Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 2:36

"And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity," — Luke 2:36 (ASV)

One Anna, a prophetess.—The fact is in many ways remarkable. We find a woman recognized as a prophetess at a time when no man is recognized as a prophet.

She bears the name of the mother of the founder of the School of the Prophets, identical with that which the legends of Apocryphal Gospels assign to the mother of the Virgin. She is named, as if it were a well-known fact, as having been the wife of Phanuel, and she is not of the tribe of Judah, but of Asher.

That tribe, then, though belonging to the Ten that had been carried into exile by Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:6), had not been altogether lost. Some, at least, of its members survived and cherished the genealogies of their descent, as one family of the neighboring tribe of Naphtali are said to have done at Nineveh . In that family also we find the name of Anna .

Seven years from her virginity.—The words are emphasized:

1. As expressing chastity prior to marriage.
2. As excluding the thought of a second marriage.