Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
Because some who appear to believe the holy scripture deny the divinity of the Savior, as if in defense of the glory of almighty God, it seems right to me that they be taught, by the authority of the scriptures themselves, that something divine came into a human body — and not only into a human body, but also into a human soul. Although, if we attend carefully to the sense of the scriptures, that soul possessed something more than the rest of the souls of men.
For every human soul, before it arrives at virtue, is stained with vices. But the soul of Jesus was never defiled by the stain of sin. Indeed, before he reached the twelfth year of his age, the Holy Spirit writes of him in Luke's gospel: “And the child grew and was strengthened and was filled with wisdom.” Human nature does not admit this, that wisdom should be
completed before the age of twelve. It is one thing to possess a part of wisdom, another to be complete in wisdom. Let us not doubt, then, that something divine appeared in the flesh of Jesus, and not only above man, but above every rational creature as well. And “he grew,” it says. For, having “taken the form of a servant,” he grows by the same power by which he “emptied himself.” He had appeared weak, because he had assumed a weak
body, and for that reason he is strengthened again. The Son of God had “emptied himself,” and for this reason he is once more filled with wisdom, and “the favor of God rested upon him.” Not when he came to adolescence, not when he was teaching openly, but while he was still a little child, he had the grace of God; and just as all things about him had been marvelous, so too his childhood was marvelous,
so that the wisdom of God might be fulfilled. “And his parents went every year to Jerusalem for the solemn day of the Passover. And when he had become twelve years old...” Observe carefully that, before he was twelve years old, the wisdom of God, and the other things that were written about him, were being fulfilled. When therefore, as we said, he was twelve years old, and, according to custom, the days of the feast had been
completed and his parents were returning, “the boy remained behind in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know it.” And here understand something more sublime than what human nature undergoes. For it is not simply said that... and his parents were ignorant of where he was, but, just as it is written in John's gospel, when the Jews were plotting against him and he slipped out from their midst and was not seen,
so too, I think, the boy now remained in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know where he remained. Let us not wonder that they are called “parents,” of whom the one earned the title through childbirth, the other through the dutiful service of a father toward the mother. There follows: “sorrowing, we have been seeking you.” I do not think they grieved on the supposition that the boy had gone astray or perished; nor could it happen that Mary, who
knew that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit, who had heard both the angel speaking and the shepherds running and Simeon prophesying, should fear that she had lost the child through his wandering off. Remove this notion especially from Joseph, to whom it had been commanded by an angel that he should take the child and go to Egypt, who had heard: “do not be afraid to take Mary your wife; for that which has been born in her, is of—”
...by the Holy Spirit. < It could never happen that he would fear the child to be lost, whom he had known to be divine. The grief and questioning of the parents sound like something else, than the simple reader understands. Just as, whenever you read the scriptures, you seek in them a meaning with a certain grief and torment, not because you think that the scriptures have erred or contain something amiss, but because they inwardly possess
the word and reason of truth, and you are unable to find what is true: so too were they seeking Jesus, lest perhaps he had withdrawn from them, lest, leaving them, he had migrated to other places, and, what I think more likely, lest he had returned to the heavens, since it had pleased him, about to descend again. > Grieving < therefore they sought the Son of God. And when they sought him, they did not find him > among his relatives
< For human kinship could not contain the Son of God. They did not find him > among his acquaintances >, because the divine power was greater than mortal acquaintance and knowledge. Where then did they find him? < In the temple <; for there the Son of God is found. If ever you too seek the Son of God, seek first the temple, hasten there; there you will find Christ, the Word and Wisdom,
that is, < the Son of God, you will find him. But since he was a small child, he is found > in the midst of the teachers <, sanctifying and instructing them. Because he was a small child, he is found > not teaching them, but < questioning them >, and this in keeping with the duty of his age, so that he might teach us what befits children, however wise and learned they may be, that they should rather listen to their teachers than
desire to teach, and not boast of themselves with empty ostentation. He was questioning, I say, the teachers, not in order to learn something, but so that by questioning he might instruct them. For from one and the same fount of teaching flow both questioning and answering wisely; and it belongs to the same knowledge to know what you ask and what you answer. It was fitting that the Savior should first become a master of learned questioning, so that afterward he might answer questions according to the reason and word of God,
and speech: to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.