Commentary on the Four Gospel Books
The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
G013 The Lord Jesus Is Circumcised
and Presented to the God,
Simeon Glorifies God
Luke 2:21-38

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All Scriptures quoted in this article are from the New King James Version (NKJV), unless otherwise noted (https://www.biblestudytools.com/nkjv/).

Luke 2:21-38

21 And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

22 Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),

24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and 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 had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law,

28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed *God and said:

29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word;

30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation

31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,

32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”

33 And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him.

34 Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against

35 (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

36 Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;

37 and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

38 And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

The passage of Scripture that we study together in this lesson records the events that happened to the Lord Jesus from the beginning of the second week until about forty days after the day He was born. These events include the Lord Jesus being circumcised, being given His name, being brought to the Temple in Jerusalem to be presented to the God, the prophecies of Simeon, and the proclamation of the prophetess Anna concerning the Lord Jesus.

21 And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

Circumcision is the cutting away of the skin covering the head of the male sexual organ. The law concerning circumcision for every son among the people of Israel is recorded in Leviticus 12:2–3. According to this, regardless of the day on which he was born, every male child among the people of Israel had to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Even if that eighth day fell on the Sabbath, the circumcision was still carried out.

However, circumcision among the people of Israel had already been commanded by the God to Abraham, the patriarch of the people of Israel, when He made a covenant with him more than 400 years earlier, as recorded in Genesis 17. At that time Abraham was ninety-nine years old. The God appeared to Abraham and said that He would establish His covenant with him and greatly multiply his descendants. He changed his name from Abram, which means “exalted father,” to Abraham, which means “father of many nations,” because He had made him the father of many nations. He promised to give the entire land of Canaan to his descendants. The sign of the covenant was that every male in his household, including male slaves purchased by him, had to be circumcised. Every male child had to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth.

The fact that the Lord Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day according to the law of God both shows that He belonged to the lineage of Abraham and shows that He was born under the law of God and kept the law (Galatians 4:4).

Although the Bible does not give a reason why circumcision must be performed on the eighth day, today medical knowledge tells us that on the eighth day after birth the child’s immunity is increased through the mother’s milk. In addition, the two substances that help blood clot—vitamin K and prothrombin—are at their highest levels in the child’s body on the eighth day after birth. Vitamin K only begins to appear in the body from the fifth to the seventh day after birth. Prothrombin reaches its highest level, up to 110%, on the eighth day after birth. If these two substances are not present in the body, a child who is circumcised may bleed continuously until death [1], [2]. Therefore, we may understand that the God knows the best time for the circumcision of a child, and He established that time.

The covenant that the God made with Abraham has a spiritual meaning concerning the covenant that the God would establish with all mankind through the Lord Jesus, that is, the new covenant (Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20). In the new covenant, the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross is the price of redemption for those who believe in His atoning death and sincerely desire to live a new life, obeying the commandments of God.

From a medical perspective, circumcision helps maintain hygiene of the male sexual organ. The skin covering the head of the male sexual organ often allows secretions and impurities to accumulate beneath it, which can easily cause odor and infection, so it may need to be removed. For some people, this skin can be pulled back in order to wash the organ, so circumcision for hygienic purposes is not necessary. From a spiritual perspective, many verses in the Bible help us understand that circumcision symbolizes the cutting away of the sinful nature that opposes God and violates the commandments of God. Circumcision symbolizes that God’s people will be sanctified by the atoning blood of the Christ and by the holy spirit of God.

“Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.” (Deutoronomy 10:16)

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised…” (Jeremiah 9:25)

“Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?” (Romans 2:26-27)

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” (Romans 2:28-29)

“Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.” (1 Corinthians 7:19)

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6)

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” (Galatians 6:15)

“For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,” (Philippians 3:3)

“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,” (Colosians 2:11)

The people of Israel usually circumcised male infants early in the morning on the eighth day after birth. Normally the father performed the circumcision, but sometimes the mother did it, as in the case of Moses’ wife. The parents of the child could also ask someone in the locality who specialized in circumcision to perform it. Immediately after the circumcision, the child was given a name. Usually the mother had the honor of naming her child. In the case of the Lord Jesus, according to Matthew 1:21, 25, Joseph gave Him His name. But in fact, the name Jesus had already been declared by the angel Gabriel before He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary (Luke 1:31).

