And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.
39. They returned to Galilee The departure to Egypt, I readily acknowledge, came between those events; and the fact mentioned by Luke, that they dwelt in their own city Nazareth, is later, in point of time, than the flight into Egypt, which Matthew relates, (Matthew 2:14.) But if there was no impropriety in one Evangelist leaving out what is related by another, there was nothing...
Christ needed honor from the godly to balance the offense of His lowly birth and silent presentation. Simeon, a man of singular piety and communion with God, was moved by the Holy Ghost to bear witness to the child, a testimony that should have opened the priests' eyes to their Saviour, had they not been willfully blind.
AI summary
Commenting on Luke 2:25-40
And the child grew,.... In body, in strength, and in stature; which shows that it was a true body Christ assumed, and like ours, which did not come to its maturity at once, but by degrees: and waxed strong in spirit, or in his soul; for as he had a true body, he had also a reasonable soul; the faculties of which were far from...