Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Daily Gospel Exegesis podcast. We're continuing where we were yesterday in Luke

Chapter 2. And so let's jump straight into the text.

We'll have a look at the text first,

and then we'll go through it verse by verse.

And hopefully that helps you get a better feel

for what the author was trying to communicate

to his original audience.

So Luke chapter 2 verses 36 to 40.

There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Fanuel, of the tribe of Asha.

She was well on in years.

Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow.

She was now 84 years old and never left the temple, serving God

night and day with fasting and prayer. She came by just at that moment and began to praise God,

and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.

When they had done everything the law of the Lord required,

they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

Meanwhile, the child grew to maturity,

and he was filled with wisdom, and God's favor was with him.

So let's start by thinking about the context here. So Jesus is being presented

in the temple 40 days after his birth. We looked at this yesterday. So Simeon takes Jesus into his

arms and he praises God. And now a couple of minutes later they encounter Anna in the temple. So it's very much like Luke.

He does this a few times where he presents a male character,

...