Bible Study Series: Luke 2:25-35. Jesus will make many fall and rise, in the Great Reversal.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 2:25-35
25 And look! There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and pious, waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Messiah of the Lord. 27 And by the Spirit he went into the temple, while the parents were bringing in the child Jesus, to perform what was the custom according to the law concerning him. 28 He received him into his arms and blessed God and said:
29 “Now you may release your servant in peace, Master, according to your word,
30 because my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared front and center before all the people,
32 a light of revelation for the Gentiles,
And the glory for your people Israel.”
33 His father and mother were amazed at the things spoken about him. 34 Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Watch! This one is appointed for the falling and rising of many in Israel and a sign to be spoken against 35 —indeed, a sword shall pierce through your soul— so that the reasonings of many hearts might be revealed.”
Comments:
25:
“Look!” This is an updated translation of the older (and charming) “Behold!” It is the storyteller’s art to draw attention to the people and action that follows. “As you, my audience, sit and listen to me read this Gospel, listen up! Look! A prophet named Simeon interrupts the flow of Joseph, and Mary and Jesus’s progress!”
“righteous and pious”: Simeon had not achieved sinless perfection, because no one can. However, he did live blamelessly by the law’s requirements before God and his neighbors. Never doubt that your righteousness and piety (devotion to the Lord) can be visible to all and be a good example to people. No, not self-righteousness and self-generated piety, but those virtues flowing from a transformed heart and by the power of the Spirit. God calls you to them.
Sanctification: Can Christians Achieve Sinless Perfection Now?
“consolation of Israel”: This is deliverance from the Romans on the political level, but Jesus came to set the captives free (John 8:31-38). Political freedom is wonderful and God ordained, when it leads to religious freedom. But this freedom without the freedom in the soul is empty and may lead to licentiousness (1 Pet. 2:16). So the consolation of Israel will be fulfilled in ways that Simeon may not have expected.
“The Holy Spirit was on him”: this is straightforward and wonderfully simple. God by His Holy Spirit is guiding the events. He told Simeon to be at the temple at the right time, when Jesus was being presented. The application is clear. Is the Holy Spirit on you, so that you could prophesy or speak out boldly at the right time in the right place?
Baptized, Filled, and Full of the Spirit: What Does It All Mean?
The Spirit’s Deity and Divine Attributes
The Spirit in the Life of Christ
26:
“revealed”: this verb is not very frequent in the NT (9 times). In most contexts, it means God “imparts a revelation or an injunction or warning.”
“see … saw”: it is the same verb as “behold!” Every once in a while, an overzealous Christian will say that he will not die until he sees the secret rapture of the church. Then they die!. No one knows for sure when the Second Coming will happen (and many believe that the rapture and the Second Coming are one and the same). Stop the hyped-up predictions, please.
Rapture = Second Coming and Happens at Same Time, on Last Day
Luke 17:22-37: Taken Away = Rapture?
What Jesus Really Taught about End Times
27:
This a wonderful convergence of two events. Joseph and Mary are going into the temple, probably the Court of Women, where women could go, in order to dedicate Jesus to the Lord. At the same time, Simeon is being led by the Spirit and comes across their path. He stops them and takes the baby into his arms. Joseph’s protective instinct must have been put on hold because he too was in the Spirit, though the text does not say it explicitly. In any case, he allowed the older guy Simeon to enfold the baby in his arms.
28:
“arms”: it could be translated that Simeon welcomed into his arms that were open to receive something or someone. It could mean “closely enfolding” something (Liddell and Scott). So we should picture Simeon intimately enfolding the child in his arms, probably forming an “arm cradle.”
“blessed”: it literally means to “speak well.” BDAG, a thick Greek lexicon, defines the term, depending on the context, as follows: (1) “to say something commendatory, speak well of, praise, extol”; (2) “to ask for bestowal of special favor, especially of calling down God’s gracious power, bless”; (3) “to bestow a favor, provide with benefits.” To bless God is to speak well of him, not that we make him blessed, as if he was deprived of this attribute without us. We agree with who he is, and saying this truth out loud makes us submit to him. “God you are blessed, whether I say it or not! But I choose to speak it out loud!”
