Luke 2:35-37

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Luke 2:35 tn Or “reasonings” (in a hostile sense). See G. Schrenk, TDNT 2:97.
2. Luke 2:35 sn The remark the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed shows that how people respond to Jesus indicates where their hearts really are before God.
3. Luke 2:35 sn A sword refers to a very large, broad two-edged sword. The language is figurative, picturing great pain. Though it refers in part to the cross, it really includes the pain all of Jesus’ ministry will cause, including the next event in Luke 2:41-52 and extending to the opposition he faced throughout his ministry.
4. Luke 2:35 sn This remark looks to be parenthetical and addressed to Mary alone, not the nation. Many modern English translations transpose this to make it the final clause in Simeon’s utterance as above to make this clear.
5. Luke 2:36 tn Her age is emphasized by the Greek phrase here, “she was very old in her many days.”
6. Luke 2:37 tn Grk “living with her husband for seven years from her virginity and she was a widow for eighty four years.” The chronology of the eighty-four years is unclear, since the final phrase could mean “she was widowed until the age of eighty-four” (so BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.α). However, the more natural way to take the syntax is as a reference to the length of her widowhood, the subject of the clause, in which case Anna was about 105 years old (so D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:251-52; I. H. Marshall, Luke, [NIGTC], 123-24).
7. Luke 2:37 sn The statements about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day make her extreme piety clear.