Luke 2 read as one of the signs a man passes through, and named from its own etymology. The word Simeon means to hear intelligently; to hear with understanding — which is why Neville brings Nehemiah 8:8 in beside it (they read it clearly so that those who heard understood what was read) and why the figure is a hearer before he is a seer. At 1233 he uses Simon as another form of the same name, citing Strong’s concordance. The scene is taken in three fixed moves. The promise: you shall not see death until you see the Lord’s Christ. The temple: moved by the Holy Spirit he is taken into the temple, which is at once corrected — you are not taken into any temple where men made it with their hands; you’re taken to the temple of your own being. The pronouncement: he lifts the child in his hands, declares that this child shall be a sign that is spoken against, for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and then asks to go — now, O Lord, let your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen the Lord’s salvation. The death asked for is not the body’s. He’s now going to die to the wheel of recurrence — which is why Paul’s departure and Job’s now my eye sees thee are quoted in the same breath, and why the whole figure resolves into the hearer himself: when it comes to the end of this little time, you are Simeon, the one who heard. That reversal is the motif’s real content — it never occurs to anyone that he’s reading about himself. 1053 adds the sign clause and turns it on the audience: you may this night deny it, for this child shall be a sign that is going to be disputed. Some will reject it and some will accept it. COUNT: mine and provisional — fourteen lectures carry the name (41, 1053, 1176, 1188, 1210, 1237, 1314, 1324, 1408, 1426, 1515, 1923, 1967, 2009) and the depart-in-peace scene appears without it at 1226, 1233 and 1298. 1314 is the fullest parallel telling; 1237 sets it against Jacob at Genesis 46 (now that I have seen your face, let me die).