Do I Really Know God? He Is Blessed
29:
“dismiss”: it is a Semitic way of saying “Let me die.” In peace: see Gen. 15:15 (Stein, comment on v. 29). No, Simeon does not have a death wish; he is an old man who lived a full life. God is in charge of our final departure or passing.
“servant”: The word servant here is doulos (pronounced doo-loss) and could be translated as slave, but I chose servant because in Jewish culture a Hebrew man who sold himself into servitude to his fellow Jew was like an indentured servant whose term of service had a limit; he was freed in the seventh year. But then the indentured servant could stay with his family, if he liked his owner (Exod. 21:2-6; Lev. 25:38-46; Deut. 15:12-18). So there was a lot of liberty even in servitude, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).
Slavery and Freedom in the Bible
It is a sure thing, however, that Luke’s Greek audience would have heard “slave” in the word doulos. So if you wish to interpret it like that, then that’s your decision. But culturally at that time slavery had nothing to do with colonial or modern slavery.
“Master”: our word despot comes from it (!). It does not have a modern meaning, but it means “Lord, Master, Owner.” This is the right word, in the context of the doulos status (Stein, comment on v. 29). Simeon was submitted to his Lord. He was the watchman or sentinel who was waiting for the revelation or public appearance of the Lord’s Messiah. Now the Lord can dismiss him and do what he wants with him. His mission was accomplished.
“word”: The Greek noun here is rhēma (pronounced ray-mah), and the rhē– stem is related to speaking, and the –ma suffix means “the result of.” So combined, the noun means a “spoken word” (though it does not always mean that in every context). God spoke a personal word to his servant Simeon.
30:
“salvation”: Since the theology of salvation (soteriology) is so critical for our lives, let’s look more closely at the noun salvation, which is sōtēria (pronounced soh-tay-ree-ah and used 46 times) and at the verb sōzō (pronounced soh-zoh and used 106 times).
BDAG defines the noun sōtēria as follows, depending on the context: (1) “deliverance, preservation” … (2) “salvation.”
The verb sōzō means “save, rescue, heal” in a variety of contexts, but mostly it is used of saving the soul. BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to preserve or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions, save, keep from harm, preserve,” and the sub-definitions under no. 1 are as follows: save from death; bring out safely; save from disease; keep, preserve in good condition; thrive, prosper, get on well; (2) “to save or preserve from transcendent danger or destruction, save or preserve from ‘eternal’ death … “bring Messianic salvation, bring to salvation,” and in passive mood it means “be saved, attain salvation”; (3) some passages in the NT say we fit under the first and second definition at the same time (Mark 8:5; Luke 9:24; Rom. 9:27; 1 Cor. 3:15).
As noted throughout this commentary on Luke-Acts, the noun salvation and the verb save go a lot farther than just preparing the soul to go on to heaven. Together, they have additional benefits: keeping and preserving and rescuing from harm and dangers; saving or freeing from diseases and demonic oppression; and saving or rescuing from sin dominating us; ushering us into heaven and rescuing us from a negative final judgment. What is our response to the gift of salvation? You are grateful and then you are moved to act. When you help or rescue one man from homelessness or an orphan from his oppression, you have moved one giant step towards salvation of his soul. Sometimes feeding a hungry man and giving clothes to the naked or taking him to a medical clinic come before saving his soul.
All of it is a package called salvation and being saved.
31-32:
The ministry of Jesus will be public, not done in a corner (see Acts 26:26).
Light and glory are near-synonyms. It shines the way for the Gentiles, whom Jesus will tell his disciples to reach (Luke 24:47 and Acts 1:8) and also for his fellow Jews. National Israel rejected its Messiah, and now Judaism, expressed in the temple worship, is about to sit under judgment (Luke 19:41-45; 21:20-24; 23:26-31; Matt. 21:33-45), though numerous individual priests (Acts 6:7) and thousands of Jews of Jerusalem and Judea converted (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 21:20). As noted, God loves people, but he is not enamored with systems.
