2:26a–b

The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ: This part of the verse is passive, literally “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would see the Christ/Messiah before he died. In some languages, it may be more natural to translate this as an active sentence, as the Berean Standard Bible does. For example:

The Holy Spirit…had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. (New Living Translation (2004))

The form of the Greek verb here indicates that the Holy Spirit had already revealed this to Simeon at some time in the past.

he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ: In some languages it may be natural to reverse the clauses here and translate without the negative (not). For example:

he would see the Lord’s Christ before he died

see death: The phrase see death is an idiom. It means “to die,” and many English versions translate it that way. For example:

he would not die (New International Version)

the Lord’s Christ: In the phrase the Lord’s Christ, the word Lord’s refers to God. The word Christ refers to the person whom God appointed and promised to send as King and Savior. So the Lord’s Christ means “God’s appointed/promised one.” See Lord, Context 2, in the Glossary.

For a fuller discussion of Christ, see the note at 2:11b. See also Christ in the Glossary.

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