Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 2:19
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered [them] in her heart.
19. all these things ] or ‘words.’
pondered ] Literally, “ casting together,” i. e. comparing and considering; like our ‘casting in mind.’ Comp. Gen 37:11, “his father observed the saying.” She did not at once understand the full significance of all these events.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mary kept all these things – All that happened, and all that was said respecting her child. She remembered what the angel had said to her; what had happened to Elizabeth and to the shepherds – all the extraordinary circumstances which had attended. the birth of her son. Here is a delicate and beautiful expression of the feelings of a mother. A mother forgets none of those things which occur respecting her children. Everything they do or suffer – everything that is said of them, is treasured up in her mind; and often she thinks of those things, and anxiously seeks what they may indicate respecting the future character and welfare of her child.
Pondered – Weighed. This is the original meaning of the word weighed. She kept them; she revolved them; she weighed them in her mind, giving to each circumstance its just importance, and anxiously seeking what it might indicate respecting her child.
In her heart – In her mind. She thought of these things often and anxiously.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 2:19
And pondered them in her heart
Marys musings
Great things were these which she kept, and most fit for earnest pondering.
Great were they to all, greatest to her, the highly favoured amongst women. Life was opening strangely upon her; and the last few months had crowded into their narrow compass all that was most fit to stir the very depths of her spirit. Brought up in the, comparative seclusion which shut in Jewish damsels, the angel of the Most High had stood suddenly beside her, and troubled her mind by the strangeness of his salutation. Then had followed the fears and hopes which the promise of that angel-visitor had interwoven with her very being. The Desire of all nations was at last to come, and she should be indeed His mother. From her should spring that mighty Redeemer, to give birth to whom had been the earnest longing of every Jewish mother. What hopes and wonder must have filled her soul! At length the months of waiting passed away, and the gracious birth was come, the promised Child was born, the Son of hope was given; and still how much was there upon which to muse and ponder! There was the full tide of a mothers love for the Babe which slept beside her; there was the awful reverence of her pious soul for the unknown majesty of Him who of her had taken human flesh. Depths were all around her, into which her spirit searched, in which it could find no resting-place. How was He, this infant of days, the Everlasting Son? How was He to make atonement for her sins and the sins of her people? When would the mystery begin to unfold itself? As yet it lay upon her thick and impenetrable; all was dark around her; mighty promises and small fulfilments seemed to strive together in the womb of time. The angel had called Him Great, the Son of the Highest; but He lay there on her bosom weak and wailing as any other babe. He was to sit upon the throne of David; yet He was cradled in a manger. Angels broke on mortal sight, to make His birthplace known: yet none but the shepherds of Bethlehem had heard their message. A star from heaven guided eastern magi to His feet; but they made their offerings in a stable. She was highly favoured who had borne Him; yet a sword should pierce through her own soul. All was full of contradictions; yet amidst all she was unmoved. To the eye of a passing observer she might have seemed perhaps insensible–such a quietness there was about her. Did she know her own greatness? Did she feel the strangeness of all around her? Did her soul yearn over this Babe, and reach, forth to comprehend His unknown destiny? or was she indeed destitute of kindling feelings? No; she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart; not one escaped her; but the current of her soul flowed far too deeply to babble forth its emotions. The ornament of a quiet spirit shrouded the mighty swellings of her heart. She was in Gods hands: this one thought was her anchor. Behold the handmaid of the Lord: this was her talisman So that this is the lesson taught us in the character of the Virgin Mary. The blessedness of cultivating a quiet, trusting spirit, a deep inward piety, a calm, waiting soul, by musing on Gods dealings. This was what distinguished her; this was the groundwork of that strength and nobleness of character which we trace in her. This, therefore, we should likewise cultivate, who would share her blessedness. For this will be to us too, of Gods blessing, a means of acquiring that pious cheerfulness of temper which is the natural mother of high and noble conduct. It is not in a loud profession or an obtrusive exterior, but in its silent inner power of bowing our will to that of God, of filling our common life with His presence, that true religion shows itself. (Bishop Samuel Wilberforce.)
