τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῶν. “Of their purification.” The Jewish law
(Lev. 12.) did not include the child in the purification. This fact, and the
feeling that least of all could Jesus need purifying, produced the corrupt
reading αὐτῆς, followed in AV.
No uncial and perhaps only one
cursive (76) supports the reading αὐτῆς, which spread from the Complutensian Polyglott Bible
(1514) to a number of editions. It is a remarkable instance of a reading which
had almost no authority becoming widely adopted. It now has the support of
Syr-Sin. The Complutensian insertion of διηρθρώθη after ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτοῦ in 1:64 was
less successful, although that has the support of two cursives (140, 251). D
here has the strange reading αὐτοῦ, which looks like a slip rather than a correction. No
one would alter αὐτῶν to αὐτοῦ. The Vulgate also has purgationis ejus, but some Lat. MSS. have eorum. The αὐτῆς might come from LXX of Lev. 12:6, ὅταν ἀναπληρωθῶσιν αἱ ἡμέραι καθάρσεως αὐτῆς. Note that Lk.
uses καθαρισμός and not κάθαρσις, which is a medical term for menstruation, and which
Gentile readers might misunderstand.
The meaning of αὐτῶν is not clear.
Edersheim and Van Hengel interpret it of the Jews; Godet, Meyer, and Weiss of
Mary and Joseph. The latter is justified by the context: “When the days of their purification were fulfilled … they brought Him.” Contact with an
unclean person involved uncleanness. Purification after childbirth seems to
have been closely connected with purification after menstruation; the rites
were similar. Herzog, PRE. art. Reinigungen. After the birth of a son the mother was unclean for
seven days, then remained at home for thirty-three days, and on the fortieth
day after the birth made her offerings. (Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical
Commentary on the Gospel According to S. Luke [London: T&T Clark International,
1896], 63)
katharismos
(also 5:14) ‘purification’, i.e. the restoration of ritual cleanness; according
to the law of Moses a woman remained unclean for forty days after the birth of
a male child. During this period she was forbidden to touch any sacred thing or
to enter the temple. Ritual cleanness was restored by a burnt offering and a
sin offering (cp. Lev. 12:1–8). autōn
‘of them’, i.e. ‘their’ may refer to Joseph and Mary (cp. Plummer); to Jesus
and Mary (cp. Lagrange), or to the three of them (cp. Grundmann), preferably
the first. (J. Reiling and J. L.
Swellengrebel, A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke [UBS Handbook Series;
New York: United Bible Societies, 1993], 124-25)
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