And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
Read Chapter 2
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
The beginning of the Lord’s disputation is taken from his twelfth year. This number of the evangelists was intended for the preaching of the faith. Nor is it idly that, forgetful of his parents according to the flesh, he who according to the flesh assuredly was filled with the wisdom and grace of God is found after three days in the temple. It is a sign that he who was believed dead for our faith would rise again after three days from his triumphal passion and appear on his heavenly throne with divine honor.
Clearly the abode in the hearts of the elect of the holy Trinity, the nature of whose divinity is one and indivisible, cannot be disparate. Therefore, when he was sitting in the temple, the Lord said, “I must be about my Father’s business,” and this is a declaration of his power and glory which are coeternal with God the Father’s. However, when he returned to Nazareth, he was subject to his parents, and this is an indication of his true humanity as well as an example of humility. He was subject to human beings in that human nature in which he is less than the Father. Hence he himself said, “I go to the Father because the Father is greater than I.” In that human nature, he was made a little less than the angels. In that other nature, however, in which he and the Father are one, and in virtue of which he does not go to the Father only now and then but is always in him, all things were made through him, and he is before all things.
If, from the fact that some are called brothers of our Lord, people think that these are sons of Mary, take note that he was called son of Joseph. Not only did Jews call him the son of Joseph, but also Mary called him Joseph’s son. For “I and your father have been seeking you with much anxiety.” If the angel commanded Joseph to take Mary into his care, this was to eliminate any suspicion from her slanderers, and especially so that he might protect her in case those who were scandalized in thinking that it was from the angel that she was pregnant might kill her. It was a great source of scandal to them that a virgin should give birth, because they were convinced that through her giving birth their city would be destroyed and that their kingdom, priesthood and prophecy would be abolished. It was for this reason too that they also killed the prophet Isaiah who announced these things, that a virgin would give birth to a child. Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron
