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"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3: 20
On the second of February each year the Syriac Orthodox Church commemorates the presentation of the Lord in the temple and Mor Simeon the Elder (ܫܡܥܘܢ ܣܒܐ). That means after forty days of the birth of Jesus the incarnated God, Jesus was taken to Jerusalem to be presented in the Temple, according to the Law of Moses (Lev 12:2-8), a woman who gave birth to a male child was forbidden to enter the Temple of God for forty days. At the end of this time the mother comes to the Temple with her child, to offer a young lamb or pigeon to the Lord as a purification sacrifice. Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, had no need of purification, since she had given birth to the incarnated God, the Source of purity and sanctity. However, she humbly fulfilled the requirements of the Law. After 40 days of the blessed birth of Jesus, Virgin Mary with Joseph the righteous presented Him in the temple, according to the Law. But this was not an ordinary event; it was not similar to the presentation of other children, the Child is incarnated God, that’s why there were important and righteous people waiting in the temple to receive Him. St. Luke the Evangelist states that when His parents brought Him according to the custom of the law, at that time the righteous Elder Simeon was living in Jerusalem. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he should behold the promised Messiah. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Elder Simeon went to the Temple at that very moment when the Holy Mary and Joseph had brought the Infant Jesus to the temple. The holy Evangelist continues: "And there was a widow Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel. She was of a great age, and had lived with her husband for seven years; and she was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not leave the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And coming at that very hour, also gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption at Jerusalem" (Lk 2:36-38). The Righteous Simeon and the Prophetess Anna, the last righteous ones of the Old Testament, were deemed worthy to meet the Savior in the Temple. according to the testimony of the holy Evangelist Luke, Simeon was a just and devout man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him (Lk 2:25). God promised him that he would not die until the promised Messiah, Christ the Lord, come into the world. Ancient historians tell us that the Greek king of Egypt Ptolemy II Philadelphos (285-247 B.C.) who wished to include texts of Holy Scripture in the famous Library at Alexandria. He invited scholars from Jerusalem, and the Sanhedrin sent their wise men. Simeon was one of these 70 scholars who came to Alexandria to translate the Holy Scriptures into Greek. The completed work was called "The Septuagint," and is the version of the Old Testament used by the Church, and this work was done around 286 B.C. The king put every two of the scholars in an isolated place so they would not agree on one translation, and to ensure a correct text after comparing all of the translations. When Simeon was translating the verse 14 of Ch 7 from Isaiah "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel," He, stopped then and said “this is impossible”. He did not believe this, according to other story that he was afraid to translate the verse as is (that a virgin would conceive), because the King would mock him. He wanted to translate the virgin as a "young lady." He was disturbed because of this inaccurate translation, and God revealed to him in a vision that he would not die before he would see Christ the Lord born of a virgin. This was fulfilled and he lived more than three hundred years. When Christ was born; he was very well advanced in age and his sight dimmed. When he carried the child Jesus in his hands, his sight came back to him, and the Holy Spirit told him, "This is the child that you have been waiting for." He blessed God and said, "Now You are letting Your servant depart in peace according to Your Word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation" (Luke 2:28-32) and turning to the Mother of God he said, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Lk 2:34-35). Then the righteous Simeon died at a great age (Tradition says he was about 350, he was around fifties when he was chosen to make a translation in 285). His relics were transferred to Constantinople in the sixth century. Simeon the elder understood the infant Jesus Christ by Spirit, as:
1) Glory for Israel Indeed, Jesus the Lord is glory of His church and faithful people who believed in Him, and hope for gentiles to believe in Him as their Savior, and He caused the fall of nation of Israel who did not believed in Him, but He caused also the resurrection of many of Israel those who received Him as a Savior and waited Messiah. In the start of the New Year of our life, let the phrase “rising of many” apply to us, so that the Lord may rise us through His grace and His Holy Spirit. And may the Heavenly Child Who came today to enter His temple, enter into temple of our body, sanctifies and blesses us, and make this feast blessed and joyful day to all of us. Amen.
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