Ital. La Disputa nel Tempio. Fr. Jesus au milieu des Docteurs.

The subject which we call the Dispute in the Temple, or “Christ among the Doctors,” is a scene of great importance in the life of the Redeemer (Luke ii. 41, 52).  His appearance in the midst of the doctors, at twelve years old, when he sat “hearing them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and his answers,” has been interpreted as the first manifestation of his high character as teacher of men, as one come to throw a new light on the prophecies,—­

  “For trailing clouds of glory had he come
  From heaven, which was his home;”

and also as instructing as that those who are to become teachers of men ought, when young, to listen to the voice of age and experience; and that those who have grown old may learn lessons of wisdom from childish innocence.  Such is the historical and scriptural representation.  But in the life of the Virgin, the whole scene changes its signification.  It is no longer the wisdom of the Son, it is the sorrow of the Mother which is the principal theme.  In their journey home from Jerusalem, Jesus has disappeared; he who was the light of her eyes, whose precious existence had been so often threatened, has left her care, and gone, she knows not whither.  “No fancy can imagine the doubts, the apprehensions, the possibilities of mischief, the tremblings of heart, which the holy Virgin-mother feels thronging in her bosom.  For three days she seeks him in doubt and anguish.” (Jeremy Taylor’s “Life of Christ.”) At length he is found seated in the temple in the midst of the learned doctors, “hearing them, and asking them questions.”  And she said unto him, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, I and thy father have sought thee sorrowing.”  And he said unto them, “How is it that ye sought me?  Wise ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”

Now there are two ways of representing this scene.  In all the earlier pictures it is chiefly with reference to the Virgin Mother:  it is one of the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary.  The Child Jesus sits in the temple, teaching with hand uplifted; the doctors round him turn over the leaves of their great books, searching the law and the prophets.  Some look up at the young inspired Teacher—­he who was above the law, yet came to obey the law and fulfil the prophecies—­with amazement.  Conspicuous in front, stand Mary and Joseph, and she is in act to address to him the tender reproach, “I and thy father have sought thee sorrowing.”  In the early examples she is a principal figure, but in later pictures she is seen entering in the background; and where the scene relates only to the life of Christ, the figures of Joseph and Mary are omitted altogether, and the Child teacher becomes the central, or at least the chief, personage in the group.