My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ God,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
THE RIGHTEOUS SYMEON THE GOD-RECEIVER AND
ANNA PROPHETESS.
Symeon, the Righteous one, known as the God-receiver, lived for many years. His life prior to the time that the Virgin Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple, showed the elder to be a priest and translator. In the 3rd century B.C., during the reign of the Macedonian Ptolemy II (286-246 B.C.) called Philadelphos, SEVENTY Hebrew Scholars gathered to prepare a translation of the Old Testament for Greek-speaking Jews who no longer understood Hebrew. The translation came to be known as the SEPTUAGINT. One of the teachers and TRANSLATORS WAS OUR SYMEON.
Alexandria had been the home of a major colony of the Jewish Dispersion, where they occupied the eastern part of this great port. Their strength grew in the city, and in both a spiritual and mental context, the Hellenic (Greek) Jew became a phenomenon of culture. He found himself in a challenging confrontation with the literature and philosophy of the Greeks (Hellenes). The Alexandrian Jew spoke Greek (Hellenica), for such was a condition of citizenship. Indeed, a knowledge of Greek WAS A PREREQUISITE OF TRADE, BUSINESS, AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. The Jew of Alexandria, like any Jew of Tarsus (e.g. the Apostle Paul, was truly the citizen of two world cultures; hence the urge to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into their "other" language. Actually, Hebrew was becoming a less familiar, medium of communication to the Jews of Alexandria, almost an archaism of the synagogue.
The holy elder Eleazar became one of the SEVENTY TRANSLATORS. Eleazor went with SIXTY-NINE ELDERS who were thoroughly skilled in the Scriptures and in both languages. As Symeon and the others called for this work were traveling from Jerusalem. As Symeon and the others called for this work were traveling from Jerusalem, they discussed among themselves certain key verses in the books of the Prophets. Symeon then turned and said to them: "When I commenced to interpret the Prophet Isaiah, I saw a verse that read: ‘Behold the Virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and thou shall call His name Emmanuel’ [Isaiah 7:14]. This verse, my beloved fellows, causes me to marvel exceedingly! How is it possible for a virgin to give birth? Or how is it possible that God should be born? I shall not believe that this could ever happen."
Upon uttering these words of unbelief, suddenly, AN UNSEEN HAND SMOTE SYMEON and he heard a voice say: "THOU WILL BEHOLD CHRIST AND WILL ALSO HOLD HIM IN THY HANDS! THOU SHALL NOT DIE TILL THIS SHOULD COME TO PASS."
Coming to himself, Symeon proceeded and, little by little, he and the other teachers in his party reached a certain river. "If the verse of Isaiah is true, then I shall receive my ring again!" The group then traveled on. Upon arriving in a city nearby this rive they purchased fish so that they might prepare it for the approaching evening. Then, by God’s good will, the same fish that Symeon purchased and began to prepare by slicing it open CONTAINED HIS VERY OWN RING WITHIN THE ENTRAILS. At that moment, he believed the words of the prophecy.
According to Saint Irenaeus ( 130-200), Ptolemy, "wishing to test them individually, and fearing lest they should perchance, by taking counsel together, conceal the truth in the Scriptures by their interpretation, separated them from each other, and commanded them all to make their own translation. He did this with respect to all the books. However, when they came together in the same place before Ptolemy, and they compared their translations among themselves, God was indeed glorified. The SCRIPTURES WERE ACKNOWLEDGED AS TRULY DIVINE, BECAUSE ALL OF THEM READ OUT THE SAME TRANSLATION, IN THE VERY SAME WORDS AND THE VERY SAME NAMES, FROM BEGINNING TO END, SO THAT EVEN TEH GENTILES PRESENT PERCEIVED THAT THE SCRIPTURES HAD BEEN TRANSLATED BY THE INSPIRATION OF GOD…THUS, THE SCRIPTURES HAD BEEN INTERPRETED WITH FIDELITY.
Thereafter, decades passed, and Symeon waited and waited for the "CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL." In a festal hymn, we hear Jesus say: "It is not the old man who holds Me, but I uphold him: for he begs Me to let him depart."
Prophetess Anna
The Prophetess Anna, according to Saint Luke, was "a daughter of Phamuel, of the Tribe of Aser. She was advanced in many days, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow about eighty-four years, who departed not from the Temple, and worshipped God with fastings and entreaties night and day. And she, having stood by, at the same hour, was giving thanks to the Lord and kept on speaking about Him to all those waiting for redemption in Jerusalem" [Luke 2:36-38]. Saint Kosmas says that she was chaste and venerable. She prophesied in a sacred manner, openly confessing that the Lord HAD COME INTO HIS TEMPLE. She also magnified the Theotokos, proclaiming her to all present. One account of her virtuous life and God-pleasing deeds, the blessed Anna, the namesake of grace, was counted worthy TO BEHOLD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHEN HE WAS BROUGHT INTO THE TEMPLE, A FORTY-DAY OLD Babe, by His Most Holy Mother and the Righteous Joseph. The account of her praise and prophecy is given herein on the day of the feast, the 2nd of February, when she announces in the Temple precincts: "BEHOLD, O MEN, WHAT IS TO BE FOUND THIS DAY? This small Child established firmly here firmly Heaven and the earth. This small Child IS THE CREATOR OF ALL THE WORLD."
Thus this day, we have two irreproachable witnesses, Symeon and Anna, who testify and proclaim the awesome and ineffable condescension of God. [Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church]
Please note: The Holy Orthodox Church’s official Old Testament is the TRANSLATION OF THE SEVENTY known as the SEPTUAGINT. Western Christians, Roman Catholics, and Protestants use a Latin version of the Bible known as the VULGATE.
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 