When Jesus was lost for three days, were Joseph and Mary a day and a half out before turning back?
Robert Sungenis offers a tentative answer, saying he had not considered it before: travelling out and back would mean turning around after a day and a half, giving about three days in all. He presents it as a practical reading rather than a settled one, and says it is a detail he will need to research further.
A viewer asks, regarding the finding of Jesus in the temple, whether Joseph and Mary were a day and a half out of Jerusalem before turning around (making three days), or whether they searched the city for three days.
Answer
I have never thought about that before. Scripture says he was missing for three days, so we can logically assume that if you travel out, you have to travel back in, and after a day and a half you would turn around, which would make about three days total. Practically that makes sense: if your son is gone three days, that borders on irresponsibility, but at a day and a half you might reasonably think he is somewhere in the crowd or with relatives and you just have not seen him. I am not saying my answer is right, and you probably would not even find this in a commentary because it seems like such a minuscule detail, but it is a good question I will have to research more.