Bible Character Explorer
New Testament • 1st century BC - 1st century AD
Anna the Prophetess
The Widow Who Never Left the TempleAn elderly widow and prophetess who served God with fasting and prayer night and day, and gave thanks for the infant Jesus to all who awaited redemption.
"She... gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem."
Luke 2:38 (KJV)
Overview
Anna was a prophetess of the tribe of Asher, the daughter of Phanuel, who had been married for seven years before becoming a widow and living to the great age of eighty-four. Rather than withdrawing from communal worship, she 'departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day,' a life of remarkable, sustained devotion spanning decades. She arrived in the temple at the very moment Simeon was blessing the infant Jesus, and she too gave thanks to the Lord, speaking of the child to all those in Jerusalem who were looking for redemption. Her brief appearance in Luke's Gospel, only a few verses, nonetheless captures an entire lifetime of quiet, faithful devotion culminating in the privilege of recognizing and proclaiming the Messiah's arrival.
Gospel Connection
Anna's immediate proclamation of the infant Jesus to 'all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem' represents one of the very first recorded acts of gospel witness in the New Testament, a fitting beginning to the pattern that would follow throughout Scripture of those who encounter Christ being compelled to tell others of him.
Discover More
See how this life points to Christ in the Gospel Connection section above.