Luke 1:42

1:42 She exclaimed with a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child in your womb!

Luke 2:37

2:37 She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

tn Grk “and she.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

tn Grk “and she exclaimed with a great cry and said.” The verb εἶπεν (eipen, “said”) has not been included in the translation since it is redundant in contemporary English.

sn The commendation Blessed are you among women means that Mary has a unique privilege to be the mother of the promised one of God.

tn Grk “fruit,” which is figurative here for the child she would give birth to.

tn Grk “living with her husband for seven years from her virginity and she was a widow for eighty four years.” The chronology of the eighty-four years is unclear, since the final phrase could mean “she was widowed until the age of eighty-four” (so BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.α). However, the more natural way to take the syntax is as a reference to the length of her widowhood, the subject of the clause, in which case Anna was about 105 years old (so D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:251-52; I. H. Marshall, Luke, [NIGTC], 123-24).

sn The statements about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day make her extreme piety clear.