to current Jewish messianism, but because he understands their fulfilment to be one which significantly reinterprets them. —The only indication in Luke 1–2 that the Messiah’s way to his kingdom would be through rejection and death comes in Simeon’s prophecy given to Mary (2:34–35). This passage has an enigmatic character which marks it, not as part of the widespread messianic expectation of Second Temple Judaism which Luke 1–2 otherwise expresses, but as a hint of the unexpected which the rest of