---
title: Luke 2:28
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-2-28/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-2-28.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 2:28
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 2:28

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Simeon took Him in his arms and blessed God, saying:

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "he took the child into his arms and praised God and said:"

## JW Usage

Read as Simeon recognising the promised Messiah and praising Jehovah for the fulfilment. The scene is accepted as history; it is not treated as bearing on whether Jesus' arrival may be commemorated, since the Watchtower holds that no birth observance is authorised.

## Protestant Usage

Simeon's response to seeing the child is to praise God, and the song that follows is one of the most quoted passages in Christian worship — now let your slave go free, for my eyes have seen your means of salvation. What is worth noticing is that this is a commemorative moment in the text itself. Simeon has been waiting; the waiting ends; he marks it aloud. Luke records the same instinct in the shepherds, in the magi, and in Anna a few verses later, who spoke about the child to everyone waiting for Jerusalem's deliverance. That does not command an annual celebration, and it should not be presented as though it does. What it does show is that Scripture itself records the arrival of Christ being greeted with public joy by people who had been waiting for it. If the conversation turns to whether extra-biblical commemorations are permitted at all, the shortest answer is John 10:22-23: Jesus attended the Feast of Dedication, a festival established after the Old Testament closed to mark a historical act of God. Compare Luke 2:13, Esther 9:27, Matthew 2:10.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Holidays Are Not Pagan — Read Jeremiah 10 to Verse 5](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/holidays-pagan-origin-engagement.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Colossians 2:16-17 / Jeremiah 10:5 [Practice]