Luke 2:47,48 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And all that heard him were astonished— The words rendered astonished in this verse, and amazed in the next, are much more forcible than our translation of them. They import, that they were in a transport of astonishment, and were struck with admiration. As our Lord himself has told us, that on this occasion he was employed in his Father's business, it is probable that in these his answers and objections, he modestlyinsinuated corrections of the errors wherewith the Jewish teachers had now greatly disfigured religion. If we recollect that the school learning of the Jews was at this time at its highest pitch, and that our Lord, at the age of twelve years, was superior to the greatest doctors whom the Jews could boast of, there will appear very just grounds for the admiration here mentioned. His parents were particularly and beyond measure surprised, to find him engaged in such an employment; and hismother in particular, not able to express the emotion she was in, chid him with a tender vehemence for leaving them without their knowledge, and putting them to so much pain. The word rendered sorrowing, οδυνωμενοι, is expressive of the most racking anguish, and is often applied to the distress and pain of a woman in travail; it has therefore been rendered, with great concern,—with inexpressible anxiety and distress.