Luke 2:22 — Community Reflections

LUKE 2:22 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;”

When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord — the purification rites of Leviticus 12 required the mother's ritual cleansing after childbirth: forty days after the birth of a son. The presentation in Jerusalem is the second Temple-law observance in two verses — Luke emphasizes Jesus' full integration into the covenant people's liturgical life from infancy. The Law of Moses that Jesus will later clarify and fulfill is the same law by which his parents present him in the temple.

Church Fathers on Luke 2:22

Next after the circumcision they wait for the time of purification, as it is said, And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were come.
Cyril of Alexandria · 5th century

If you diligently examine the words of the law, you will find indeed that the mother of God as she is free from all connection with man, so is she exempt from any obligation of the law. For not every woman who brings forth, but she who has received seed and brought forth, is pronounced unclean, and by the ordinances of the law is taught that she must be cleansed, in order to distinguish probably from her who though a virgin has conceived and brought forth. But that we might…
Bede · 8th century

Therefore the Evangelist has well observed, that the days of her purification were come according to the law, who since she had conceived of the Holy Spirit, was free from all uncleanness. It follows, They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
TITUS BOST ·

Read all 18 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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