Imamat 21:7

21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, ¹  nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, ²  for the priest ³  is holy to his God. ⁴ 

Lukas 2:37

2:37 She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. ⁵  She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. ⁶ 

Roma 7:2

7:2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her ⁷  husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. ⁸ 

[21:7]  ¹ tn Heb “A wife harlot and profaned they shall not take.” The structure of the verse (e.g., “wife” at the beginning of the two main clauses) suggests that “harlot and profaned” constitutes a hendiadys, meaning “a wife defiled by harlotry” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 143, as opposed to that in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348; cf. v. 14 below). Cf. NASB “a woman who is profaned by harlotry.”

[21:7]  ² sn For a helpful discussion of divorce in general and as it relates to this passage see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 143-44.

[21:7]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:7]  ⁴ tn The pronoun “he” in this clause refers to the priest, not the former husband of the divorced woman.

[2:37]  ⁵ tn Grk “living with her husband for seven years from her virginity and she was a widow for eighty four years.” The chronology of the eighty-four years is unclear, since the final phrase could mean “she was widowed until the age of eighty-four” (so BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.α). However, the more natural way to take the syntax is as a reference to the length of her widowhood, the subject of the clause, in which case Anna was about 105 years old (so D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:251-52; I. H. Marshall, Luke, [NIGTC], 123-24).

[2:37]  ⁶ sn The statements about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day make her extreme piety clear.

[7:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “the,” with the article used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[7:2]  ⁸ tn Grk “husband.”

[7:2]  sn Paul’s example of the married woman and the law of the marriage illustrates that death frees a person from obligation to the law. Thus, in spiritual terms, a person who has died to what controlled us (v. 6) has been released from the law to serve God in the new life produced by the Spirit.