must have been a harrowing three-day search, they finally found the boy in the temple courts, listening to and questioning the religious scholars who were teaching there (v 45–46), apparently oblivious to and uninterested in the frantic search that had been underway. What follows is a series of astonishments and confusions. Those who heard Jesus were amazed at his understanding of the matters that were being taught (v 47). Mary and Joseph were astonished that Jesus would be sitting there, seemingly