Jesus Among the Doctors

They found him in the temple, sitting among the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. (Luke 2:46-47)

To the left, a tremendously precocious Jesus disputes with the elders of the temple. He is presented here in the guise of a medieval teacher, seated on a raised podium before his "pupils." To the right, we see Jesus appearing as the pupil himself. He holds in his hand a wax tablet, the medieval version of the notebooks in which today's schoolchildren practice their grammar and arithmetic tables.