How can Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy debate with the experts of the Mosaic Law at the Temple?

 Posted February 21, 2020

In Luke 2:40 we read “And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.”

In this one verse, Luke summarised Jesus’ development from the age of four to the age of twelve. Although Jesus was brought up in a spiritual Jewish home, this alone does not explain His tremendous knowledge of Scripture which allowed Him to carry on an intelligent, theological discussion with the experts of the Mosaic Law by the age of twelve (Luke 2:46-47).

So how did He do it?

It’s in the Book of Isaiah where we find the explanation.

“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as they that are taught.” – Isaiah 50:4

Jesus is a unique individual; He is the God-Man. He is only one person, but He has two distinct natures: a divine nature and a human nature. These two natures exist side by side; they never mixed. While in His deity He is omniscient, He knows all things, but in His humanity, He had to undergo the same type of learning experience that all humans have to undergo. In His humanity, He simply did not know everything. He needed to grow up and to be trained. God the Father did that by waking Him up morning by morning to train Him in matters concerning His person, His message, and His work. Even when He realised that His mission included suffering and death, He was not rebellious; He kept His ear open and did not try to turn away backward or escape His call (Isaiah 50:5).

When the time finally came for Him to fulfil His mission, He gave His back to the smiters, His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and did not hide His face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).

As a result of His personal training by God the Father, at the age of twelve, Jesus knew exactly who He was: the Son of God. He also knew the Scriptures so well that He was able to debate them with the scholars in the Temple compound.

Yeshua The Life of the Messiah from a Messianic Jewish Perspective by Dr Arnold Fruchtenbaum. Abridged version p 73-74.