Significant silence respecting Mary
How small a space does Mary hold in the New Testament! how vast a space in the history of the Church! Observe the silence of the record respecting her. Shakespeare, the highest among all who haw conceived the human heart or portrayed human life, is marked above all others, as the New Testament is, by the use of significant silence in representing character–led by his deep instinct to know that whatever is peculiarly fine or high can only in this way be hinted to the apprehension. The highest traits of his highest women especially, and in their highest moments, are indicated–how? Just by a few words, a few touches, coming in between silences of far deeper tone, and so the exquisite outline of those wonderful characters is made out. I find the same in the New Testament. Nothing in it is, to me, so deep and bottomless in meaning and effect as the silences of Christ–a stroke or two, a few lines, giving figure and expression to the formless deep lying below. And the same as to Mary. How few the touches!–only just enough to mark out and give character to the deeps of silence, as, when you hear a strain of music at night, the stillness which follows it is made richer still and more musical than any possibility of sound. The evangelists, having given us certain facts as to Mary, do afterwards almost nothing but remain quiet, and not interfere with the inferences of the Christian heart as to the beautiful nature and wonderful consciousness of the virgin mother. Nothing is said as to her feelings–(silence)–but we understand from a general sense of her character, how meek and submissive that silence is. In things which are above her thought, and which seem to men impossible, in things which bring glory to her, or in things which bring shame, the characteristic of this woman is deep, meek, silent submission; and this, as it is the natural top of true womanhood, so also is it of true Christianity. What she was, her son was also in His wider and grander relations to God. (A. G. Mercer, D. D.)
The inwardness of Marys character
Observe what I may call the inwardness of Marys character. On several occasions, when a common nature would have exulted, when vanity would have babbled, or when common wonder and doubt would have gone asking for explanations, it is said of her, Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. Now this would not have been repeated as it is, if it had not been a peculiarity and observable. This I call inwardness. There was a hush of awe about it, a disposition to keep a sacred thing sacred; to hide the depths of the heart away from common talk, and to keep their inexpressible-mess hidden to God; to keep all doubts and demurs submissively for His solution; to judge nothing before the time; to draw inward, and compose and hush the entire nature at the footstool of God; in short, her whole heart seems to have been expressed in the one sentence, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word. (A. G. Mercer, D. D.)
Hearing should be followed by meditation
Musing makes the fire to burn, and deep and constant thoughts are operative, not a glance or a slight view. The hen which straggles from her nest when she sits a brooding, produces nothing; it is a constant incubation which hatches the young. So when we have only a few straggling thoughts, and do not set a-brooding upon a truth, when we have flashes only, like a little glance of a sunbeam upon a wall, it does nothing; but serious and inculcative thoughts (through the Lords blessing) will do the work. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Value of meditation
Any benefit to be derived from hearing the Word exceedingly depends on meditation. Before we hear the Word, meditation is like a plough, which opens the ground to receive the seed; and after we have heard the Word, it is like the harrow which covers the new-sown seed in the earth, that the fowls of the air may not pick it up: meditation is that which makes the Word full of life and energy to our soul. What is the reason that most men come to hear the Word, as the beasts did in Noahs ark: they came in unclean, and they went out unclean? The reason is, because they do not meditate on the truths they hear; it is but just like putting money into a bag with holes–presently it falls out. The truths they hear preached are put into shallow, neglected memories, and they do not draw them forth by meditation. It is for this reason, that hearing is so ineffectual. Hearing the Word merely is like indigestion, and when we meditate upon the Word, thats digestion: and this digestion of the Word by meditation produces warm affections, zealous resolutions, and holy actions; and therefore, if you desire to profit by hearing the word, meditate. (H. G.Salter.)
Comfort by meditation
Meditation, as it advances the graces of the soul, so the comfort of the soul. God conveys comfort to us in a rational way; and although He is able to rain manna in the wilderness, and to cast in comfort to our souls without any labour of ours, yet usually He dispenses comfort according to the standing rule. He that does not work shall not eat–he that does not labour in the duties of religion shall not taste thesweetness of religion. Now, meditation is the serious and active performance of the soul to which God has promised comfort. The promises of the gospel do not convey comfort to us as they are recorded in the Word merely, but as they are applied by meditation. The grapes, while they hang upon the vine, do not produce that wine which cheers the heart of man: but when they arc squeezed in the wine-press, then they yield forth their liquor, which is of such a cheering nature. So the promises which are in the Word barely, do not send forth that sovereign juice which cheers our hearts; but when we ponder them in our souls, and press them by meditation, then the promises convey the water of life to us. Meditation turns the promises into marrow (Psa 63:5-6); it conveys the strength of them to our souls. (H. G. Salter.)
