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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Luke 2:22 - 2:22
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The days of her purification (αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῆς)
The A. V. follows the reading αὐτῆς, her: but all the best texts read αὐτῶν, their; the plural including Joseph with Mary as partaking of the ceremonial defilement. The mother of a child was levitically unclean for forty days after the birth of a son, and for eighty days after the birth of a daughter. Women on this errand commonly rode to the temple on oxen; that the body of so large a beast between them and the ground might prevent any chance of defilement from passing over a sepulchre on the road. For details, see Edersheim, “Life and Times of Jesus,” i., 195; “The Temple,” p. 302; Geikie, “Life and Words of Christ,” i., 127.
To present him to the Lord
The first-born son of every household must be redeemed of the priest at the price of five shekels of the sanctuary; about two dollars and fifty cents. Num 18:15, Num 18:16; Exo 13:2.