A Visit to the Temple Part 2

 Hello everyone,

In my last post, I talked about how Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the temple to meet the requirements of the law.  Whiel they were there, they encoutered two righteous people, Simeon and Anna.  We talked about what Simoen had to say.  Today we will look at what Anna had to say. 

Anna is clearly a woman who has devoted herself to God.  She was a constant presence at the temple, and spent her time in prayer and fasting.  God has now sent two witnesses to Joseph and Mary, one righteous man and one righteous woman. Anna is presented here as the daughter of Phanuel and from the tribe of Asher.  

In the Greek, Anna's exact age is unclear.  Was she 84? Or had she been a widow for 84 years?  Luke states that she had lived with her husband for seven years, then he died and she had lived as a widow since.  The text could be saying that she had lived as a widow for 84, which would make around 105, at least. What is clear is that she had been widowed for a long time, from 60 to 84 years.  In his commentary, Darrell Bock opts for the most direct interpretation, making her around 105. (Bock, 252.) Now, it is rare that someone lives that long.  Rarer still that someone would live that long and still have the vibrancy to be up and about in the temple every day.  But it is possible. 

It is possible that God was allowing Anna to live to see the Messiah, just as he had for Simeon.  Luke doesn’t specifically say that, but, again,it is possible. Now, both can go and die in peace, having seen for themselves, the redemption of Israel. 

Like Simeon, upon seeing Jesus, Anna praised God.  However, as Simeon spoke to the parents about what this child would be, Anna spoke to the people, talking about Jesus to others like her who had been waiting for the redemption of Israel.  

After leaving the temple, Luke tells of them returning to Nazareth. so, the young Jesus, grows up in Nazareth, where, according to Luke, he grew in wisdom and size and had the grace of God upon him. We learn very little about his childhood from Luke, but here, like John the Baptist, Luke indicates that the hand of God upon him from an early age. 

Tom 

     Darrell Bock. Luke: Volume 1 - 1:1-9:50, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Academic, 1994.