Luke 2:22-23

Jesus’ Presentation at the Temple

2:22 Now ¹  when the time came for their ²  purification according to the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary ³  brought Jesus ⁴  up to Jerusalem ⁵  to present him to the Lord 2:23 (just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male ⁶  will be set apart to the Lord” ⁷ ),

Luke 2:41-43

Jesus in the Temple

2:41 Now ⁸  Jesus’ ⁹  parents went to Jerusalem ¹⁰  every ¹¹  year for the feast of the Passover. ¹²  2:42 When ¹³  he was twelve years old, ¹⁴  they went up ¹⁵  according to custom. 2:43 But ¹⁶  when the feast was over, ¹⁷  as they were returning home, ¹⁸  the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His ¹⁹  parents ²⁰  did not know it,

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

² tc The translation follows most mss, including early and important ones ({א A B L}). Some copyists, aware that the purification law applied to women only, produced mss ({76 it^pt vg} [though the Latin word eius could be either masculine or feminine]) that read “her purification.” But the extant evidence for an unambiguous “her” is shut up to one late minuscule ({codex 76}) and a couple of patristic citations of dubious worth ({Pseudo-Athanasius} whose date is unknown, and the {Catenae in euangelia Lucae et Joannis}, edited by J. A. Cramer. The Catenae is a work of collected patristic sayings whose exact source is unknown [thus, it could come from a period covering hundreds of years]). A few other witnesses (D pc lat) read “his purification.” The KJV has “her purification,” following Beza’s Greek text (essentially a revision of Erasmus’). Erasmus did not have it in any of his five editions. Most likely Beza put in the feminine form αὐτῆς (auths) because, recognizing that the eius found in several Latin mss could be read either as a masculine or a feminine, he made the contextually more satisfying choice of the feminine. Perhaps it crept into one or two late Greek witnesses via this interpretive Latin back-translation. So the evidence for the feminine singular is virtually nonexistent, while the masculine singular αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) was a clear scribal blunder. There can be no doubt that “their purification” is the authentic reading.

³ tn Grk “they”; the referents (Joseph and Mary) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁶ tn Grk “every male that opens the womb” (an idiom for the firstborn male).

⁷ sn An allusion to Exod 13:2, 12, 15.

¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

¹² tn Grk “his”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁴ tn On the distributive use of the term κατά (kata), see BDF §305.

¹⁵ sn The custom of Jesus and his family going to Jerusalem every year for the feast of the Passover shows their piety in obeying the law (Exod 23:14-17).

¹⁶ tn Grk “And when.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁷ sn According to the Mishnah, the age of twelve years old is one year before a boy becomes responsible for his religious commitments (m. Niddah 5.6).

¹⁸ tc Most mss, especially later ones (A C^vid Θ Ψ 0130 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat) have εἰς ῾Ιεροσόλυμα (eij" &ierosoluma, “to Jerusalem”) here, but the ms support for the omission is much stronger (א B D L W 579 1241 pc co); further, the longer reading clarifies what they went up to and thus looks like a motivated reading.

²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated contrastively in keeping with the context. This outcome is different from what had happened all the times before.

²² tn Grk “when the days ended.”

²³ tn The word “home” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied for clarity.

²⁴ tn Grk “And his.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²⁵ tc Most mss, especially later ones (A C Ψ 0130 ˹³ Ï it), read ᾿Ιωσὴφ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ (Iwshf kai Jh mhthr aujtou, “[both] Joseph and his mother”), a reading evidently intended to insulate the doctrine of the virgin conception of our Lord. But א B D L W Θ Ë¹ 33 579 1241 pc lat sa read οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ (Joi gonei" autou, “his parents”) as in the translation. Such motivated readings as the former lack credibility, especially since the better witnesses affirm the virgin conception of Christ in Luke 1:34-35.