LUKE 1:5 TO LUKE 2:52. NARRATIVES OF THE INFANCY OF JESUS. This section has outstanding peculiarities of style and diction as compared with Luke 1:1, and the rest of the Gospel. It has therefore been surmised that the writer has here incorporated an Aramaic (possibly Greek) source-document, or that... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BIRTH OF JESUS. Lk. only. In obedi ence to a decree of the Emperor Augustus, ordering a general census (the first, during the Syrian governor ship of Quirinius), every man went to his own city. Thus Joseph, being of Davidic lineage, journeys from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and with him Mary his betr... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CIRCUMCISION AND PRESENTATION OF JESUS. When the babe is a week old He is circumcised and named, and when He is a month old His parents take Him to the Temple in Jerusalem for the double rite of purifying the mother (Leviticus 12), and redeeming the child as a firstborn (Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:1... [ Continue Reading ]
SIMEON. As the family enters the Temple they are met by Simeon, an aged man whose devout life and expectation of Messiah had been rewarded by a Divine intimation that he should live to see the Christ. He has been guided by the Spirit, and taking the child in his arms thanks God for the fulfilment of... [ Continue Reading ]
ANNA. Simeon has a counterpart in a centenarian widow who spends her whole life in ascetic devotion in the Temple. She adds her prophetic testimony to his, and afterwards speaks of the child to the circle of pious and expectant folk who, like these two representatives, ardently awaited the consolati... [ Continue Reading ]
AN INCIDENT IN JESUS-' BOYHOOD. The lad grows in body and mind and is blessed by God. When He is twelve years old He accompanies His parents to the Passover at Jerusalem, and when the week's Feast is over, remains behind unknown to them. They return to seek Him, and after a long search find Him in o... [ Continue Reading ]