Meditation nourishes the soul
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; and our best abundance of the heart must be slowly and in quietness prepared. The cattle, when they rest, are yet working to prepare from the grass that sweetest and moat wholesome of beverages–milk. So must we prepare the abundance of the heart. If the milk of our word is to flow from us nourishingly, we must turn the common things of life–the grass–by slow and quiet processes, into sweet wisdom. In retired, meditative hours, the digesting and secreting powers of the spirit act; and thus ourselves are nourished, and we store nourishment for others. (T. T. Lynch.)
Meditation must be experienced to be appreciated
The advantage of meditation is rather to be felt than read. He that can paint spikenard, or musk, or roses, in their proper colour, cannot with all his art draw their pleasant savour; that is beyond the skill of his pencil. (T. Swinnock.)
The Incarnation a subject for devout study
No one can absolve himself from the duty of spiritual thought. The words which I have chosen for a text presents the duty to us with almost startling force. The mother of the Lord had received that direct, personal, living revelation of the purpose and the working of God which none other could have; she had acknowledged in the familiar strain of the Magnificat the salvation which He had prepared through her for His people; she might well seem to have been lifted above the necessity of any later teaching; but when the simple shepherds told their story, a faint echo as we might think of what she knew, she kept all these things, &c., if haply they might show a little more of the great mystery of which she was the minister: she kept them waiting and learning during that long thirty years of silence, waiting and learning during that brief time of open labour, from the first words at the marriage feast to the last words from the cross. And shall we, with our restless, distracted lives, with our feeble and imperfect grasp on Truth, be contented to repeat with indolent assent a traditional confession? Can we suppose that the highest knowledge and the highest know ledge alone is to be gained without effort, without preparation, without discipline, and by a simple act of memory? Is it credible that the law of our nature, which adds capacity to experience and joy to quest, is suddenly suspended when we reach the loftiest field of mans activity?
1. The SPIRIT of our study of the Incarnation must be love illuminated by faith, attested by the heart.
2. It follows that the AIM of our study will be vital and not merely intellectual.
3. If we have felt one touch of the spirit which should animate our contemplation of Christ Born, Crucified, Ascended, for us: if we have realized one fragment of the end to which our work is directed, we shall know what the BLESSING IS. know what it is to see with faint and trembling eyes depth below depth opening in the poor and dull surface of the earth; to see flashes of great hope shoot across the weary trivialities of business and pleasure; to see active about us, in the face of every scheme of selfish ambition, powers of the age to come; to see over all the inequalities of the world, its terrible contrasts, its desolating crimes, its pride, its lust, its cruelty, one over-arching sign of Gods purpose of redemption, broad as the sky and bright as the sunshine; to see in the gospel a revelation of love powerful enough to give a foretaste of the unity of creation, powerful hereafter to realize it. To us also the Christ has been given. To us also the message of the angels has been made known. To us also the sign of the Saviour has been fulfilled. Happy are we–then only happy–if we keep all these things and ponder them in our hearts. (Canon Westcott.)
The profoundest mystery yet is the origin of child-life
It is an unexplored history. The sublimest results often are in the child, and yet not a step can we trace with definiteness backward to know the cause of which this is the little effect. The future beams with revelations in its behalf; but of the particles which go to make it up who can guess? Who knows anything about it? The great Sphinx–standing alone in Egypt half-buried in the sand–what mind conceived that? what hand carved it? what has it to say for itself? or who shall speak for it? Yet every cradle has a sphinx more unreadable and mysterious than the old Sphinx of the desert. It is chiefly this future over which parents brood. A mothers heart is a miracle. She sees what is not there. She creates what she sees and recreates it when a breath blows it all away. She loves what has no lovable quality. The child is a mere prophecy. These feet shall yet walk, but not now. These eyes shall beam, but now they sleep. These hands shall work, or caress, or carve, or carry the sword, but they are helpless now. She kept all these things and pondered them in her heart is true of every Mary, and of every other name by which the mother is known. She ponders the miracle of the babe, and is herself another miracle creating the life which is to come, and which is purely the myth of her imagination. The things spoken by the angels and the shepherds of the Messiah, the mother of Jesus pondered, and every mother is a Mary, and ponders the little traveller knocking at the door of life or sleeping in the hospitable cradle. The unwritten poetry of a mothers heart would give to the world a literature beyond all printed words. (H. F.Beecher.)