22 Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),

According to the law concerning childbirth recorded in Leviticus 12, Mary had to be unclean for seven days and then undergo thirty-three days of purification before she would be considered clean. During those forty days, Mary was not permitted to touch holy things or holy food or go to the Temple. The uncleanness mentioned here is not spiritual uncleanness because of sin but physical uncleanness due to the body discharging blood and fluids, weakened health, and the possibility of transmitting infectious diseases. The purification mentioned here refers to resting for a period of time so that the body may recover and to washing with water.

“The days of her purification” means that the forty days had been completed during which the family of Joseph and Mary observed the law concerning childbirth. Mary had fully rested after giving birth.

Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to present Him to the God, because He was Mary’s firstborn son. This presentation was required by the law of God, as recorded in Exodus 13:2.

“Called holy to the Lord” means to be set apart for the God.

The reason the firstborn sons and the firstborn males among the livestock of the people of Israel had to be set apart and offered to the God was that this was a sign of the redemption that the God would accomplish for the people of Israel, both physically and spiritually. The people of Israel are called the firstborn of God (Exodus 4:22) because among all the nations the God chose the people of Israel first.

In the physical sense, the God struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt so that the people of Israel might be released from the bondage of the Egyptians. In the spiritual sense, the God would sacrifice the life of His Firstborn Son, the Lord Jesus, to redeem them from sin and deliver them from the bondage of sin.

24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

This offering shows that Joseph and Mary were not wealthy. According to the law of God, as recorded in Leviticus 12, after the days of purification were completed, the mother was to present an offering to God consisting of a one-year-old lamb and a young pigeon or a turtledove. But anyone who could not afford a lamb could offer two turtledoves or two young pigeons.

The Lord Jesus was born into a poor family. From the time He was born, He lived a life of poverty. Therefore, poverty is not the result of sin, as some Charismatic and Pentecostal denominations teach. On the contrary, the desire for wealth leads to sin, and the result may be that a person is destroyed. God’s Word clearly teaches that God’s people only need to have enough food and clothing and should be content. God’s people must not desire riches, because the desire for riches leads people into sin:

1 Timothy 6:6-10

6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.

7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Forms of gambling, including buying lottery tickets, betting on numbers, sports betting, and similar activities, all arise from the desire to become rich. Some people think that if they buy lottery tickets and win, they will use the money for the ministries of the Church. But if that were what the Lord wanted, He could cause a winning lottery ticket to blow right in front of them. The Lord did not need a shop full of bread and fish to feed more than five thousand people. He needed only five loaves and two fish from a small boy (John 6:9). As God’s people, we only need to offer what we already have in our hands for the ministries of the Church. The Lord Himself will make what we offer become sufficient for the ministries.

25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

We do not know much about Simeon mentioned here. According to the way the Bible describes him, he was not a well-known figure in Judaism but simply a man who kept the commandments of God because he feared God. A person who keeps the commandments of God is called in the Bible a righteous and devout person. In addition, Simeon understood and believed the promise about the Christ in the Bible, that is, the promise that would bring comfort to the people of Israel. He had been waiting for the coming of the Christ. Because of this, the God granted him His holy spirit. Although before the time frame of the Church, God, in the person of the Spirit, did not dwell within the bodies of God’s people, He still granted holy spirit upon those who feared God and whom God appointed for His service.

26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

We do not know when Simeon was told by the Holy Spirit, but perhaps it was when he was already advanced in age, at a time when he thought he might die at any moment. We may understand that because Simeon was righteous and was waiting for the Christ, and because the Christ would certainly be born in his time, the Holy Spirit told him that he would see the Christ before he saw death.

Today we are living in the time frame when the Christ may return at any moment to take the Church out of the world. If we are righteous and devout, waiting for the Christ, we may be told by the Holy Spirit that we will not experience death but will be transformed on the day when the Christ comes.

27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law,

28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed *God and said:

29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word;

God, in the person of the Spirit, moved Simeon to come to the Temple at the time when Joseph and Mary brought the Lord Jesus to the Temple to present to the God Mary’s firstborn son. At that time it may have been the forty-first day after the Lord Jesus was born.

