The scene occupies a few verses of the Gospel of Luke. Joseph and Mary bring the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfil the law, and there they meet Simeon, a righteous and devout man to whom the Holy Spirit had revealed that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Taking the child in his arms, he blesses God in the words the church calls by their Latin opening, Nunc dimittis, now you dismiss your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.
The canticle is the third of the songs Luke sets in his infancy narrative, after Mary's Magnificat and Zechariah's Benedictus, and it is the shortest and most personal of the three, an old man's release. Its theology runs deeper than its brevity, salvation seen in a child a few weeks old, and seen for everyone, gentile and Jew in one clause. Simeon then turns to Mary with the darker prophecy that a sword will pierce her own soul, so the gentlest of the canticles stands beside the first shadow of the passion, contentment and cost in the same meeting. Eastern Christian tradition venerates Simeon as Theodochos, the God receiver, and keeps his memory on the day after the feast of the presentation, honouring the arms that held the promise fulfilled.