Luke 2:36-38

Anna presents, in several respects, a contrast to Simeon. The latter came into the temple impelled by the Spirit; Anna lives there. Simeon has no desire but to die; Anna seems to recover the vigour of youth to celebrate the Messiah. The words ἣ οὐκ ἀφίστατο (Luke 2:37) might be made the predicate of ἦν, and the two αυτη which separate them, two appositions of ῎Αννα. But it is simpler to understand ἦν in the sense of there was, or there was there, and to regard ἣ οὐκ ἀφιστατο as an appendix intended to bring back the narrative from the description of Anna's person to the actual fact. Meyer, who understands ἦν in the same way, begins a fresh proposition with the αὕτη which immediately follows, and assigns to it ἀνθωμολογεῖτο for its verb (Luke 2:38). This construction is less natural, especially on account of the intermediate clauses (Luke 2:37). Προβεβηκυῖα ἐν is a Hebraism (especially with πολλαῖς), Luke 1:7. The moral purity of Anna is expressed by the term παρθενία, virginity, and by the long duration of her widowhood. Do the 84 years date from her birth, or from the death of her husband? In the latter case, supposing that she was married at 15, she would have been 106 years old. This sense is not impossible, and it more easily accounts perhaps for such a precise reckoning. Instead of ὡς, about, the Alex. read ἕως, until, a reading which appears preferable; for the restriction about would only be admissible with a round number 80, for example. Did Anna go into the temple in the morning, to spend the whole day there? or did she remain there during the night, spreading her poor pallet somewhere in the court? Luke's expression is compatible with either supposition. What he means is, that she was dead to the outer world, and only lived for the service of God.

We could not, with Tischendorf, following the Alex., erase one of the two αυτη (Luke 2:38). Both can be perfectly accounted for, and the omission is easily explained by the repetition of the word. ᾿Αντί, in the compound ἀνθωμολογεῖτο, might refer to a kind of antiphony between Anna and Simeon. But in the LXX. this compound verb corresponds simply to הוֹדָה (Psa 79:13); ἀντί only expresses, therefore, the idea of payment in acknowledgment which is inherent in an act of thanksgiving (as in the French word reconnaissance). The Alex. reading τῷ Θεῷ, to God, is probably a correction, arising from the fact that in the O. T. the verb ἀνθωμολογεῖσθαι never governs anything but God. It is less natural to regard the received reading as resulting from the pronoun αὐτοῦ, Him, which follows.

We need not refer the imperf., she spake, merely to the time then present; she was doing it continually. The reading of some Alex., “those who were looking for the deliverance of Jerusalem,” is evidently a mistaken imitation of the expression, the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25). The words, in Jerusalem, naturally depend on the participle, that looked for. The people were divided into three parties. The Pharisees expected an outward triumph from the Messiah; the Sadducees expected nothing; between them were the true faithful, who expected the consolation, that is, deliverance. It was these last, who, according to Ezekiel's expression (chap. 9), cried for all the abominations of Jerusalem, that were represented by Anna and Simeon; and it was amongst these that Anna devoted herself to the ministry of an evangelist. If Luke had sought, as is supposed, occasions for practising his muse, by inventing personages for his hymns, and hymns for his personages, how came he to omit here to put a song into the mouth of Anna, as a counterpart to Simeon's?

3. Historical conclusion: Luke 2:39-40.

It is a characteristic feature of Luke's narrative, and one which is preserved throughout, that he exhibits the various actors in the evangelical drama as observing a scrupulous fidelity to the law (Luke 1:6; Luke 2:22-24; Luke 23:56). It is easy also to understand why Marcion, the opponent of the law, felt obliged to mutilate this writing in order to adapt it to his system. But what is less conceivable is, that several critics should find in such a Gospel the monument of a tendency systematically opposed to Jewish Christianity. The fact is, that in it the law always holds the place which according to history it ought to occupy. It is under its safeguard that the transition from the old covenant to the new is gradually effected. It is easy to perceive that Luke 2:39 has a religious rather than a chronological reference. “They returned to Nazareth only after having fulfilled every prescription of the law.” Luke 2:40 contains a short sketch of the childhood of Jesus, answering to the similar sketc, Luke 1:66, of that of John the Baptist. It is probably from this analogous passage that the gloss πνεύματι, in spirit, has been derived. It is wanting in the principal Alex. and Graeco-Latin documents. The expression He grew refers to His physical development. The next words, He waxed strong, are defined by the words being filled, or more literally, filling Himself with wisdom; they refer to His spiritual, intellectual, and religious development. The wisdom which formed the leading feature of this development (in John the Baptist it was strength) comprises, on the one hand, the knowledge of God; on the other, a penetrating understanding of men and things from a divine point of view. The image (filling Himself) appears to be that of a vessel, which, while increasing in size, fills itself, and, by filling itself, enlarges so as to be continually holding more. It is plain that Luke regards the development, and consequently the humanity, of Jesus as a reality. Here we have the normal growth of man from a physical and moral point of view. It was accomplished for the first time on our earth. God therefore regarded this child with perfect satisfaction, because His creative idea was realized in Him. This is expressed by the last clause of the verse. Χάρις, the divine favour. This word contrasts with χεῖρ, the hand, Luke 1:66. The accus. ἐπ᾿ αὐτό marks the energy with which the grace of God rested on the child, penetrating His entire being. This government contrasts with that of Luke 1:66, μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ, which only expresses simple co-operation. This description is partly taken from that of the young Samuel (1Sa 2:26); only Luke omits here the idea of human favour, which he reserves for Luke 2:52, where he describes the young man.

Let any one compare this description, in its exquisite sobriety, with the narratives of the infancy of Jesus in the apocryphal writings, and he will feel how authentic the tradition must have been from which such a narrative as this was derived.