Church Fathers Commentary Luke 2:51-52

"And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and he was subject unto them: and his mother kept all [these] sayings in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." — Luke 2:51-52 (ASV)

Greek Expositors: The Evangelist sums up in one phrase all that time in Christ's life between His appearance in the temple and His baptism, a period lacking great public miracles or teaching, saying, And he went down with them.

Origen of Alexandria: Jesus frequently went down with His disciples, for He is not always dwelling on the mountain; those who were troubled with various diseases were not able to ascend the mountain. For this reason, He also went down to those who were below. It follows: And he was subject unto them...

Greek Expositors: Sometimes He first establishes laws by His word and afterward confirms them by His work, as when He says, The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. For shortly after, seeking our salvation, He poured out His own life. But at other times He first sets forth an example in Himself and afterward, as far as words can, draws from it rules for life, as He does here. By His work, He demonstrates these three things above all others: the love of God, honor to parents, and also the need to prefer God over our parents. For when He was questioned by His parents, He considered all other things less important than those that belong to God; yet, He also gives His obedience to His parents.

The Venerable Bede: For what is the teacher of virtue, unless he fulfills his duty to his parents? What else did He do among us than what He wished to be done by us?

Origen of Alexandria: Let us, then, also be subject to our parents. If we have no fathers, let us be subject to those who are our fathers. Jesus, the Son of God, is subject to Joseph and Mary. I, however, must be subject to the bishop who has been appointed as my father.

It seems that Joseph knew that Jesus was greater than he was and therefore, in awe, moderated his authority. Let everyone see that often the one who is subject is the greater. If those who are higher in dignity understand this, they will not be inflated with pride, knowing that their superior is subject to them.

Gregory of Nyssa: Furthermore, since the young do not yet have perfect understanding and need to be guided by those who have advanced to a more perfect state, when He arrived at twelve years of age, He was obedient to His parents. This was to show that whatever is perfected by moving forward, before it arrives at its goal, profitably embraces obedience, as it leads to good.

St. Basil the Great: From His very first years, being obedient to His parents, He endured all bodily labors humbly and reverently. Since His parents were honest and just, yet at the same time poor and ill-supplied with the necessities of life (as the stable that served for the holy birth bears witness), it is plain that they continually underwent bodily fatigue to provide for their daily needs.

But Jesus, being obedient to them as the Scriptures testify, submitted Himself to a complete subjection, even in enduring such labors.

St. Ambrose of Milan: And can you wonder if He who is subject to His mother also submits to His Father? Surely that subjection is a mark not of weakness but of filial duty.

Let the heretic, then, raise his head to assert that He who is sent needs other help. Yet why should He need human help in obeying His mother’s authority? He was obedient to a handmaid; He was obedient to His supposed father. And do you wonder that He obeyed God? Or is it a mark of duty to obey man, but of weakness to obey God?

The Venerable Bede: The Virgin, whether she understood or could not yet understand, equally stored all these things in her heart for reflection and diligent examination. Hence it follows, And his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Notice that the wisest of mothers, Mary, the mother of true wisdom, becomes the scholar or disciple of the Child.

For she yielded to Him not as a boy, nor as a man, but as God. Furthermore, she pondered both His divine words and works, so that nothing He said or did was lost on her. Just as the Word Himself was once in her womb, so now she conceived His ways and words, and in a sense, nursed them in her heart.

While she thought about one thing at the time, she wanted another to be more clearly revealed to her; this was her constant rule and law throughout her whole life. It follows, And Jesus increased in wisdom.

Theophylact of Ohrid: This does not mean He became wise by making progress, but that He gradually revealed His wisdom. It was as when He disputed with the Scribes, asking them questions about their law, to the astonishment of all who heard Him. You see, then, how He increased in wisdom: He became known to many and caused them to wonder, for the manifestation of His wisdom is His increase. But notice how the Evangelist, after interpreting what it means to increase in wisdom, adds, and in stature, thereby declaring that an increase in age corresponds to an increase in wisdom.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: But the Eunomian heretics say, “How can He be equal to the Father in substance, who is said to increase, as if He were previously imperfect?” But He is said to receive increase not because He is the Word, but because He was made man. For if He really increased after He was made flesh—as if having previously existed in an imperfect state—why then do we give Him thanks for having become incarnate for us?

If He is true wisdom, how can He be increased? Or how can He who gives grace to others be Himself advanced in grace? Again, if no one is offended on hearing that the Word humbled Himself—not thinking less of the true God, but rather marveling at His compassion—how is it not absurd to be offended at hearing that He increases?

For as He was humbled for us, so for us He increased, so that we who have fallen through sin might increase in Him. For Christ Himself has truly undertaken for us whatever concerns us, that He might restore us to a better state.

Notice what the Evangelist says: not that the Word, but that Jesus, increases. This is so you should not suppose that the pure Word increases, but the Word made flesh. Just as we confess that the Word suffered in the flesh—although only the flesh suffered, because it was the flesh of the Word that suffered—so He is said to increase, because the human nature of the Word increased in Him.

He is said to increase in His human nature, not as if that nature, which was perfect from the beginning, received an increase, but that it was gradually manifested. For the law of nature does not permit a person to have higher faculties than the age of his body allows.

The Word, then (made man), was perfect, being the power and wisdom of the Father. But because something had to be yielded to the patterns of our nature, lest He be considered strange by those who saw Him, He manifested Himself as a man with a body, gradually advancing in growth. Consequently, He was daily thought wiser by those who saw and heard Him.

Greek Expositors: He increased, then, in age, as His body grew to the stature of a man, and in wisdom, through those who were taught divine truths by Him.

He also increased in grace—that is, the grace by which we are advanced with joy, trusting at last to obtain the promises. This increase was before God, because, having put on the flesh, He performed His Father’s work. It was also before men, through their conversion from the worship of idols to the knowledge of the Most High Trinity.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He says “before God and men” because we must first please God, and then man.

Gregory of Nyssa: The Word also increases in different degrees in those who receive it, and according to the measure of its increase, a person appears as an infant, a grown-up, or a perfect man.