Pharisees and Sadducees

Don't forget that when Jesus was twelve the teachers in the temple were amazed at this precocious child.

These likely were Sadducees.

Now Jewish children were taught to ask questions to facilitate learning. We see this in the Passover and also :

Jos 4:6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Jos 4:21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

Rather than asking about a pile of rocks down by the water, it is likely that Jesus asked about the stones in the scriptures.

Notice that when Jacob went to bed he had many stones as his pillows:

Gen 28:11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

... but when he awoke there was only one:

Ge 28:18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

"Why did the many stones become one?"

Using Jewish midrash techniques, we would discern that all the stones in the Bible represent the Messiah. Immediately, the teachers started to see a new picture of the Messiah that had eluded them previously. Jacob had laid his head upon the rock which symbolizes placing your trust or authority on "the stone".

From this, the boy Jesus could also see that the ladder was the Messiah and would bridge the gap between heaven and earth.

Then he asks "Why are there two stones which the law is written upon?"

And the teachers must have discerned that since there are heavenly and earthly laws, and they could now see that the stones represent the Messiah, he must be a heavenly and earthly Messiah.

"So then teachers, if he is a heavenly and earthly Messiah, aren't the two smitten rocks in the desert really one rock? (1 Co 10.4) and he was smitten twice? Once in heaven and once on earth?

"Does this mean he must die in heaven and on earth? In order for living water to be brought forth?

Perhaps this is where Caiaphas got the idea that Jesus should die for the nation:

John 11:50 Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.

"Then dear teachers, what is the rock with the cleft where Moses hid?" Ex 33:22

In this picture Moses foreshadows the Messiah who is taking refuge in the cleft rock, his own death. Afterwards he has the 'glow of God' as his face shines. From this Jesus knew he would be glorified after death.

Over the next eighteen years the teachers began to see the Messiah in a whole new light, and could see that they would lose power upon His return. So they plotted against him.

During that time the boy Jesus discovers his divine nature in the word and upon his return to Jerusalem, he knew he was God as prophesied in the double entendre of 2Ch 33:13.

Jesus calls them a brood of vipers, not for misunderstanding the scriptures, but for understanding them and lying to the people about him.