And there was a prophetess, Anna, daughter of Phanuel, of [the] tribe of Asher, who was far advanced in years, having lived with [her] husband seven years from her virginity,
Right after Simeon, a second witness steps into the temple scene. Luke names her family, her tribe and the shape of her long life — and every detail carries weight.
Simeon has just given his witness. God does not leave the moment resting on one man's word.
But God brings in another witness besides Simeon — Anna the prophetess — so that two or three witnesses may establish every word.
The two witnesses do not do the same thing.
Simeon and Anna were old ones, passing away when Christ comes in… Simeon rests in what Christ is; Anna tells others about Him.
How did a woman use such a gift? What Luke records her doing gives the answer.
But is a public congregation the only place to speak out the praises, the mercies, and the wonderful works of God? Luke 2:36 tells us that the aged Anna was a "prophetess." Her prophesying was serving God with prayer and fasting, giving thanks, and speaking of the infant Saviour — whom she had seen with her own eyes in the temple — to all who were waiting for redemption.
Her appearance is also treated as a sign of something reviving in Israel after long silence.
So the good news must flow from one to another, and God takes care that Anna the prophetess should come in; for here we have the revival, not only of angel visits, but of the prophetic Spirit in Israel.
Luke names her father and her tribe. The meanings of those names sketch a portrait of the woman herself.
She is a true child of Asher, which means "happy," and of Phanuel, which means "the face of God." Her own name, Anna, means "grace," and it marks out the principle of a life like hers, where fasting and prayer are simply love's service, and her prophesying flows out of her fellowship with God. What a blessed picture!
We would expect a witness in the temple to come from Judah or Benjamin. Anna comes from one of the other ten tribes.
It is a little surprising that the tribe of Asher is mentioned here. We would normally have expected Judah and Benjamin. Clearly Anna represented the ten tribes. Perhaps there is a prophetic touch in that, pointing to the future day when all twelve tribes will be fully reconciled to God.
Moses had given Asher's tribe its own blessing. Her life shows that promise still holding, long after the nation collapsed.
The blessing of Asher in Deuteronomy 33:24-25 ends with these lovely words: "As your days, so shall your strength be." But all went to ruin, as the history of Israel unfolds. Yet at the first coming of Christ… we find one of that same tribe… still enjoying the power of that blessing given through Moses. And the Lord Christ Himself was identified with that obscure remnant. She was one of them — a remnant ready to receive Him when He first came.
Her marriage lasted seven years. She spent the rest of her long life as a widow, and that widowhood matched the state of the nation she prayed for.
Commentators differ on her exact age. Reading verses 36–37 together, one puts her past a hundred:
As the Revised Version shows, she must have been at least 105 years of age.
Leslie Grant reckons similarly — married at sixteen would make her about 107 — and adds that her steady devotion to the Lord "had not wearied with age."
- Grace — her name means grace, her father's name means "the face of God," and her tribe's name means "happy"; the meanings match the life Luke describes.
- Widowed — seven years a wife, then decades alone, praying with a widowed heart for a nation that had lost its husband.
- Waiting — she belonged to the obscure remnant who were ready to receive Christ when He first came.
- Witness — God supplies a second mouth beside Simeon, so the testimony to the child stands established.
- Reach — Simeon rests in who Christ is; Anna goes and speaks of Him to everyone else who was waiting.
and herself a widow up to eighty-four years; who did not depart from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers;
Anna appears for only three verses, yet Luke records her age, her long widowhood, and the shape of her days. Commentators see her as one of a faithful few left in Israel, and ask what kept an old woman praying in the temple for decades.
Her widowhood shapes her praying. One writer sees her praying as a widow for a nation in the same condition.
Anna was a holy widow. She never left the temple, and she felt the misery of Israel keenly. With a widowed heart she had pleaded again and again at the throne of God for a people to whom God was no longer a husband. They were truly widowed, like herself. Now she tells everyone who talked these things over together that the Lord had visited His temple.
One writer lists the marks of what Scripture calls a "widow indeed", and finds each one lived out in Luke's Gospel.
Scripture gives three marks of the "widow indeed." She is "desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day." It is remarkable that three widows in Luke's Gospel answer exactly to this description. The widow of Nain, whose only son was being carried out for burial when the Lord met her, was truly the desolate one. The poor widow who put her two small coins into the treasury, and out of her poverty gave all she had to live on, surely trusted in God. And in Anna we find the last characteristic.
Her steady presence there is more striking once you know the state of things around her.
In her time there were dark days in Israel. For four centuries no prophet had come among them with a burning message to revive their hopes. There was no visible glory of God's presence in the temple. Things were indeed at a low ebb.
One writer asks whether one promise held her there: that the Lord would come to His temple.
Her interests were wholly taken up with the things of God. She refused present things. She showed her constant dependence and confidence in God by her prayers night and day. Had she been fixing her thoughts on Malachi 3:1? "The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple." If so, she was not disappointed.
One writer contrasts her long service with how the world counts a working life.
Fifty-five is the retiring age for Government officials who work under the burning skies of India; sixty for officials in this country. But there is no age limit for devotedness, and devotedness is the crying need of these days.
Anna belonged to a small circle who had no standing in Jerusalem's religious life.
