John Calvin Commentary Luke 2:46

"And it came to pass, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions:" — Luke 2:46 (ASV)

Sitting in the midst of the doctors—Rays of divine brightness must have evidently shone in this child: otherwise, those haughty men would not have permitted him to sit along with them. Though it is probable that he occupied a lower seat, and not the rank of the doctors, yet such disdainful men would not have condescended to give him an audience in a public assembly, if some divine power had not constrained them. This was a sort of prelude to his public calling, the full time of which had not yet arrived. In this way, however, he intended to give nothing more than a taste, which would immediately have faded from people's memory, had not Mary kept it for us laid up in her heart, (Luke 2:19, 51) to bring it out afterwards, along with other treasures, for the use of all the godly.