Luke 2:26

It had been revealed unto him (hn autwi kecrhmatismenon). Periphrastic past perfect passive indicative. Common Greek verb. First to transact business from crhma and that from craomai, to use, make use of; then to do business with public officials, to give advice (judges, rulers, kings), then to get the advice of the Delphic and other oracles (Diodorus, Plutarch). The LXX and Josephus use it of God's commands. A Fayum papyrus of 257 B.C. has the substantive crhmastismo for a divine response (cf. Romans 11:4 ). See Deissmann, Light From the Ancient East, p. 153. Before (prin h). Classic Greek idiom after a negative to have subjunctive as here (only example in the N.T.) or the optative after past tense as in Acts 25:16 (subjunctive changed to optative in indirect discourse). Elsewhere in the N.T. the infinitive follows prin as in Matthew 1:18 .