B. The birth of Jesus foretold (1:26–38)
B. The birth of Jesus foretold (1:26–38)
The virgin birth is a distinctive Christian doctrine. There is no Jewish parallel, but attention is sometimes drawn to birth stories among Greek legends. The suggestion is made that Christian apologists produced the story in a spirit of ‘Anything they can do we can do better!’ But none of the parallels adduced is really relevant. They usually tell of a divine person having sexual intercourse with a human (usually a god with a woman). A truly virgin birth is unique. Marshall emphasizes the Jewish character of the narrative; it is unlikely to derive from pagan sources. Ellis notes that the subject is absent from the writers to the Hellenistic church, such as Paul and Mark. He thinks it is a Palestinian tradition which was publicly avoided by Christians ‘to prevent Jewish offence and “Greek” misunderstanding of Jesus and his messiahship’. Some commentators hold that Luke is here combining sources, some of which do not speak of the birth as from a virgin, and use this to throw doubt on the whole idea. But it is precarious to reason from what may have been the content of a hypothetical source. The evidence of the Gospel as we have it is plain.
26–27. The sixth month will refer to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Luke tells us first of the city to which Gabriel was sent and then of the maiden in that city to whom he came. Nazareth is called a city, perhaps because Greek has no word for a ‘town’ and the alternative is ‘village’. We should not think of a bustling metropolis. Mary was betrothed, a state much more binding among the Jews of that day than is an engagement with us. It was a solemn undertaking to marry, so that divorce was necessary to break it.
28–29. Gabriel greeted Mary as favoured one, but even the addition, the Lord is with you! does not make it clear in what the favour consisted. Nor is it quite clear what caused Mary to be greatly troubled. We might understand fear at the sight of an angel (as with Zechariah), but her distress is linked with the saying. Evidently in her modesty she did not understand why a heavenly visitant should greet her in such exalted terms.
30–31. Gabriel reassures her, as he had done with Zechariah (13). He tells Mary not to be afraid, for she has found favour with God. It is, of course, a complete misunderstanding to translate ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’, and understand the words to mean that Mary would be a source of grace to other people. Gabriel is saying simply that God’s favour rests on her. He goes on to explain that she will conceive and bear a son (cf. Isa. 7:14). As with John earlier, the angel names the child: you shall call his name Jesus ( = Heb. Joshua = ‘The Lord is salvation’).
32–33. Gabriel proceeds to say that Jesus will be great, a word he had applied to John (15), but now uses with a fuller meaning, for Jesus will be called the Son of the Most High. This sets him apart from all others and makes him Son of God in a special sense. Gabriel goes on to speak of him as the recipient of the throne of his father David. The Messiah was expected to be of David’s line (cf. 2 Sam. 7:12ff.; Ps. 89:29) and it is clearly this that is in mind. It is further brought out in the reference to his kingdom as never-ending. In current Messianic speculations the Messianic kingdom was often seen as of limited duration. It was God’s final kingdom that would have no end and it is this kingdom to which Jesus is now related. It is not a temporal kingdom, an earthly realm, but God’s kingly rule. In due time Jesus would make this clear.
34. Where Zechariah had been disbelieving, Mary was puzzled, though why is not immediately obvious. She was soon to be married, so there seems no insuperable difficulty in the thought of her bearing a son. Some exegetes hold that the question implies that Mary had made a vow to remain a virgin perpetually. But (a) this reads something into the text (and into other passages also, for we read of brothers of Jesus), and (b) there seems no reason for her to get married if she planned to remain a virgin. The solution of the difficulty rather is that Mary understood Gabriel to mean that she would bear a child without the intervention of a man, perhaps even that conception would be immediate.
35. Speaking with reverent reserve Gabriel says that the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary and that the power of the Most High will overshadow her. This delicate expression rules out crude ideas of a ‘mating’ of the Holy Spirit with Mary. Gabriel makes it clear that the conception will be the result of a divine activity. Because of this the child to be born would be holy, the Son of God. We should not miss this explanation of what the Son of God means.
36–37. Evidently Mary had not heard of Elizabeth’s experience. Gabriel now informs her that it is the sixth month of her pregnancy. Mary will see that with God nothing will be impossible (cf. Gen. 18:14). She must be encouraged by Elizabeth’s experience. Some have concluded from the fact that Elizabeth is Mary’s kinswoman that Mary must have been of the family of Aaron, as Elizabeth was (5). They conclude that, if we accept the virgin birth, Jesus was not descended from David, but this is to go too far too fast. All the conditions are satisfied if one of Mary’s parents was of David’s family and the other of Aaron’s. The reference to Jesus as descended from David (32), made when Joseph’s reaction was as yet undetermined, shows that Mary must have been able to claim Davidic descent.
38. Mary’s response is one of quiet submission. Handmaid (doulē) means ‘slave-girl’; it expresses complete obedience. The slavegirl could not but do the will of her Master. This is reinforced with let it be to me according to your word. We are apt to take this as the most natural thing and accordingly we miss Mary’s quiet heroism. She was not yet married to Joseph. His reaction to her pregnancy might have been expected to be a strong one and Matthew tells us that he did in fact think of divorcing her (Matt. 1:19). Again, while the death penalty for adultery (Deut. 22:23f.) does not seem to have been carried out often, it was still there. Mary could not be sure that she would not have to suffer, perhaps even die. But she recognized the will of God and accepted it.