Luke 2:22

Certain scholars have claimed that Luke made a mistake when he spoke of the purification of "them" (αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῶν) in accordance with the Law of Moses (Luke 2:22). Should one conclude that Luke the doctor-cum-historian was mistaken in speaking of the need for "them" to be purified rather than "her" (i.e., Mary, the mother of Jesus)?

The KJV translates this portion of the verse with "her purification" rather than alluding to the purification of "them." The interpretive or textual problem is that we know of only one Greek MS which reads αὐτῇ as opposed to αὐτῶν (a twelfth-century text). This change was probably made because of the supposed difficulties with the Lukan account, but the textual evidence dating from the fourth century onwards is that the αὐτῶν is the preferred reading. Yet, the Law of Moses only prescribed that the mother of a male child needed to make purification for herself (Leviticus 12:1-8). How then, can one account for Luke's wording of this account?

Ralph Earle offers three possible explanations for the use of αὐτῶν:

(1) The pronoun could refer to Joseph and Mary; (2) it could reference the Jews (i.e. "Jewish" purification); (3) Luke may have "run together the cleansing of the mother and the offering of the child" (Word Meanings in the NT, 55).

Rogers and Rogers New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek NT suggests that the genitive plural AUTWN possibly refers to Mary and Joseph (indicating family solidarity) "or it may refer to the purification of Mary and to the redemption of the
firstborn" (112).

I. Howard Marshall writes (after examining different factors): "It is most likely that Luke has run together the cleansing of the mother and the offering of the child . . ." into one act" (see The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text).