**As good Jews, Joseph and Mary did as the Law required and took their offering to the temple at the appointed time. However, they did not bring a year-old lamb.
Why?**
Because they were poor. And the presentation in the temple was at eight days, wasn’t it? Jesus was eight days old? The normal time for circumcision?
Yes, because they were poor — which was the point of my post.
(I was replying to an earlier poster who claimed that because the family was descended from royalty, they weren’t poor. Perhaps his comment was in jest?)
The circumcision would have been at eight days, but the appearance at the Temple for sacrifice was later. Two different events. Luke 2: 21-24 lays out the timeline:
“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’, and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons.’ “