1. The Glory of God in the Old Testament
2. What Is the Glory of God in the New Testament?
3. What Does the Glory of God Mean to Us?
And the kingdom has been turned over to the Gentiles, so the gospel can go around all the world, without old, obsolete Judaism encumbering it. The kingdom of God has been streamlined to the basics, without all the rituals and dietary laws and harsh penalties and other things spelled out in the Torah (first five books of the Bible). The Sinai Covenant has been replaced with the New Covenant (Heb. 8, 9, 10), but the New Covenant Scriptures still retained moral law.
What Does the New Covenant Retain from the Old?
33:
It is awfully wonderful and charming to think about how Joseph and Mary reacted to all the turn of events and words that happened. The shepherds had told them everything the angel and the army choir of angels singing. Now Simeon broke into their lives and prophesied. Luke tells how they responded to the swirling events and words. They were “surprised,” “marveled,” and amazed,” for the same Greek word could be translated by those English words. The couple was overwhelmed with joy.
34:
“blessed”: see v. 28 for what the word means. Here Simeon spoke well of the married couple.
“watch”: the same word as in v. 25, see my comments there and at v. 34. It used to be translated as “behold!” Simeon is issuing a predictive warning to the baby’s mother.
“falling and rising”: We have to spend some time here, since this verse, along with Luke 1:51-53, is just one interpretive key for the Gospel of Luke.
“falling”: The noun is used twice in the NT: in Matt. 7:27 for the house not built on the rock so the house crashes, and here in v. 34. In the Greek outside the NT, it means only “fall” or “falling” (Liddell and Scott). It does not appear to mean the opposite of resurrection: “dying.” However, in the LXX it can mean “plague.”
“rising”: BDAG offers this definition first: “a change for the better in status, rising up, rise” The second definition the editors of BDAG offer is indeed resurrection. In the larger Greek world (classical and Hellenistic), the lexicographers Liddle and Scott place this meaning third: “A setting up, restoration … a rising and moving off … a rising up” in a social sense.
So I interpret the phrase to mean the exalting (or rising) and demotion (falling) of people, once they confront the kingdom of God. The pairing of the two nouns does not quite lend itself to a bodily resurrection or physical death.
Therefore, sociologically and in context, this falling and rising is the theme of the Great Reversal. The high and mighty will be brought down, and the meek and lowly will be raised up. Maybe nothing will change in worldly political status, but in the kingdom of God the first shall be last, and the last first (Luke 13:30). Recall that in Luke 1:51-53 Mary sang about the rich and powerful being brought low, and the meek and lowly being exalted. The same idea is expressed here in v. 34. Finally, BDAG translates v. 34 as “he is appointed / destined to cause the fall and rise of many (p. 896).
“a sign to be spoken against”: Jesus was often misunderstood by his disciples and tested by his opponents. The ultimate speaking against him happened at his unjust trial, when he was sentenced to death (Luke 22:66-71).
35:
“a sword shall pierce”: Jesus had to separate himself from his family (Luke 8:19-21). His mother saw his crucifixion up close, and no doubt her soul was pierced with pain (John 19:26-27).
Jesus’s ministry reveals the reasonings and thinking of many hearts (kardia) (see 4:23 and 5:21, for examples). He still does that today.
“reasoning”: it means, depending on the context: (1) “thought, opinion, reasoning, design” or (2) “doubt, dispute, argument.” Here it means the first definition.
“soul”: it can mean, depending on the context: “soul, life” and it is hard to draw a firm line between the two. “Breath, life principle, soul”; “earthly life”; “the soul as seat and center of the inner life of man in its many and varied aspects, desires, feelings, emotions”; “self’; or “that which possesses life, a soul, creature, person.”
A little systematic theology:
Most Christians (I know of) believe in the three parts of humanity: body, soul and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23 and Heb. 4:12 and other verses). Other Christians believe that we are two parts: body and soul / spirit (2 Cor. 4:16). Spirit and soul are just synonyms.
Here in this verse it means soul or inner being.
Word Study on Spirit, Soul, and Body
GrowApp for Luke 2:25-35
1. Joseph and Mary were going about their religious duties and then surprisingly met up with a devout older man, Simeon. Describe a divine appointment you have had with someone.
2. Have you blessed your child and told him or her that God will do great things through him or her? Describe.
3. Simeon said a sword shall pierce through Mary’s soul. Study Heb. 4:12-13. Has your soul been pierced through by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God? Describe.
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11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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