THE VIRGIN MARY TO THE CHILD JESUS,
Sleep, sleep, mine Holy One!
My flesh, my Lord I what name?
I do not know A name that seemeth not too high or low,
Too far from me or heaven.
My Jesus, that is best I that word being given
By the majestic angel whose command
Was softly as a mans beseeching said,
When I and all the earth appeared to stand
In the great overflow.
A light celestial from his wings and head
Sleep, sleep, my saving One.
The slumber of His lips meseems to run
Through my lips to mine heart.
And then the drear sharp tongue of prophecy
With the dread sense of things which shall be done,
Doth smite me inly, like a sword.
(Mrs. E. B. Browning.)
THE MOTHER MARY.
Mary, to thee the heart was given,
For infant hands to hold,
Thus clasping, an eternal heaven,
The great earth in its fold.
He came, all helpless, to thy power,
For warmth, and love, and birth;
In thy embraces, every hour
He grew into the earth.
And thine the grief, O mother high,
Which all thy sisters share,
Who keep the gate betwixt the sky
And this our lower air.
And unshared sorrows, gathering slow;
New thoughts within thy heart,
Which through thee like a sword will go,
And make thee mourn apart.
For, if a woman bore a son
That was of angel-brood,
Who lifted wings ere day was done,
And soared from where he stood;
Strange grief would fill each mother-moan,
Wild longing, dim and sore;
My child! my child I He is my own,
And yet is mine no more.
So thou, O Mary, years on years,
From child-birth to the cross,
Wast filled with yearnings, filled with fears,
Keen sense of love and loss.
(G. MacDonald.)
Missings of mother
I think that the most wonderful book that could be written would be a book in which an angel should write all the thoughts that pass through a faithful mothers mind from the time that she first hears the cry of her child, and knows that it is born into the world, and rejoices in the midst of her griefs; from the moment of her absorption, or annihilation, pouring herself into the child. Her wonderful gladness of fatigue; her unwillingness to divide her care with any; her heroic sacrifice of all that is brightest and best in life, with no prospect of remuneration except the satisfaction which she feels in serving that little mute and helpless child–these are past description. (H. W. Beecher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. And pondered them in her heart.] , Weighing them in her heart. Weighing is an English translation of our word pondering, from the Latin ponderare. Every circumstance relative to her son’s birth, Mary treasured up in her memory; and every new circumstance she weighed, or compared with those which had already taken place, in order to acquire the fullest information concerning the nature and mission of her son.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The different effect of these things upon the generality of the people, upon Mary, and upon the shepherds, is worthy of our notice. The people only wondered, thinking the story of the shepherds a strange story. Mary suffereth them not to pass out of her thoughts, nor entertains them with a mere passion, which suddenly is extinguished; but she pondereth them in her heart, both those things she had learned from her husband, and what herself had heard from the angel, and this also, which was related to her of or by the shepherds. The shepherds return, that is, to the care of their flocks. Religion gives none a discharge from their secular duties: the disciples had a special call and command, that left their nets, and their parents, and followed Christ. The shepherds were only made occasional preachers, pro hac vice; they return, but
glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them; which argued that they gave a firm and full assent to them, and that they were the first fruits of believers under the gospel dispensation. True faith produces great joy and thanksgiving to God, and needs must produce joy, because of the union it maketh betwixt a soul and its desired object.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But Mary kept all these things,…. Which the shepherds had related to her:
and pondered [them] in her heart; or compared them in her mind, with what had been said to herself by the angel, and also by her husband, as well as what was said by Elisabeth at the time she made her a visit; but she said nothing of them to others, lest she should be thought an enthusiast, or a vain boaster; and therefore left things, till time should make a discovery of them in a proper way, and in the best season.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Kept (). Imperfect active. She kept on keeping together (–) all these things. They were meat and drink to her. She was not astonished, but filled with holy awe. The verb occurs from Aristotle on. She could not forget. But did not Mary keep also a Baby Book? And may not Luke have seen it?
Pondering (). An old Greek word. Placing together for comparison. Mary would go over each detail in the words of Gabriel and of the shepherds and compare the sayings with the facts so far developed and brood over it all with a mother’s high hopes and joy.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Kept [] . See on the simple verb threw, on 1Pe 1:4. The word signifies not merely to guard, but to keep, as the result of guarding. Hence the compound verb is very expressive : kept, sun, with or within herself : closely. Note the imperfect tense : was keeping all the while. Pondered [] . The present participle, pondering. Lit., bringing together : comparing and weighing facts. Wyc., bearing together in her heart. Vulg., conferens. Compare Sophocles, “Oedipus Coloneus,” 1472 – 4.
