Luke 2:37
Context2:37 She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. 1 She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 2
Luke 6:12
Context6:12 Now 3 it was during this time that Jesus 4 went out to the mountain 5 to pray, and he spent all night 6 in prayer to God. 7
Luke 19:46
Context19:46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ 8 but you have turned it into a den 9 of robbers!” 10
1 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).
2 sn The statements about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day make her extreme piety clear.
3 tn Grk “Now it happened that in.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
4 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Or “to a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὅρος, eis to Joro").
sn The expression to the mountain here may be idiomatic or generic, much like the English “he went to the hospital” (cf. 15:29), or even intentionally reminiscent of Exod 24:12 (LXX), since the genre of the Sermon on the Mount seems to be that of a new Moses giving a new law.
6 sn This is the only time all night prayer is mentioned in the NT.
7 tn This is an objective genitive, so prayer “to God.”
8 sn A quotation from Isa 56:7.
9 tn Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).
10 sn A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.