45 And blessed is she who believed,
45 And blessed is she who believed,
Because there will be a fulfilment of the words
Spoken to her by the Lord.70
39, 40. At this time Mary hurried away to a town in the hill country of Judah, where she entered the home of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. Undoubtedly Mary’s decision to visit this dear older relative (see on verse 36) and to do this without delay was prompted by Gabriel’s message regarding herself (verses 28–35) and regarding Elizabeth (verses 36, 37); yes, and also by the fact that even in her (Mary’s) own case the predictions were already beginning to be fulfilled.
So she hurries to that part of the South Palestinian region which originally had been allotted to the tribe of the patriarch Judah.71 The main city in this hilly country was Hebron. Neither here nor in verse 23 does the evangelist mention the name of the town where Zechariah and Elizabeth were living.
Having entered the home, Mary greets Elizabeth. What kind of greeting was this? There are those who believe that it was a very comprehensive salutation. They believe that Mary, having received from the angel Gabriel the announcement regarding the coming of the Messiah and of her own involvement in that coming (see especially verses 30–33, 35, 37), now in turn is passing on to Elizabeth this joy-imparting Messianic greeting.72 In favor of this theory one might argue that it would have been natural for Mary to wish to impart to a dear relative of her own sex the tremendously important announcement she had received, one which was already beginning to be translated into historical reality, for Mary was already pregnant (see verses 42, 43). Besides, this theory as to the nature of the greeting addressed to Elizabeth would explain much that is otherwise mysterious; for example, that Elizabeth immediately calls Mary the most blessed woman in the world, and that she identifies the fruit of Mary’s womb as the Messiah.
Nevertheless, the theory may be open to the objection that thus a broader meaning is assigned to the term greeting (between friends and relatives) than it generally carries. Besides, if any explanation must be given to the mystery of Elizabeth’s exclamation (see especially verses 42, 43), does not Luke supply it in stating that she was “filled with the Holy Spirit”?
Having therefore paid to this theory the respect which it certainly deserves, but hesitating to endorse it, we will probably have to accept the more usual interpretation, namely, that the greeting to which reference is here made consisted of a warm embrace accompanied by a few genuinely loving words.
41. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped within her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit … At this stage of Elizabeth’s pregnancy—note the expression the sixth month in verse 36—a (“quickening”) movement of the fetus would generally not have been considered unusual. In this particular case, however, Elizabeth, illumined by the Holy Spirit, interpreted this action as an expression of the joy experienced by the unborn child. See on verse 44.
Continued: 42. and in a loud voice cried out … What Elizabeth loudly proclaimed is printed on p. 93. Note that it is there reproduced in the form of a poem. Indeed, it can truthfully be regarded as a Greek reproduction of a Semitic piece of poetry. The parallelistic structure of the lines, so characteristic of Hebrew and Aramaic poetry, the balanced form and contents of the neatly arranged clauses—note, for example:
Blessed are …
And blessed is …
And blessed is …
mark them as being indeed a poem; or, if one prefers, a song, Elizabeth’s Song. “Song” here means metrical composition. See p. 155.
This, then, is the first of five pieces of poetic literature centered about the nativity theme. In all five God is the object of adoration (1:43, 46–55, 68–73, 78, 79; 2:14, 30–32). This sentiment is at times accompanied by an expression of astonishment. The spirit of humiliation before such a great and wonderful Lord is also frequently in evidence (1:43, 48, 52, 77–79; 2:29).