” OEDIPUS My children, the heaven ordained end of life has come upon him who stands here, and there is no avoiding it.
“ANTIGONE. How dost thou know, and with what (fact) having compared [] thine opinion hast thou this?”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1)“But Mary kept all these things,” (he de Maria panta suneterei ta hermata tauta) “Then Mary kept or guarded all these sayings,” these angelic words brought by the shepherds, in her memory, as mysteries of godliness, 1Ti 3:16.
2) “And pondered them in her heart.” (sumballousa en te kardia autes) “Pondering or seriously considering them in her heart,” compared with other things that had accumulatively happened regarding this child of hers, Jesus Christ: 1) Of Gabriel’s visit to tell her of His Holy Spirit conception, 2) Of Elizabeth’s rejoicing upon hearing the word, 3) Of Joseph’s near divorcing her when she returned to Nazareth, from a three month’s visit with Elizabeth, visibly heavy with child, and 4) Of her disappointment when turned from the inn that night to give birth to her Son in a stable, and lay him in the manger.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. Now Mary kept Mary’s diligence in contemplating the works of God is laid before us for two reasons; first, to inform us, that this treasure was laid up in her heart, for the purpose of being published to others at the proper time; and, secondly, to afford to all the godly an example for imitation. For, if we are wise, it will be the chief employment, and the great object of our life, to consider with attention those works of God which build up our faith. Mary kept all these things This relates to her memory. Συμβάλλειν signifies to throw together, — to collect the several events which agreed in proving the glory of Christ, so that they might form one body. For Mary could not wisely estimate the collective value of all those occurrences, except by comparing them with each other.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) Mary kept all these things.On the assumption that the whole narrative is traceable to the Virgin herself as its first author, these brief and simple touches as to her own feelings are of singular interest. She could not as yet understand all that had been said and done, but she received it in faith, and waited till it should be made clear. It was enough for her to know that her Child was, in some sense, the Son of God and the hope of Israel. The contrast between the simplicity and purity of St. Lukes narrative, and the fantastic and often prurient details of the Apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy is every way suggestive.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. Kept all these things The whole train of events; miraculous birth of John, the annunciation of the angel to herself, the visits of the shepherds and of the Magi.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.’
And Mary, to whom the shepherds would have explained everything, kept what they had said, along with what the angel had said to her earlier, and everything else that she heard about those days, and pondered on them regularly in her heart. She no doubt explained this to Luke when she was telling him about these wonderful events. It was inevitable that it would be so. They were not things easily forgotten. It was not until she got older and ‘more sensible’ that she tried to but a brake on Jesus’ ministry (Mar 3:21; Mar 3:31-35). For, godly woman though she was, like us she was only human.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 2:19. But Mary, &c. But Mary observed all those sayings, perceiving their meaning in her own mind. Elsner. Mary was greatly affected with, and thought upon the shepherd’s words; the sense of which she was enabled to enter into, by what had been revealed to herself. She said nothing, however; being more disposed to think than to speak; which was an excellent instance of modesty and humility in so great a conjuncture.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 2:19 f. ] leading over to the special thing, which Mary amidst this general amazement did she, who, in accordance with the revelations made to her, was more deeply struck with the tidings of the shepherds, and saw matters in a deeper light. She kept all these utterances ( ) of the shepherds. Observe in the narrative the emphasis of , as well as the purposely chosen adumbrative tense (previously the aorist). On , alta mente repositum servare , comp. Dan 7:28 ; Sir 13:12 ; Sir 39:2 ; Sir 28:3 .
. . .] The Vulgate well renders: conferens , inasmuch as she put them together, i.e. in silent heart-pondering she compared and interpreted them to herself. Comp. Plat. Crat. p. 348 A: , p. 412 C; Soph. Oed. C. 1472; Pind. Nem. xi. 43; Eur. Or. 1394.
.] to their flocks, Luk 2:8 .
] Glorifying and giving approval. The latter is more special than the former.
. . .] over all things, which they had just heard and seen in Bethlehem after such manner as was spoken to them by the angel at Luk 2:10-12 .
REMARK.
