Luke 2:42 - Exposition

And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast . When a Jewish boy was three years old he was given the tasselled garment directed by the Law ( Numbers 15:38-41 ; Deuteronomy 22:12 ). At five he usually began to learn portions of the Law, under his mother's direction; these were passages written on scrolls, such as the shema or creed of Deuteronomy 6:4 , the Hallel Psalms ( Psalms 114:1-8 , Psalms 118:1-29 , Psalms 136:1-26 ). When the boy was thirteen years old he wore, for the first time, the phylacteries, which the Jew always put on at the recital of the daily prayer. In the well-known and most ancient 'Maxims of the Fathers' ('Pirke Avoth'), we read that, at the age of ten, a boy was to commence the study of the Mishna (the Mishna was a compilation of traditional interpretations of the Law); at eighteen he was to be instructed in the Gemara.