29. Lettest thou thy servant He, as the Lord’s servant, is now ready to be discharged from his earthly service. His swan-like song to God has been celebrated for its beauty in all ages of the Church. It was his blessed lot. On earth thy salvation to see, And then to enjoy it above. read more
29-35. The utterances of Elisabeth, Mary, and Simeon are consecutive. Each begins where the other ends. Mary sings her own born Messiah; Zacharias celebrates the triumph of Israel; and Simeon announces the hopes of the Gentiles. But besides this holding forth the Messiah as a saviour for Gentile as well as Jew, what is remarkable is, that he announces in Jesus a suffering Messiah as well as a glorious. Nay, he announces that the blessed mother should also be a sorrowing mother. Though she... read more
30. Thy salvation Embodied in the person of the new born Messiah. read more
32. To lighten the Gentiles The secular and unspiritual masses of Jews fell into the fanatical and arrogant notion, that Christ was to be merely a circumscribed and exclusively Jewish Messiah; the twelve apostles could hardly be made to resign that notion. Even after the resurrection it took the independence of a martyred Stephen and all the powers of an inspired Paul to assert the full rights of the Gentiles in the Church of God. Scholars have said that in the work of opening the gates... read more
34. Unto Mary Simeon blesses both, but he addresses Mary. He recognizes that she and not the husband is the parent. Is set for the fall and rising again Is set should rather be rendered is laid or lies. It is a metaphor drawn from a stone over which some are seen stumbling and falling, others seen rising. So this child is the test by which men shall stand or fall. The phrase rising again is better translated uprising. It does not mean that those who rise are those who have... read more
35. A sword The calumny aimed at the sign shall pierce her soul. The cross of the son shall be a sword to the mother. Thoughts be revealed The sign, and the test, namely, the Messiah, shall bring out the secret characters, the moral feelings and thoughts of men. It would show what by nature they are; what by will and free agency they make themselves. Those truly preferring holiness, God, and heaven would repose faith in him. Those who prefer sin and hell would reject him. read more
36. Anna (whose name is the same with the Old Testament Hannah) was of the tribe of Asher. Her native province stretched its whole eastern side along the margin of the Mediterranean, and included those among the most ancient cities of the earth, Tyre and Sidon. Northward it bordered on Syria. Its pure and healthful climate should have been the abode of piety. When in the deepest stage of Israel’s apostacy Hezekiah sent his messengers to call them to attend the passover, most of the... read more
37. A widow of fourscore years It is honorable to Israel that the true widow was honored. If Anna were married, as is often the case with girls in the East, at thirteen, was seven years a wife, and eighty-four years a widow, she was now one hundred and four years old. But more probably this eighty-four years was her entire age. Though second marriages were not forbidden, yet among both Jews and Romans, a reverence was paid to the pure widow who retained unbroken and unrepeated her first... read more
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Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 2:27
27. Came by the Spirit The Spirit, which was attested by its own self-evidence beyond mistake, led the holy man into the temple at the time that Jesus was being brought. The mature saint and the young Messiah met, and the venerable representative of the old law did profound homage to the infant and divine founder of the new Gospel. read more