To make of these angelic appearances a natural (phosphoric) phenomenon , which had first been single and then had divided itself and moved to and fro, and which the shepherds, to whom was known Mary’s hope of bringing forth the Messiah, interpreted to themselves of this birth (Paulus; comp. Ammon, L. J. I. p. 203, who likewise assumes a meteor), is a pecided and unworthy offence against the contents and purpose of the narrative, which is to be left in its charming, thoughtful, and lofty simplicity as the most distinguished portion of the cycle of legend, which surrounded the birth and the early life of Jesus. The truth of the history of the shepherds and the angels lies in the sphere of the idea, not in that of historical reality, although Luke narrates it as a real event. Regarded as reality, the history loses its truth, as a premiss, with which the notorious subsequent want of knowledge and non -recognition of Jesus as the Messiah, as well as the absolute silence of evangelic preaching as to this heavenly evangelium , do not accord as a sequel, apart from the fact, that it is not at all consistent with Matthew’s narrative of the Magi and of the slaying of the children, which is to be explained from the circumstance that various wreaths of legend, altogether independent one of another, wove themselves around the divine child in His lowliness. [52] The contrast of the lowliness of Jesus and of His divine glory, which pervade His entire history on earth until His exaltation (Phi 2:6 ff.), is the great truth, to which here, immediately upon the birth, is given the most eminent and most exhaustive expression by the living and creative poetry of faith, in which with thoughtful aptness members of the lowly and yet patriarchally consecrated class of shepherds receive the first heavenly revelation of the Gospel outside the family circle, and so the (Luk 7:22 ) is already even now realized.
[52] In opposition to Schleiermacher, who in the case of our passage lays stress, in opposition to the mythical view, on the absence of lyrical poetry, failing to see that precisely the most exalted and purest poetry is found in the contents of our passage with all its simplicity of presentation; see the appropriate remarks of Strauss, I. p. 245. Lange, L. J. II. p. 103, in his own manner transfers the appearances to the souls of the shepherds, which were of such elevated and supramundane mood that they could discern the joy of an angelic host; and holds that the appearance of the angel and the glory of the Lord, ver. 9, point to a vision of the Angel of the Covenant.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
Ver. 19. Mary kept all these things ] Her soul was a holy ark; her memory like the pot of manna, preserving holy truths and remarkable occurrences.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
19. ] ., in her memory .
. may have its literal sense, words: viz. those spoken by the shepherds: or its Hebraistic, as above, Luk 2:15 , which is more probable all these things now spoken of.
., revolving them comparing one with another.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
kept = kept within herself.
and pondered = pondering; i.e. weighing them. Compare Gen 87:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
19.] ., in her memory.
. may have its literal sense, words: viz. those spoken by the shepherds:-or its Hebraistic, as above, Luk 2:15, which is more probable-all these things now spoken of.
., revolving them-comparing one with another.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 2:19. , was keeping up) So Luk 2:51. She may have borne her testimony to the facts a long while after: Act 1:14.-[, these) Without doubt the shepherds reported the angels words to Mary also.-V. g.]-, comparing [pondering] them) considering the several parts in their mutual relation.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Luk 2:51, Luk 1:66, Luk 9:43, Luk 9:44, Gen 37:11, 1Sa 21:12, Pro 4:4, Hos 14:9
Reciprocal: Gen 24:21 – wondering at Job 22:22 – lay up Psa 119:11 – Thy word Pro 2:1 – hide Pro 24:32 – considered it Dan 7:28 – but Luk 1:29 – and cast
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9
To ponder means to think or meditate, wondering over the great happiness that had been poured down upon her.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 2:19. But Mary. Still in the foreground.
Kept all these sayings. She kept, or more exactly, she was keeping, continued to keep, in her memory, all these sayings, i.e. all these things now spoken of.
Pondering them in her heart. Revolving, comparing, reflecting upon them in the quietude of her heart. She possessed the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit (1Pe 3:4). This accurate detail favors the view that the account was derived, at least indirectly, from her. Evidently she had not a full understanding of the matter.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
In contrast to the shepherds’ public proclamation, Mary meditated on the significance of these events (cf. Luk 2:19; Luk 2:51; Gen 37:11). The shepherds returned to their flocks glorifying God (cf. Luk 2:13-14; Luk 10:17). Luke also stressed praising God as the appropriate response to God’s mighty works (cf. Luk 5:25-26; Luk 7:16; Luk 13:13; Luk 17:15; Luk 18:43; Luk 23:47).