24th December 2023
Luke 1: 26-38
1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
1:29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
1:30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
1:31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.
1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.
1:33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
1:34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
1:35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.
1:36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.
1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
1:38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
[26]᾿Εν δὲ τῷ μηνὶ τῷ ἕκτῳ ἀπεστάλη ὁ ἄγγελος Γαβριὴλ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς πόλιν τῆς Γαλιλαίας, ᾗ ὄνομα Ναζαρέτ,
[27]πρὸς παρθένον μεμνηστευμένην ἀνδρί, ᾧ ὄνομα ᾿Ιωσήφ, ἐξ οἴκου Δαυΐδ, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς παρθένου Μαριάμ.
[28]καὶ εἰσελθὼν ὁ ἄγγελος πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπε· χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη· ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ· εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν.
[29]ἡ δὲ ἰδοῦσα διεταράχθη ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ διελογίζετο ποταπὸς εἴη ὁ ἀσπασμὸς οὗτος.
[30]καὶ εἶπεν ὁ ἄγγελος αὐτῇ· μὴ φοβοῦ, Μαριάμ· εὗρες γὰρ χάριν παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ.
[31]καὶ ἰδοὺ συλλήψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ καὶ τέξῃ υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦν.
[32]οὗτος ἔσται μέγας καὶ υἱὸς ὑψίστου κληθήσεται, καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τὸν θρόνον Δαυῒδ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ,
[33]καὶ βασιλεύσει ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον ᾿Ιακὼβ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, καὶ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔσται τέλος.
[34]εἶπε δὲ Μαριὰμ πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον· πῶς ἔσται μοι τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω;
[35]καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ ἄγγελος εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Πνεῦμα ῞Αγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι· διὸ καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον κληθήσεται υἱὸς Θεοῦ.
[36]καὶ ἰδοὺ ᾿Ελισάβετ ἡ συγγενής σου καὶ αὐτὴ συνειληφυῖα υἱὸν ἐν γήρει αὐτῆς, καὶ οὗτος μὴν ἕκτος ἐστὶν αὐτῇ τῇ καλουμένῃ στείρᾳ·
[37]ὅτι οὐκ ἀδυνατήσει παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ πᾶν ῥῆμα.
[38]εἶπε δὲ Μαριάμ· ἰδοὺ ἡ δούλη Κυρίου· γένοιτό μοι κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου. καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς ὁ ἄγγελος.
Comments
The salutation in v. 28 may recall a nuptial greeting in ancient Greek. Mariam, confused, still has the presence of mind to ponder, to weigh in her mind (v. 29, διελογίζετο) the extraordinary greeting.
[26] ἀπεστάλη ὁ ἄγγελος Γαβριὴλ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ: ‘ the angelos Gabriel was sent forth by God’. ἄγγελος is a good example of semantic shift across time and religions. Already in Homer and in cl. Gk the noun means ‘messenger, envoy’. By the time of the LXX it means ‘angel’.
[28] χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη: χαῖρε, the 2nd pers. sg. present imper. οf χαίρω, ‘I rejoice, am glad’; the imper. occurs already in Homer as a colloquial salutation implying the wish to be well. The earliest greetings in Greek are χαῖρε and the inf. as imper. χαίρειν. χαῖρε in particular can mean ‘Hello!’ or ‘Farewell’. χαῖρε and the opt. χαίροις (‘may you rejoice!’) can be addressed to someone present in person or, if a deity, in a statue. (Later these locutions found their way into epistolography.) This auspicious greeting addressed to the bride, the bridegroom or the pair was standard in ancient wedding-song.[1] Cf. ἀσπασμὸς, ‘greeting’ in v. 29 below.
κεχαριτωμένη, pass. part. < χαριτῶ (όω), ‘I bestow grace or favour upon’ (EDNT, sv., p. 461). The part. amounts to ‘upon whom favour has been bestowed’, ‘favoured one’. Χαίρω & χαριτῶ αre etymologically related. The combination χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη creates assonance. ‘Grace, favour’ will be repeated in v. 30, εὗρες γὰρ χάριν παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ.
[29] διεταράχθη ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ διελογίζετο ποταπὸς εἴη ὁ ἀσπασμὸς οὗτος: διεταράχθη, 3rd pers. sg. aor. < διαταράσσω, ‘I throw into confusion’, cl. Gk; the pass. also occurs in cl. Gk.
διελογίζετο < διαλογίζομαι, mid. voice, ‘ I consider, reflect upon’ (cl. Gk: LSJ). The λογ- component of the vb implies reckoning, measuring up, a rational mental process. The Virgin is exercising critical thinking. Some have detected in this instance of διελογίζετο ‘a faint doubt’ (EDNT s.v. διαλογίζομαι, p. 308). The verse shows St Luke to be focussing omnisciently into the Virgin’s thinking and emotions. ‘She was thrown into confusion by his statement, and she considered of what kind this (οὗτος)greeting was.’ Mary’s thinking– ‘What kind of greeting is this?’—obtrudes itself on the indirect discourse introduced by the vb ‘considered’.
[30] μὴ φοβοῦ, Μαριάμ: φοβοῦμαι, whence the 2nd pers. sg. pres. imper. φοβοῦ, is an interesting vb. In Homer the pass. and middle voice = ‘I am put to flight, routed’; in cl. Gk the same voices = ‘I am frightened’, as here. One is tempted to imagine Mariam ready to flee out of fear.
[33] οὐκ ἔσται τέλος: tellingly the last word of the prediction in the verse is τέλος, ‘end’.
[35] ἐπισκιάσει σοι: ἐπισκιάζω (< σκιά, ‘shadow’, ‘shade’), ‘cast a shadow upon, overshadow’.
[38] καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς ὁ ἄγγελος: the pericope ends with the departure (ἀπῆλθεν) of the angel just as it opened with his arrival in v. 26.
[1] J. C. B. Petropoulos, Eroticism in ancient and medieval Greek poetry, London, 2003, 29-30.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 