If the Lord Jesus was born on the first night of the Feast of Tabernacles, on Thursday, October 8, 7 BCE, then the day when the Lord Jesus was circumcised would have been Thursday, October 15, 7 BCE. The day when the Lord Jesus was presented to the God at the Temple may have been Tuesday, November 17, 7 BCE [3], [4].

Simeon took the infant Jesus in his arms and began to glorify God. In the opening line of his praise, Simeon used the expression “Lord” to address the God. Verse 26 tells us that the Holy Spirit had spoken to him, and verse 29 shows that Simeon used the noun Lord to refer to the Holy Spirit. But from verse 30 to verse 32, the noun Lord (in verse 29) is used to refer collectively to the Triune God.

30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation

31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,

32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”

The salvation of mankind comes from the Triune God. God in the person of the God grants salvation. God in the person of the Word became incarnate as a man and offered His life as a sacrifice of atonement for mankind. God in the person of the Spirit helps mankind understand and receive the salvation of God.

When Simeon saw the Lord Jesus, it was also the moment when he saw that the salvation of God had come to mankind. That salvation had been prepared by the Triune God before all peoples. Up to that time, the people of Israel were still a nation belonging to God. The salvation of the God given to mankind came through the people of Israel, bringing glory to Israel.

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.” (Deutoronomy 7:6)

“You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22)

The salvation of the God is the glory of God that, through the people of Israel, shines upon the Gentile nations (Isaiah 60:1–3). This is the fulfillment of the word that the God spoke to Abraham: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:18).

33 And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him.

34 Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against

35 (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Before Simeon spoke his words glorifying God, both Joseph and Mary were amazed. Then Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary. After that, Simeon said to Mary the following three things:

• The Lord Jesus was destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel. The verb “destined” (G2749) literally means to lay something down or to fix something in a position; figuratively, it means to be designated by God. The Lord Jesus was designated by God to be both the cause of the falling and the cause of the rising of many in Israel. Those who stumbled were mostly the priests, the scribes, and the elders of the Pharisees and the Sadducees within Judaism. Those who were raised up were those who believed that the Lord Jesus is the Christ.

• The Lord Jesus was destined to be a sign that is spoken against. The God destined the Lord Jesus to become a sign representing how God would be opposed by mankind. That opposition was first expressed through words. Such speaking against continues even until the very end of the End Times.

• A sword would pierce Mary’s soul so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed. The expression “a sword will pierce through your own soul” is used to describe the deepest emotional pain. The death of the Lord Jesus on the cross was the sword that pierced Mary’s soul. It was also through the death of the Lord Jesus that the thoughts of many hearts were revealed. The chief priests and the scribes mocked Him, saying, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save” (Matthew 27:42; Mark 15:31). One of the two criminals crucified with the Lord Jesus said, “This Man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). The centurion and the soldiers who carried out the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus exclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God! Certainly this was a righteous Man!” (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39; Luke 23:47).

The death of the Lord Jesus, even to this day, continues to be the cause by which the thoughts of many hearts are revealed. For nearly two thousand years, tens of millions of people have confessed the Lord Jesus as their Savior, confessing their faith in His atoning death and being willing to sacrifice their lives to hold firmly to their faith and their confession. But there are also billions who mock the Lord Jesus, speak against Him, and persecute the faith of those who believe in Him. Worse still, there are those who once confessed faith in the Lord Jesus but, after committing sin and being expelled from the Church, turn back to persecute the Church.

36 Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;

37 and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

The name Anna (G451) means “grace,” the same meaning as the name of Samuel’s mother (H2584). We know that Malachi was the last prophet who proclaimed the word of God to the people of Israel before God became completely silent to Israel for about 400 years. Through Luke, the Holy Spirit lets us know that at the time when the Lord Jesus was born, there was a prophetess in the Temple of God.

The name Phanuel (G5323) is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Penuel (H6439), which means “the face of God.” We do not know much about Anna and Phanuel. Anna is called a prophetess, perhaps because she devoted herself to teaching God’s Word to the women who came to worship God at the Temple. The tribe of Asher was one of the ten tribes belonging to the kingdom of Israel that were scattered when the Assyrian Empire destroyed the kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE.

