any questions concerning them, and likewise of giving answers to such as were proposed. It is certainly a great injury to the character of our blessed Redeemer, to represent this history, whether in pictures or words, as if Christ went up into the seats of the doctors, and there disputed with them. Not one word is said of his disputing by the evangelist; but only of his asking some questions, and answering others. It was a very usual thing in these assemblies, and indeed the very end of them; for they were principally designed for the catechetical examination and instruction of young people. All was conducted, no doubt, with the utmost modesty and decorum; and if Jesus were with others at the feet of these teachers, where, as we observed, learners generally sat, he might be said to be in the midst of them, as they sat on benches of a semicircular form, raised above their auditors and disciples. See Lightfoot, Drusius, and Doddridge.