Simeon

What is meant by Simeon being “righteous” (Luke 2:25)?
See Righteous meaning.

What is meant by Simeon being “devout” (Luke 2:25)?
ευλαβης (eulabes), the original Greek word translated “devout,” means “pious,” “God-fearing” or “reverent.” Simeon revered God.

What is meant by Simeon “waiting for the consolation of Israel”?
παρακλησιν (paraklesin), the original Greek word translated “consolation,” means “comfort,” as well as “appeal for help.” Israel had been conquered by foreigners, and the Jews suffering under their rule, including Simeon, were appealing to God to save and comfort them.

What was going to be done for Jesus “according to the custom of the law” (Luke 2:27)?
When Egypt’s Pharaoh continued to disobey God’s command to free the Jews, whom Pharaoh had enslaved, God struck down Egypt’s firstborn, both animals and people, but spared the Jews’ firstborn. Ever since then, all of Jews’ firstborn sons and animals were consecrated (see Purification of Mary) to God, who commanded the livestock to be offered to Him as sacrifice but the sons to be redeemed by giving five shekels of silver to the Levites, who were the priests: “The first to open the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, that they bring to the LORD, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem... And those to be redeemed, you shall redeem when one month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs” (Numbers 18:15-16).

What are “gerahs”?
According to Exodus 30:13, one shekel = twenty gerahs.

What is the current value of “five shekels of silver”?
Five ancient shekels of silver were about 3.5 ounces or 100 grams of silver, which has been worth between $15 and $50 for the majority of the recent decades.

What is meant by “depart in peace” (Luke 2:29)?
Die in peace.

Was Simeon sick?
He may have been, and/or very old.

Why does Simeon sound emotional?
If you had the privilege of holding Jesus in your arms when He was a baby, how would you have felt?

How does Simeon differ from Christians?
He met Jesus face to face and died; we will die and meet Jesus face to face, unless He returns before we die.

Why did Joseph and Mary “marvel” (Luke 2:33) at what Simeon said?
To have a stranger recognize Baby Jesus as “salvation” (Luke 2:30) would have been surprising enough, but the speaker - a Jew - was proclaiming in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem that this salvation was for “all peoples” (plural), including “the gentiles” (Luke 2:32).

Who made Simeon, who had been “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25), make a declaration about Jesus being the salvation to be revealed “to the gentiles” (Luke 2:32)?
“The Holy Spirit,” who “was upon him” (Luke 2:25).

Why will Jesus and His message be “spoken against” (Luke 2:34)?
If Jesus offers to improve the quality of people’s lives and claims to be just one of the many ways to heaven, sinners will welcome Him. But He will command repentance from sin and declare Himself the only way to heaven (see I am the way, the truth and the life), which unrepentant sinners will oppose.

Where will they end up?
They will “fall” (Luke 2:34) into hell, while those who repent and believe in Jesus will be “rising up” (Luke 2:34) to heaven.

When will Mary’s soul be pierced?
When she sees Jesus beaten to pulp and nailed to the cross (see His Mother).