Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageHe answered them, "Why were you searching for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?"
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GAnd He said to them, "Why were you searching for Me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's affairs?"
KJV
King James VersionAnd he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
BSB
Berean Standard Bible“Why were you looking for Me?” He asked. “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”
Footnotes
En tois tou patros mou—literally 'in the things of my Father'—is deliberately and productively ambiguous in Greek. It can mean 'in my Father's house' (tois referring to the temple precincts as God's dwelling) or 'about my Father's business/affairs' (tois as a neuter plural referring to the Father's purposes). F.O.G renders 'my Father's affairs' to honour the open ambiguity and the sense that Yeshua is already oriented toward the divine mission; F.O.G Message reads 'my Father's house' to draw out the temple-dwelling typology—the true Son at home in His Father's house, a counterpoint to Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden. Both translations are linguistically defensible.