This is the lovely picture the Holy Spirit draws with an unerring pencil. It is a picture of a few in Jerusalem, in a time of decay and spiritual death, who "feared the LORD," "spoke with one another," and "esteemed His name." Outside of the activities of the day, and unknown to those in power and influence, they were known by the Lord, and by one another. This was enough for their souls.
One writer notes their obedience to the law, and explains why news of Christ reached this small circle first.
Luke carefully notes how these godly people in Israel kept to the ordinances, submitting to God according to the law. Then, as always, there was a remnant chosen by grace. God took care that the testimony reached those whose hearts were prepared for Jesus. In due time grace would go out to the very worst of people. But God first makes Him known to those whose hearts were already touched, waiting for Jesus.
Her hidden hours produced something visible: she knew God's mind, and then she spoke.
Her constant fasting and prayer brought her into communion with the mind of God as she waited for the Messiah to come. So God led her into the temple at the very moment when the infant Jesus was presented to the Lord. Her heart filled with joy, and her lips with praise... Morally we stand where that little group in Jerusalem stood. Like them, we are waiting for our Lord. Meanwhile God calls those who are truly widows to give themselves to fasting and prayer. In that way they hold up the whole Church by their prayers, and rekindle in many hearts the blessed hope of the Lord's return.
- Widowed — Her loss became her qualification. Desolate, trusting God, praying night and day — she matches the widow God honours.
- Waiting — Four silent centuries. No prophet, no glory in the temple. Still she stayed, holding the promise that the Lord would come to His temple.
- Worshipping — She prayed with a widowed heart for a widowed people — a nation God no longer owned as a husband.
- Witnessing — Unknown to those in power, she was known to God and to a few like her. She learned His mind, and came in at the exact hour.
- Wanted — There is no retirement age for devotedness. The same hidden work of fasting and prayer still holds up God's people and rekindles the hope of the Lord's return.
and she coming up the same hour gave praise to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem.
Anna arrives just as Simeon finishes blessing the child, and she turns two ways at once: up in thanks to God, and out in words to other people. Her hearers were a small, hidden group in Jerusalem who were still waiting for God to act.
Anna came up "at that very hour." One writer sees God's hand in that timing, and notes who God told first.
The present guidance of God is just as clear in her case as in Simeon's. There was then, as always, a remnant chosen by grace. God took care that the testimony reached those whose hearts were prepared for Jesus. Grace might go out to the very worst, and in due time it would. But God first of all makes Him known to those whose hearts were already touched, waiting for Jesus.
Anna does two things, and the order matters. Her thanks go to God before her words go to people.
Before Mary and Joseph left the temple, Anna came up. Like Simeon, she was at once taken up with the child. She gave thanks first to God, and then spoke of Him to all those who looked for the redemption of Jerusalem. God provided the right person to spread the news among His waiting people: Israel's King, David's Lord, was here on earth.
The word "redemption" here carries a national hope. Some older versions read "redemption in Jerusalem"; one writer notes that newer texts read "of Jerusalem," and links the word to Isaiah 40:2:
"Redemption," compare Isaiah 40:2. Note that the text followed by the revisers reads "of Jerusalem," that is, deliverance by the Messiah.
Those waiting for it were not strangers to each other. Another writer ties them back to the prophet Malachi, and reads Anna's widowhood into what she prayed for.
Malachi had said that in the evil days, when people called the proud happy, those who feared the Lord should often speak together. That time had arrived in Israel... We see that they knew each other, in this lovely picture of God's hidden people... Anna was a holy widow. She did not leave the temple, and she felt the misery of Israel deeply. With a widowed heart she had pressed the throne of God for a people to whom God was no longer a husband — a people truly widowed like herself. Now she makes known to all who thought about these things together that the Lord had visited His temple. They had looked for redemption in Jerusalem; and now the Redeemer — unknown to men — was there.
Luke does not record a single sentence of what Anna said. He records only her theme.
It was the same with Anna. She did not leave the temple, and her one thought was "Him." She "spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem." In the Old Testament remnant I was speaking of, "they feared the Lord, and spoke often one to another." In the same way, her one thought and her one topic of conversation — the thing that filled her — was "Him." She "spoke of Him" to all those who shared her hope, her expectation and her affection.
Anna is old and long widowed, yet she bursts into thanks. One writer sets her beside the other aged believers in this account.
The widowed Anna joins in this praise. It is most touching to see these aged ones — the parents of John, Simeon and Anna. The fires of nature are all put out and their earthly hopes are all gone, yet they break out into joy. The fountain of perpetual youth has sprung up in their hearts, and it is flowing out even now.
One writer turns her example on us today.
And they knew each other, for Anna "spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem." Just as we ought to be doing in another way.
- Waiting. Anna and others in Jerusalem were waiting for deliverance by the Messiah — the "redemption" of Isaiah 40:2. They were hidden people in a proud city.
- Timing. She arrived at that very hour. God guided her, and He makes Christ known first to hearts already prepared for Him.
- Thanks. Her first move was upward — thanks to God — before she said a word to anyone else.
- Speech. Her one subject was "Him." She carried the news to everyone who shared her hope, just as Malachi said the faithful would speak often to one another.
- Company. They knew each other, and their speaking of Christ to one another is a pattern for us today.