Anna of Asher

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 12-13; Luke 2; Psalm 71

This morning, just for a fun mental exercise, I want to briefly look at Anna of Asher who is mentioned in Luke 2:38-39. I find Anna and Simeon, the two elderly people who testify to Jesus’ Messianic purpose when he was presented at the temple as an infant, to be inspiring and highly interesting characters in Luke’s gospel narrative. Due to the brevity of the space I have here, all I will be doing is dropping some bread crumbs for you to follow if you wish.

Anna, depending on how you read the text, was either 84 or 105 years old. Either way, quite old. She was of the tribe of Asher. If you remember your biblical history you recall that Asher was one of the tribes of that split off after the death of Solomon and formed the Northern Kingdom of Israel. That kingdom was apostate from the beginning and never repented. They were eventually destroyed by the Assyrians and the ten tribes that made up that kingdom were scattered and became known as the “ten lost tribes of Israel.” Yet, as we see here, some of the individuals who were a part of those tribes found their way back to Jerusalem and were genuine followers of Yahweh.

Some think Anna has a connection to another daughter of Asher and Luke is subtly pointing to that in this narrative. There is this odd and mysterious woman named Serach in the Old Testament. She is mentioned in Genesis 46:17 and Numbers 26:46. She is mentioned first as one of the 70 grandchildren of Jacob that is brought down to Egypt, and then again in the genealogies of those who had come out of Egypt and were a part of those who were in the wilderness. This is extremely odd for a couple of reasons. One, because she is the only female mentioned in both instances. Two, because she would have been over 250 years old by the time the event mentioned in Numbers took place.

We are never given an explanation about her significance but Jewish Rabbis had a theory and a traditional explanation. They say that since she was the only living person who was there when Jacob came down into Egypt, she was the one the elders looked to to verify the legitimacy of Moses claim to be sent by God as a deliverer. Without going into a more lengthy explanation, suffice it to say that she knew that the Hebrew words Moses used for “God will surely visit you,” were the same words Joseph used when he died and extracted the commitment from the elders of his day to “carry up his bones.” It was an unusual word construction, and was like a special code language that gave validity to Moses’ claims. Serach was the only living person who heard both Joseph and Moses and testify to his authenticity.

Now, I don’t know if any of that holds water, but it does give some explanation for the inclusion of Serach of Asher in these Old Testament narratives. But what does that have to do with Anna? Well, the connection would be that here again you have this elderly woman from the tribe of Asher who gives testimony about the validity of the new and greater Moses who has come to deliver God’s people out of the bondage of slavery.

Jews familiar with this Rabbinic tradition would have made that connection.

I hope you enjoyed thinking through this with me. There is much more to this I didn’t have time or space to elaborate on. Feel free to go down that rabbit hole if you’d like. It is a fun one to explore.