Luke 2:33-35

A carnal satisfaction, full of delusive hopes might easily have taken possession of the hearts of these parents, especially of the mother's, on hearing such words as these. But Simeon infuses into his message the drop of bitterness which no joy, not even holy joy, ever wants in a world of sin.

Instead of Joseph, which is the reading of T. R., the Alex. read: his father. We should have thought that the former of these two readings was a dogmatic correction, but that at Luke 2:27 the T. R. itself reads the word γονεῖς, parents. But the Alexandrian reading is supported by the fact that the ancient translations, the Peschito and Italic, have it.

Strauss finds something strange in the wonder of Joseph and Mary. Did they not already know all this? But in the first place, what Simeon has just said of the part this child would sustain towards the heathen goes beyond all that had hitherto been told them. And then especially, they might well be astonished to hear an unknown person, like Simeon, express himself about this child as a man completely initiated into the secret of His high destiny.

In the expression, he blessed them, Luke 2:34, the word them refers solely to the parents: the child is expressly distinguished from them (this child).

Simeon addresses himself specially to Mary, as if he had discerned that a peculiar tie united her to the child. ᾿Ιδού, behold, announces the revelation of an unexpected truth. In Isaiah 8:14 the Messiah is represented as a rock on which believers find refuge, but whereon the rebellious are broken. Simeon, whose prophetic gift was developed under the influence of the ancient oracles, simply reproduces here this thought. The words, is set for, make it clear that this sifting, of which the Messiah will be the occasion, forms part of the divine plan. The images of a fall and a rising again are explained by that employed by Isaiah. The expression, signal of contradiction (a sign which shall be spoken against, A. V.), may be understood in two ways: either it is an appearing about which men argue contradictorily, or it is a sign which excites opposition directly it appears. Taken in the first sense, this expression would reproduce the ideas of a fall and a rising again, and would be a simple repetition of that which precedes; in the second sense, it would merely recall the idea of a fall, and would form the transition to what follows. Will not the general unbelief of the nation be the cause of the sad lot of the Messiah, and of the sufferings that will fill the heart of His mother? The second sense is therefore preferable. The gradation καὶ σοῦ δὲ αὐτῆς, thy own also, Luke 2:35, is in this way readily understood. The δέ of the received reading is well suited to the context. “The opposition excited by this child will go so far, that thine own heart will be pierced by it.”

It is natural to refer what follows to the grief of Mary, when she shall behold the rejection and murder of her son. Some such words as those of Isaiah, “ He was bruised for our iniquities,” and of Zechariah, “ They shall look on me whom they have pierced,” had enlightened Simeon respecting this mystery. Bleek has proposed another explanation, which is less natural, although ingenious: “Thou shalt feel in thine own heart this contradiction in regard to thy son, when thou thy self shalt be seized with doubt in regard to His mission.” But the image of a sword must denote something more violent than simple doubt. Ψυχή, the soul, as the seat of the psychical affections, and consequently of maternal love.

It has been thought that the following proposition, in order that the thoughts of many..., could not be connected with that which immediately precedes; and for this reason some have tried to treat it as a parenthesis, and connect the in order that with the idea, This is set...(Luke 2:34). But this violent construction is altogether unnecessary. The hatred of which Jesus will be the object (Luke 2:34), and which will pierce the heart of Mary with poignant grief (Luke 2:35), will bring out those hostile thoughts towards God which in this people lie hidden under a veil of pharisaical devotion. Simeon discerned, beneath the outward forms of Jewish piety, their love of human glory, their hypocrisy, avarice, and hatred of God; and he perceives that this child will prove the occasion for all this hidden venom being poured forth from the recesses of their hearts. In order that has the same sense as is set for. God does not will the evil; but He wills that the evil, when present, should show itself: this is an indispensable condition to its being either healed or condemned. Πολλῶν, of many, appears to be a pronoun, the complement of καρδιῶν (the hearts of many), rather than an adjective (of many hearts); comp. Romans 5:16.

The term διαλογισμοί, thoughts, has usually an unfavourable signification in the N. T.; it indicates the uneasy working of the understanding in the service of a bad heart. The epithet πονηροί, added by the Sinaiticus, is consequently superfluous. These words of Simeon breathe a concentrated indignation. We feel that this old man knows more about the moral condition of the people and their rulers than he has a mind to tell.