Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
And it was revealed unto him - In what way this was done we are not informed. Sometimes a revelation was made by a dream, at others by a voice, and at others by silent suggestion. All we know of this is that it was by the Holy Spirit.
Not see death - Should not die. To "see" death and to "taste" of death, was a common way among the Hebrews of expressing death itself. Compare Psalms 89:48.
The Lord' s Christ - Rather "the Lord' s Anointed." The word "Christ" means "anointed," and it would have been better to use that word here. To an aged man who had been long waiting for the Messiah, how grateful must have been this revelation - this solemn assurance that the Messiah was near! But this revelation is now given to every man, that he need not taste of death until, by the eye of faith, he may see the Christ of God. He is offered freely. He has come. He waits to manifest himself to the world, and he is not willing that any should die forever. To us also it will be as great a privilege in our dying hours to have seen Christ by faith as it was to Simeon. It will be the only thing that can support us then - the only thing that will enable us to depart in peace.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Luke 2:26:
John 8:51
Acts 11:26
Hebrews 8:5
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