τὰ βρέφη. ‘Their babes.’ At this point St Luke ends the special information which he derived from the documents about the journey, and rejoins the main stream of the synoptic narrative. It seems to have been a custom of Jewish mothers to carry their babes to eminent Rabbis for their blessing; naturally therefore these mothers would bring their children and babes to Jesus. See Matthew 19:13-15; Mark 10:13.

ἵνα … ἅπτηται. See on Luke 6:7. In Hellenistic Greek the subj. came to be normally used where the Attic would use the opt.

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Old Testament