We have a question about the age of Anna in Luke 2:36-38. How old was she when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple? The NIV and the Swedish B2000 translation describe Anna as a widow of age 84. But not the KJV and NET versions!  

The NIV of Luke 2:36-37 has: “There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”

The B2000 rendering of Luke 2:37 is: “Sedan hade hon levt som änka och var nu åttiofyra år gammal. Hon vek aldrig från templet utan tjänade Gud dag och natt med fasta och bön.”

Here’s the KJV: “And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.”

And the NET: “She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.”

The KJV and NET say Anna lived as a widow for 84 years—which would make her at least 100 years old when she encountered the baby Jesus.

Could you please give us insight from the original text so we can put this behind us? — P.B. & G.B.

The original can legitimately be understood either way. Some Greek manuscripts have héôs (until—as in “until she was 84”), while others have hôs (about—as in about 84 years old). If it’s “until,” then Anna was 84. If “about,” then counting her seven years of marriage, she may have been 105 or 100! That's a long time for anyone to live, back in the first century or even today! (Although one of my great aunts lived to 105, another to 102, another to 108, and two great uncles to 100. No—I'm not counting on it!)

To resolve the issue, one Syriac copyist took “seven years” to be “seven days”—no mean change for an octogenarian, although either way she was no spring chicken.

But on balance, the manuscripts favor “until.” That is Anna was a widow of 84 years, not a widow for 84 years.

That is why in my talk on Anna I was not definitive.