Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Luke 2:36 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 36. 36And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Luke 2:36 names Anna's tribe, prophetic identity, advanced age, and widowed life.
Read It With
- Luke 2:36–2:40
Read Luke 2:36 with 2:36–2:40. In isolation, this contribution—names Anna's tribe, prophetic identity, advanced age, and widowed life—can be detached from its speaker, audience, scene or teaching sequence, and outcome. The complete unit establishes: Anna, an elderly widowed prophet devoted to worship, gives thanks and speaks about Jesus to people awaiting Jerusalem's redemption; the family returns to Galilee, where the child grows in wisdom and grace.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Luke 2:36 names Anna's tribe, prophetic identity, advanced age, and widowed life. This precise contribution belongs inside “Anna Speaks of Redemption and the Child Grows” because Anna, an elderly widowed prophet devoted to worship, gives thanks and speaks about Jesus to people awaiting Jerusalem's redemption; the family returns to Galilee, where the child grows in wisdom and grace.
Follow the Context
- Identify the actors, setting, and initiating speech or action in Luke 2:36–2:40.
- Anna, an elderly widowed prophet devoted to worship, gives thanks and speaks about Jesus to people awaiting Jerusalem's redemption; the family returns to Galilee, where the child grows in wisdom and grace.
- Hold this material interpretive limit in view: Anna's exact age and duration of widowhood are grammatically debated. Luke names her ancestry, prophetic speech, disciplined life, and audience without reducing her to age or marital status.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not detach its specific contribution—names Anna's tribe, prophetic identity, advanced age, and widowed life—from the complete unit or override the unit's explicit boundary: This scene does not romanticize widowhood, require nonstop presence in a building, erase Anna's public speech, or make aging a measure of spiritual rank.
What Remains True
Luke 2:36 names Anna's tribe, prophetic identity, advanced age, and widowed life. Read inside Luke 2:36–2:40, this contribution supports the unit's proportionate truth: Anna, an elderly widowed prophet devoted to worship, gives thanks and speaks about Jesus to people awaiting Jerusalem's redemption; the family returns to Galilee, where the child grows in wisdom and grace. Its use remains accountable to affected people and the unit's explicit boundary.
How It Can Shape Life
- Luke 2:36 names Anna's tribe, prophetic identity, advanced age, and widowed life. Its faithful response is proportionate to that role: Make room for older women to speak, lead, worship, and interpret publicly; do not reduce a person's vocation to age, widowhood, marital status, or nonstop presence in a building.
Teach It Back
Explain Luke 2:36's specific contribution to Luke 2:36–2:40: names Anna's tribe, prophetic identity, advanced age, and widowed life. Include the preceding and following movement, one source-controlled uncertainty, one affected person or group, and what the verse does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Luke 2:36–2:40 — Anna Speaks of Redemption and the Child GrowsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Anna's exact age and duration of widowhood are grammatically debated. Luke names her ancestry, prophetic speech, disciplined life, and audience without reducing her to age or marital status.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and coverage.
Exact location: Luke 2:36–2:40, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations; the edition is not treated as a complete apparatus.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Luke.txt, 2:36–2:40
Open the Luke Greek text file ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Luke
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, KJV-language clarification, historical notes, Synoptic parallels, and textual alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Luke PDF, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to Luke 2:36–2:40
Open source ↗