Luke 2:40

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
And	δὲ de	G1161	but · conjunction
child	παιδίον paidion	G3813	a childling (of either sex) · noun — nominative singular neuter
grew	ηὔξανεν ēuxanen	G837	to grow ("wax") · verb — imperfect active indicative, 3rd person singular
and	καὶ kai	G2532	and · conjunction
strong	ἐκραταιοῦτο ekrataiouto	G2901	to empower · verb — imperfect passive indicative, 3rd person singular
spirit	πνεύματι pneumati	G4151	a current of air · noun — dative singular neuter
filled	πληρούμενον plēroumenon	G4137	to make replete · verb — present passive participle, nominative singular neuter
wisdom	σοφίᾳ, sophia	G4678	wisdom (higher or lower · noun — dative singular feminine
and	καὶ kai	G2532	and · conjunction
grace	χάρις charis	G5485	graciousness (as gratifying) · noun — nominative singular feminine
God	θεοῦ theou	G2316	figuratively · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
was	ἦν ēn	G2258	I (thou
upon	ἐπ᾽ ep᾽	G1909	properly · preposition
him	αὐτό.¶ auto	G846	the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative singular neuter

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
Luke 1:80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.
Isaiah 11:1-5 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace a…
1 Samuel 2:26 And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.
1 Samuel 3:19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
Isaiah 53:1-2 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Luke 2:47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Luke 2:25-40

Even when he humbles himself, still Christ has honour done him to balance the offence of it. That we might not be stumbled at the meanness of his birth, angels then did him honour; and now, that we may not be offended at his being presented in the temple, like other children born in sin, and without any manner of solemnity peculiar to him, but silently, and in the crowd of other children, Simeon and Anna now do him honour, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. I. A very honourable testimony is borne to him by Simeon, which was both a reputation to the child and an encouragement to the parents, and might have been a happy introduction of the priests into an acquaintance with the Saviour, if t…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Luke 2:40

His mental development kept pace with His bodily, and "the grace of God," the divine favor, rested manifestly and increasingly upon Him. See Luk 2:52.

Adam Clarke on Luke 2:40

The child grew - As to his body - being in perfect health. Waxed strong in spirit - His rational soul became strong and vigorous. Filled with wisdom - The divinity continuing to communicate itself more and more, in proportion to the increase of the rational principle. The reader should never forget that Jesus was perfect man, as well as God. And the grace of God was upon him - The word χαρις, not only means grace in the common acceptation of the word, (some blessing granted by God's mercy to those who are sinners, or have no merit), but it means also favor or approbation: and this sense I think most proper for it here, when applied to the human nature of our blessed Lord; and thus our transl…

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John Gill on Luke 2:40

And the child grew,.... In body, in strength, and in stature; which shows that it was a true body Christ assumed, and like ours, which did not come to its maturity at once, but by degrees: and waxed strong in spirit, or in his soul; for as he had a true body, he had also a reasonable soul; the faculties of which were far from being weak, they were exceeding strong, and appeared stronger and stronger every day; his understanding was clear, his judgment solid, and his memory strong and retentive, his will, and the desires of it, were to that which is good, and his affections cleaved unto it. The Persic and Ethiopic versions read, "was strengthened in", or "by the Holy Spirit"; with the grace…

The Church Fathers

(lib. de Incarn. Christi cont. Apollin.) But if as some say the flesh was changed into a Divine nature, how did it derive growth? for to attribute growth to an uncreated substance is impious.
— Athanasius of Alexandria ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Rightly with the growth in age, St. Luke has united increase in wisdom, as he says, And he was strengthened, (i. e. in spirit.) For in proportion to the measure of bodily growth, the Divine nature developed its own wisdom.
— Cyril of Alexandria ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

We must observe the distinction of words, that the Lord Jesus Christ in that He was a child, that is, had put on the condition of human weakness, was daily growing and being strengthened. Wisdom truly, for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, (Col. 2:19.) but grace, because it was in great grace given to the man Christ Jesus, that from the time He began to be man He should be perfect man and perfect God. But much rather because He was the word of God, and God needed not to be strengthened, nor was in a state of growth. But while He was yet a little child He had the grace of God, that as in Him all things were wonderful, His childhood also might be wonderful, so as to be filled with the wisdom of God.
— Bede ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Crucifixion — A common mode of punishment among heathen nations in early times. It is not certain whether it was known among the ancient Jews; probably it was not. The modes of capital punishment according to the…
Children · Jesus — Jesus
Christ, The Prophet · Abounded in wisdom — Abounded in wisdom
Grace · Was upon Christ — Was upon Christ

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Luke 2:40

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Luke 2:25-40

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Luke 2:40

Adam Clarke on Luke 2:40

John Gill on Luke 2:40

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Luke 2:40

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Luke 2:25-40

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Luke 2:40

Adam Clarke on Luke 2:40

John Gill on Luke 2:40

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Luke 2:40-47

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Luke 2:40