The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 51

position e.nd lel\rning, should possess so Vera. :16-38.-Greeting of Anna the pro- deep on insight into the lofty destinies of phele,s. an nnknown Infant, brought by evidently Ver. 36.-There wae one Anna, e. pro- poor parents into the temple court. Was phetess. The name of this h,,Iy woman is their secret then known to others whom they the same as that of the mother of Snmuel. euspected not? It is not necessary to assume that this A □ na Ver. 34.-And Simeon blessed them, e.nd had the gift of foretelling future events. aaid nnto Me.ry his mother, :Behold, this She was, at e.11 events, e. pr•caeher. Theso Chilcl. It is noticeable that, while Simeon saintly, gifted women, thoup:h ne,er m:.me- blesses Mury e.nd Joseph, he refrains from rous, were not unknown in the stnry of the blessing the Chilcl, of whom, however, be chosen people. We read of the doings-in pointedly speaks. It was not for one like some cases the very words Rre preserved- Simeon to speak words of blessing over of Miriam, Hannah, Deborah, Hu!dah, a11cl " the Son of the Highest." The words others. Of the tribe of Aser. It is true which follow are expressly stated to he.ve that at this period the ten tribes had been been addressed only to Mary. Simeon knew long lost, the "Jews" being made up of that she was related-but not Joseph-to the two tribes of Judi>h and Benjnmin: but the Be.be in his arms; he saw, too, that her yet certain families preserve,! their genea- heart, not Joseph's, would be pierced with logies, tracing their descent to one or the sword of many sorrows for that Child's other of the lost divisions of the people. sake. llehold, this Ohild is eet for the fall Thus Anna belonged to Asher. e.nd rising again of many in Israel ; and for Ver. 37.-Which departed not from the a sign whioh shall be spoken age.inst. For temple, but served God with fa.stings and nearly three centuries, of course with vary- prayers night e.nd day. Probo.bly, in virtue ing intensity, the name of ,Jesus of Nazareth of her reputation i>s a prophetess, some e.nd his followers was e. no.me. of shame, small chamber in the temple was assigned hateful e.nd despised. Not only among the to her. This seems to have been the case Roman idolaters was "the Name" spoken with Huldah (2 Chron. iuxiv. 22). It has against with intense bitterness (see the ex- also been suggested that she lovingly per- pressions used by men like Tacitus, Sueto formed some work in or abont the sacred nius, e.nd Pliny), but also among his own building. Farrar suggests such as trimming nation, the Jews, was Jesus known as" the the lamps (e.s is tlie rabbinic notion aLout Deceiver,"" that Man,"" the Hung." These Deborah), derived from the word lapidoth, were common expressions used in the great splendoUl'. Such sacred functions were re- rabbinical schools which flourished in the garded e.mong all nations e.s e. high honour. early days of Christianity. 'l'he great city of Ephesus boasted her name Ver. 35.-Yea, a sword she.11 pieroe through of vec.:Hopo<, temple-sweeper, e.s her proudest thy own ·son! also. Christian art has well title to honour. caught the spirit of her life who we.s, in Ver. 39.-And when they he.d performed spite of her untold suffering, " blessed all thinge according to the Le.w of the Lord. e.mong women," in depicting her so often Another note, which tells us of the rigid e.nd so touchingly as the mother of sorrows obedience which M11ry and Joseph paid to (Mater Dolorosa). The childhood in the the Law of Israel, nuder wbich they lived. Nazareth home, o.nd the early manhood in Marcion, the famous Gnostic horetic (secoud the Nazareth carpentry, were no cloubt her century), who adopted this Gospel of St. happiest days, though, in those quiet years, Luke, to the exclusion of the other three, expectation, fears, dreo.d, ouriously inter- as the anthoritative Gospel for his sect (the woven, must ho.ve ever tom that mother's Marcionites), omitted, however, all these heart. The d11.ys of the public ministry for passages of St. Luke's narrative in which Mary must have been sud, o.nd her bee.rt the old Mosaio Law was spoken of with full of anxious forebodings, e.s she watched reverence. They retu.-ned into Galilee, to the growing jealousies, the hatred, and the their own oity No.zareth. To complete tlie unbelief on the po.rt of the lee.ding men of story of our Lord's early life, we must in- her people. Then came the cro8s, We sert from St. Matthew, before this return know she stood by it all the while. And, to Nazareth, the visit of the l\fagi, aud tlie after the oross o.nd the Resurrection, silence. flight to and return from Egypt. It is Verily tho words of Siweon were o.wfully probul>lo-eveu if the Gospel of St. i\fattlic·w,  4! TITH GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKR. [en, n. 1-52,