Luke 2:21-38<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regarding Luke 2:22, Kent Brown, in The Testimony of Luke<\/em>, comments as follows:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A woman is to pay a five-shekel tax and offer sacrifice for ritual purity after giving birth to her firstborn\u2014forty days after a male child and eighty after a female. Until she does so, she is judged to be ritually unclean. The sacrifice is to consist of a lamb and either a young pigeon or a turtledove. For the poor, the sacrifice is to be either two pigeons or two turtle-doves, the offering that Luke affirms in 2:24 (see Ex.\u00a013:2, 11\u201313; Lev. 12:2\u20138). \u00a0Importantly, the best manuscripts read \u201ctheir purification\u201d rather than \u201cher purification.\u201d The discussion is whether the pronoun \u201ctheir\u201d points to Mary and Joseph or to Mary and Jesus as needing purification. In light of the plural \u201ctheir,\u201d if Luke obtains his information from Mary about her experience, then he misunderstands it.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such a misunderstanding might make sense if, as many think, Luke wasn\u2019t Jewish but a Gentile Greek. \u00a0Incidentally, this is a matter of ritual purity and impurity, not of sin. \u00a0Jewish thought didn\u2019t regard childbirth as in any way sinful. \u00a0And the offering that Joseph and Mary make indicates that they were relatively poor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Old Testament idea, cited in Luke 2:23, that \u201cEvery male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord\u201d shouldn\u2019t be misconstrued as meaning that males as such are holy. \u00a0Every male that opens the womb<\/em> refers only to first-born sons. \u00a0And the basis for the notion is to be located in Exodus 13:1-2:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the\u00a0Lord\u00a0spake unto Moses, saying,\u00a0Sanctify\u00a0unto me all the\u00a0firstborn, whatsoever\u00a0openeth\u00a0the\u00a0womb\u00a0among the children of Israel,\u00a0both\u00a0of man and of beast: it\u00a0is\u00a0mine.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why is this so? \u00a0Because, during the first Passover evening \u2014 the account of which is given in the chapter immediately preceding that commandment \u2014 whereas every firstborn son of the Egyptians died, the angel of the Lord passed over the firstborn sons of Israel who had faithfully marked the doors of their houses with the blood of the paschal lamb:<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth\u00a0day\u00a0of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of\u00a0their\u00a0fathers, a lamb for an house . . .\u00a0\u00a0Your\u00a0lamb\u00a0shall be without blemish, a male\u00a0of the first year: ye shall take\u00a0it\u00a0out from the sheep, or from the goats: \u00a0And ye shall keep it up until the\u00a0fourteenth\u00a0day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. \u00a0And they shall take of the blood, and strike\u00a0it\u00a0on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the\u00a0firstborn\u00a0in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the\u00a0gods\u00a0of Egypt I will execute\u00a0judgment: I\u00a0am\u00a0the\u00a0Lord. \u00a0And the blood shall be to you for a\u00a0token\u00a0upon the houses where ye\u00a0are:\u00a0and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy\u00a0you,\u00a0when I smite the land of Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them,\u00a0Draw\u00a0out and take you a\u00a0lamb\u00a0according to your\u00a0families, and kill the\u00a0passover. \u00a0And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip\u00a0it\u00a0in the blood that\u00a0is\u00a0in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the\u00a0blood\u00a0that\u00a0is\u00a0in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. \u00a0For the\u00a0Lord\u00a0will\u00a0pass\u00a0through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the\u00a0Lord\u00a0will\u00a0pass\u00a0over the door, and will not\u00a0suffer\u00a0the\u00a0destroyer\u00a0to come in unto your houses to smite\u00a0you.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the children of Israel went away, and did as the\u00a0Lord\u00a0had\u00a0commanded\u00a0Moses and Aaron, so did they.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And it came to pass, that at midnight the\u00a0Lord\u00a0smote\u00a0all the\u00a0firstborn\u00a0in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that\u00a0was\u00a0in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. \u00a0And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for\u00a0there was\u00a0not a house where\u00a0there was\u00a0not one\u00a0dead. \u00a0(Exodus 12:3, 5-7, 12-13, 21-30)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Accordingly, all firstborn sons of Israelite parents belong to God, and must be \u201cpurchased\u201d from him by a token offering.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Luke 2:21-38 \u00a0 Regarding Luke 2:22, Kent Brown, in The Testimony of Luke, comments as follows: \u00a0 A woman is to pay a five-shekel tax and offer sacrifice for ritual purity after giving birth to her firstborn\u2014forty days after a male child and eighty after a female. Until she does so, she is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3181,3187,1369,2625,3007,3190,3184,641],"class_list":["post-69760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-circumcision","tag-firstborn","tag-jesus","tag-new-testament","tag-new-testament-commentary","tag-passover","tag-presentation","tag-temple"],"yoast_head":"\n
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