Luke 2:49 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Wist ye not, &c.— Some render this, Know ye not that I must be in my Father's house? With this translation the Syriac version agrees: and it is certain that the Greek will well bear this translation, and that the reply appears with peculiar propriety, if it be supposed to signify, that though they thought him lost, yet he was at home; he was in his Father's house. He calls the temple his Father's house, John 2:16 and thus gives a tacit hint, that in staying behind at Jerusalem, he had not left his true Father. It is to be remembered, that this is the first visit Christ had ever made to the temple since he was a child in arms; it is no wonder, therefore, that the delight he found here inclined him to prolong it. How happy those children, who, like the Holy Jesus, love the house and ordinances of God, and thirst for the instructions of his good word!