If Anna married at the age of eighteen, lived with her husband seven years, and her husband had been dead for eighty-four years, then when she met the Lord Jesus in the Temple, she would have been 109 years old.

The noun “Temple” (G2411), referring to the Temple of God in Jerusalem, is used both to indicate the main structure of the Temple—including the portico, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place—and to indicate the entire Temple area, including the surrounding structures. The phrase “did not depart from the Temple” means that she did not leave the Temple area. It is possible that Anna had a place of residence within the Temple grounds so that she could serve God day and night through fasting and prayer.

We may understand that perhaps after her husband died, Anna devoted herself to serving God at the Temple. She may have taken a lifelong Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:1–21). If so, by the time she met the Lord Jesus, she had spent eighty-four years serving God day and night through fasting and prayer at the Temple.

The term “fastings” (G3521) may refer to abstaining from certain foods as practiced by Nazirites, or to fasting from two meals on the Sabbath (Luke 18:12) and the fasting on Mondays and Thursdays practiced by the Pharisees at that time.

The term “prayers” (G1162) is used to describe earnestly asking something from God in prayer. It is very possible that Anna had been day and night earnestly praying for the coming of the Christ.

38 And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

“In that instant” means at the same time when Simeon was holding the Lord Jesus in his arms, speaking prophecy about the Lord Jesus and blessing Joseph and Mary. Perhaps this event took place in the area of the Temple portico designated for women, after a priest had completed the offering ritual for Mary and the presentation of the Lord Jesus in the portico of the priests, where the altar for burnt offerings was located.

She came up at that moment means she came to the place where Simeon was holding the Lord Jesus and blessing Joseph and Mary.

Perhaps Anna gave thanks to the God that He had answered her prayer, had given the Savior, and had allowed her to see Him. As a prophetess, Anna clearly knew the promise about the Christ and the ministry of the Christ. From that moment on, Anna spoke about the Christ to all who were present in Jerusalem who were waiting for the redemption that would come from the Christ.

In the plan of salvation to deliver mankind from the power and consequences of sin, God in the person of the Word voluntarily laid aside His position as God to become a man, to die, and to bear the consequences of sin on behalf of mankind. He was born into a poor family and spent about thirty years experiencing the life of a man without a nation, among a people ruled by another nation. He worked to earn a living and cared for His mother and His younger siblings. He also faced temptations like any other person, yet He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). He did not sin, not because He possessed divine nature, for He did not use the power of His divinity while He bore the person of mankind. Rather, He overcame every temptation because of His reverence for God and by living according to the Word of the God (Psalm 119:11). When the appointed time came, He offered His own life as a sacrifice for the atonement of mankind. Through this we can see the mystery, the righteousness, and the completeness of the plan of salvation for mankind from the Triune God.

We conclude this lesson here.

May the Holy Spirit guide us into all the truths of God’s Word (John 16:13). May the Word of God sanctify us (John 17:17). May the Faithful *God of Peace Himself sanctify our spirit, soul, and body entirely, without blame (1 Thessalonians 5:23), at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Beloved Savior. Amen!

Timothy Christian Huynh
Priscilla Christian Huynh
11/26/2022

Notes:

[1] https://www.theverdict.co.za/reason-1—eighth-day-best-for-circumcision.html

[2] https://bibleapologetics.org/circumcision-why-the-eight-day/

[3] https://preachingfromthebible.net/the-birth-date-of-the-lord-jesus/

[4] https://abdicate.net/print.aspx?sdn=1719187

About Using “*God”, “the God” and “holy spirit”

Wherever the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible use a definite article with a noun to denote GOD, we translate it into English as *God or “the God” to refer to God the Father. We understand that “God,” without a definite article, was used as a collective noun for all and any of the three Persons of the Godhead. And “God,” with a definite article, was used to refer to God the Father.

In the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, the term “holy spirit” (πνευματι αγιω) without the definite article “the” (το) is used to denote the power of God, which is given by God the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit” (το πνευματι το αγιω) is God, and “holy spirit” (πνευματι αγιω) is the power that comes from God.