Exegesis:

kai ēn ‘and there was’ or, establishing a closer connexion with v. 25, “There was also” (New English Bible), preferably the latter.

Hanna prophētis ‘Anna, a prophetess,’ the apposition denotes the function or quality in which Anna acts. As such it is different from the two subsequent appositions which serve to identify Anna as to her lineage. prophētis.

In the clause which runs from hautē ‘she’ till tessarōn ‘four’ the main verb is probebēkuia ‘advanced,’ scil. ēn ‘was’ and the phrase hautē … pollais gives the central information, i.e. that Anna was very old, and the subsequent participial clause zēsasa … tessarōn is to be understood as a consistent whole which serves (1) to explain the preceding phrase ‘well advanced in years’ and (2) to inform the reader also in what status Anna had spent her long life.

hautē probebēkuia en hēmerais pollais scil. ēn, lit. ‘she was advanced in many days,’ cf. 1.7 and 18 ‘advanced in their (or, her) days.’ The addition here of pollais ‘many,’ which is idiomatically a pleonasm, conveys the idea that Anna is very old, cf. Translator’s New Testament.

zēsasa meta andros etē hepta apo tēs parthenias autēs ‘having lived with a husband seven years from the time of her virginity.’

zaō ‘to live’ here ‘to pass life,’ specified first as ‘married life’ by meta andros and subsequently as ‘widowed life’ by autē chēra ‘on her own as widow’ (v. 37a).

meta andros lit. ‘with a man,’ here ‘with a husband.’

parthenia ‘virginity,’ here to be understood as ‘time of her virginity’ and apo as temporal ‘from the end of’ or even ‘after.’ Hence the phrase indicates that this marriage had been her first.

(V. 37) heōs etōn ogdoēkonta tessarōn ‘until eighty-four years’ i.e. ‘until the age of eighty-four.’
hē ouk aphistato tou hierou ‘who did not depart from the temple,’ a relative clause which continues the introductory description of Anna and draws a picture of her religious life. The imperfect tense is durative and the clause suggests, with exaggeration, frequent attendance in the temple, not actual residence within the temple precincts, especially since autē tē hōra ‘at that very hour’ (v. 38) would be pointless if Anna was always in the temple.

aphistamai ‘to go away from,’ with genitive.

nēsteiais kai deēsesin latreuousa nukta kai hēmeran ‘with fasting and praying serving (God) night and day’; this participial phrase serves to describe how Anna spent her time in the temple.

nēsteia ‘fasting,’ here in the plural ‘times, or acts, of fasting.’

deēsis ‘prayer,’ cf. on 1.13.

latreuō ‘to serve,’ cf. on 1.74; the object, God, is here omitted.

Translation:

Daughter of Phanuel. Probably Phanuel was Anna’s father, not her forefather of (or, belonging to/a member of/having-as-tribe) the tribe of Asher may syntactically go either with Anna or with Phanuel. This is immaterial where a daughter belongs to the tribe or clan of her father, as in Israel; in cultures where the genealogical system is different it is better to make clear that the phrase qualifies Anna, e.g. .’.., a woman of the tribe…,’ and/or to indicate that Phanuel is a man’s name. — Tribe, referring here to one of the twelve patrilineal tribes into which Israel was traditionally divided. The noun may have to be rendered by a descriptive phrase, e.g. ‘those who descended from the former Asher’ (Tboli), ‘those who have Asher as their ancestor.’

Of a great age, cf. on “advanced in years” in 1.7.

The participial phrase, having lived etc., is usually better rendered as a new sentence, e.g. .’..; (for) she had lived….’

Having lived with her husband refers to the period of Anna’s married life. The phrase has been rendered, ‘who had-a-husband’ (Batak Toba, where ‘husband’ is rendered ‘he for-whom-one-serves food’), ‘she was-together-with her-husband (lit. male)’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘she had been married (lit. went with a male spouse)’ (Ekari).

From her virginity, i.e. since the end of her life as unmarried girl, or stated reversely, since the beginning of her life as married woman; hence such renderings as, “after her girlhood” (An American Translation), ‘as a girl she married’ (cf. Toraja-Sa’dan, Sranan Tongo), “after she was first married” (New English Bible), ‘since she entered married life (or, became a married woman/a wife)’; or, shifting to a relative clause going with ‘husband,’ ‘whom she had married in her girlhood’ (cf. Bible en français courant). — The rendering ‘since she became a virgin (i.e. reached the age of puberty)’ rests on an erroneous interpretation.

(V. 37) And, or, ‘after that time,’ ‘afterwards’ (Tagalog), ‘from then onward.’

As a widow, preferably, ‘on her own (or, by herself) as a widow.’ The translation must indicate that the phrase is dependent on ‘having lived’ (e.g. by repeating the verb here, or by other devices), and that it syntactically parallels ‘with a husband’; therefore, adaptations that were necessary in the lexical and/or syntactic form of the preceding phrase will usually lead to corresponding adaptations in this one. Tae’ distinguishes between a widow who still is under obligation of mourning, and one who is not and, therefore, may remarry, the latter term being, of course, required here. If a specific term does not exist in the receptor language, or if it can also mean ‘a divorced woman’ (as e.g. in Bahasa Indonesia), or has the connotation of promiscuity (as in a Chuj dialect) or grief verging on madness (Tboli), a descriptive phrase will have to be used, e.g. ‘a woman whose husband has died.’ Adjustments of this phrase to the present context may result in something like, ‘after her husband’s death she lived unmarried’ (Kituba), ‘but he died and she lived on’ (Vai).

Till she was eighty-four, or, “to the age of eighty-four” (New English Bible), ‘till her years (or, winters, or, seasons) were eighty-four.’ In some receptor languages a numeral like eighty-four has to be rendered by approximation, and/or by multiplication, e.g. ‘seven times twelve,’ ‘four scores,’ or addition, e.g. ‘sixty and twenty four’ (Ekari).

She did not depart from, or, with an equivalent English hyperbole “she spent her whole life” (Phillips); or less hyperbolically “never far from” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation). Sranan Tongo has a positive rendering, qualifying the following verb, ‘on and on she served God in God’s house.’

Worshipping … night and day. Several versions co-ordinate this clause with what precedes, ‘and she worshipped (there) …’; some reverse the pattern of subordination, see the above Sranan Tongo quotation. For to worship cf. on 4.7.

With fasting and prayer, or, ‘by means of/accompanied by (Balinese) / in the way of (Tae’) fasting and prayer,’ indicating the forms in which she expressed her worship. When the nouns have to be rendered as verbal clauses the three verbs often are best co-ordinated; in some cases ‘to worship’ has to be subordinated to the other two, e.g. ‘worshipping/when she worshipped she fasted and prayed’ (cf. Ekari, Kituba), ‘she fasted and prayed in order to (or, as a form of) worship.’ The context here is clearly referring to religious ritual; hence some of the proposed descriptive phrases may be shortened or expressed more generically.

Night and day, or, ‘day and night,’ where that is the normal sequence, or ‘continually.’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.