N.B. We have decided to focus this week on the Luke text suggested for Advent 3B as an alternative to the psalm, Luke 1:44b-55 (Mary’s Magnificat). The usual Gospel text for Advent 3B, John 1:6-8, 19-28, focuses, as did the Advent 2B text (Mark 1:1-8), on John the Baptist. Online resources for John 1 abound. Mary’s song supports an Advent theme, already suggested last week, of God’s redemptive reordering of power through the life and ministry of Jesus.
Luke 1:46b-55
1:46b “My soul magnifies the Lord,
1:47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
1:48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
1:49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
1:50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
1:51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
1:52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
1:53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
1:55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
[46]Καὶ εἶπε Μαριάμ·
Μεγαλύνει ἡ ψυχή μου τὸν Κύριον
[47]
καὶ ἠγαλλίασε τὸ πνεῦμά μου
ἐπὶ τῷ Θεῷ τῷ σωτῆρί μου,
[48]
ὅτι ἐπέβλεψεν ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν
τῆς δούλης αὐτοῦ.
ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν μακαριοῦσίμε
πᾶσαι αἱ γενεαί·
[49]
ὅτι ἐποίησέ μοι μεγαλεῖα ὁ δυνατὸς
καὶ ἅγιον τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ,
[50]
καὶ τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ εἰς γενεὰς γενεῶν
τοῖς φοβουμένοις αὐτόν.
[51]
᾿Εποίησε κράτος ἐν βραχίονι αὐτοῦ,
διεσκόρπισεν ὑπερηφάνους διανοίᾳ καρδίας αὐτῶν·
[52]
καθεῖλε δυνάστας ἀπὸ θρόνων
καὶ ὕψωσε ταπεινούς,
[53]
πεινῶντας ἐνέπλησεν ἀγαθῶν
καὶ πλουτοῦντας ἐξαπέστειλε κενούς.
[54]
ἀντελάβετο ᾿Ισραὴλ παιδὸς αὐτοῦ
μνησθῆναι ἐλέους,
[55]
καθὼς ἐλάλησε πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν,
τῷ ᾿Αβραὰμ καὶ τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.
Comments
Mary’s first word, μεγαλύνει, sets a hymn in motion, or so someone familiar with ancient Greek hymns would say. Nearly all of the ensuing vbs are in the aorist tense, and explain why the Virgin extols the Lord. She does so for his past deeds, the most recent being her miraculous impregnation. The short, schematic narrative of God’s great deeds, though set in the past, is reassuring; in a Greek hymn it would establish a precedent that would be supplicatory and intended to persuade the god to repeat his or her deeds οr carry out analogous ones. The past vouches for the future in a Greek hymn. Here, however, the past tenses go well beyond the near future for, as Prof. Brown remarks, they gesture at eschatology. The reversals Mary cites can be paralleled by the ancient Greek commonplace, starting with Homer, that the gods bring about symmetrical reversals, albeit usually out of whim (see M. L. West, Hesiod, Works and Days, OUP, 1978, pp. 139-40 on vv. 5ff.). The structure and grammar of the Magnificat follows a key rhetorical strategy of ancient Greek ‘hymnography’. This makes great sense, since Luke is writing to/for a Greek official. Jewish motifs and Hellenic strategies closely intertwine in this text.
[46] Μεγαλύνει: μεγαλύνω, ‘I enlarge’, fig., ‘consider great, extol, magnify’; derived from the adj. μέγας, ‘large, great’. Cf. μεγαλεῖα, v. 49 below. The vb is freq. in LXX.
[47] ἠγαλλίασε: aor. of ἀγαλλιῶ (-άω), ‘Ι glory, exult in something’, a late form of ἀγάλλομαι (LSJ s.v.). Vbs ending in -ιῶ/ ιάω signify strong emotion (Muraoka s.v. αγαλλιάομαι). ἠγαλλίασε is an inceptive aor., which denotes entrance into a state or condition (Goodwin par. 1260). Ιt is the first of a series of the numerous vbs in the aor. that punctuate the pericope.
[48] τὴν ταπείνωσιν: ταπείνωσις, ἡ, ‘humility, lowliness’ (EDNT s.v.). The latter is here intended as Mary is referring to her lowly status as handmaiden or slave (δούλη) of the Lord (v.38). Cf. v. 52, ταπεινούς, ‘the humble, lowly’.
[49] ἐποίησέ μοι μεγαλεῖα: ‘he has made for me great things, marvels’. μοι is an ethical dat. or dat. of advantage. μεγαλεῖα (derived from μέγας, ‘great’) is a neut. pl. substantive, lit.,‘ great things’; in late Hell. Gk the pl. subst. = ‘marvels, amazing deeds’ (Montanari s.v. μεγαλεῖος, an adj.).
[51] ὑπερηφάνους διανοίᾳ καρδίας: ὑπερήφανος, an adj. used here as a subst., ‘overweening, arrogant’ (LSJ). ‘Overweening’ is a good tr. as its preverb over- is the equivalent of ὑπέρ- (‘above, over’). The phrase here means ‘arrogant, presumptuous in the thinking of their hearts’.
[52] καθεῖλε δυνάστας: καθεῖλε, 2nd aor. of καθαιρῶ (έω), ‘take down’, hence ‘remove’ (in Homer, cl. & later Gk). The preverb καθ- (κατ-) suggests downward and violent movement.
δυνάστας: acc. pl., δυνάστης, ‘lord, master, ruler’ (cl. Gk prose & poetry: LSJ), ‘dynast’ (as in Engl.). The noun is related to δυνατός, ‘mighty’; cf. v. 49, ὁ δυνατὸς, ‘the mighty one’. God is mightier than the mighty dynasts.
ὕψωσε ταπεινούς: ὕψωσε < ὑψῶ (όω), ‘Ι lift high, raise up’; fig., as here, ‘exalt’ (LXX & generally in koine). ὕψωσε is the antonymn of καθεῖλε, just as kings on their thrones are the opposite of the lowly (ταπεινούς).
[54] ἀντελάβετο ᾿Ισραὴλ παιδὸς αὐτοῦ: ἀντελάβετο, 2nd aor. ἀντιλαμβάνομαι, mid. voice, c. gen., ‘I come to the aid of’. This fig. meaning occurs in cl. Gk and in LXX & later. The lit. meaning, ‘I lay hold of’ may be operative here as well. God is imagined to be taking Israel by the hand to help him.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 