Luke 1:26-29

1. The appearance of the angel: Luke 1:26-29. From the temple the narrative transports us to the house of a young Israelitish woman. We leave the sphere of official station to enter into the seclusion of private life. Mary probably was in prayer. Her chamber is a sanctuary; such, henceforth, will be the true temple.

The date, the sixth month, refers to that given in Luke 1:24. It was the time when Elizabeth had just left her retirement; all that takes place in the visitation of Mary is in connection with this circumstance. The government ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, by God, or, as some Alex. read, ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, on the part of God, indicates a difference between this message and that in Luke 1:19. God interposes more directly; it is a question here of His own Son. The received reading ὑπο, by, seems to me for this reason more in accordance with the spirit of the context than the Alex. reading, which lays less emphasis on the divine origin of the message.

The most usual form of the name of the town in the documents is Nazareth: it is admitted here by Tischendorf in his eighth edition. He accords, however, some probability to the form Nazara, which is the reading of Luke 4:16 in the principal Alexandrians. In Luke 3:23, the MSS. only vary between Nazareth and Nazaret. Keim, in his History of Jesus, has decided for Nazara. He gives his reasons, i. p. 319 et seq.: 1. The derived adjectives Ναζωραῖος, Ναζαρηνός are most readily explained from this form. 2. The form Nazareth could easily come from Nazara, as Ramath from Rama (by the addition of the Aramean article). The forms Nazareth and Nazaret may also be explained as forms derived from that. 3. The phrase ἀπὸ Ναζάρων, in Eusebius, supposes the nominative Nazara. 4. It is the form preserved in the existing Arabic name en-Nezirah. Still it would be possible, even though the true name was Nazara, that Luke might have been accustomed to use the form Nazareth; Tischendorf thinks that this may be inferred from Acts 10:38, where א. B. C. D. E. read Nazareth.

The etymology of this name is probably ‡ ֵנצֶר, H5916 (whence the feminine form נצרת), a shoot or scion; this is the form used in the Talmud. The Fathers accordingly perceived in this name an allusion to the scion of David in the prophets. Burckhardt the traveller explains it more simply by the numerous shrubs which clothe the ground. Hitzig has proposed another etymology: נוצרה, the guardian, the name referring either to some pagan divinity, the protectress of the locality, as this scholar thinks, or, as Keim supposes, to the town itself, on account of its commanding the defile of the valley.

Nazareth, with a population at the present day of 3000 inhabitants, is about three days' journey north of Jerusalem, and about eight leagues west of Tiberias. It is only a short distance from Tabor. It is reached from the valley of Jezreel through a mountain gorge running from S. to N., and opening out into a pleasant basin of some twenty minutes in length by ten in width. A chain of hills shuts in the valley on its northern side. Nazareth occupies its lower slopes, and rises in smiling terraces above the valley. From the summit of the ridge which encloses this basin on the north there is a splendid view. This valley was in Israel just what Israel was in the midst of the earth a place at once secluded and open, a solitary retreat and a high post of observation, inviting meditation and at the same time affording opportunity for far-reaching views in all directions, consequently admirably adapted for an education of which God reserved to Himself the initiative, and which man could not touch without spoiling it.

The explanation, a town of Galilee, is evidently intended for Gentile readers; it is added by the translator to the Jewish document that lay before him.

Do the words, of the house of David, Luke 1:27, refer to Joseph or Mary? Grammatically, it appears to us that the form of the following sentence rather favours the former alternative. For if this clause applied, in the writer's mind, to Mary, he would have continued his narrative in this form: “and her name was...,” rather than in this: “and the young girl's name was...” But does it follow from this that Mary was not, in Luke's opinion, a descendant of David? By no means. Luke 1:32; Luke 1:69 have no sense unless the author regarded Mary herself as a daughter of this king. See Luke 3:23.

The term χαριτοῦν τινα, to make any one the object of one's favour, is applied to believers in general (Ephesians 1:6). There is no thought here of outward graces, as the translation full of grace would imply. The angel, having designated Mary by this expression as the special object of divine favour, justifies this address by the words which follow: The Lord with thee. Supply is, and not be; it is not a wish. The heavenly visitant speaks as one knowing how matters stood. The words, “Blessed art thou among women,” are not genuine; they are taken from Luke 1:42, where they are not wanting in any document.

The impression made on Mary, Luke 1:29, is not that of fear; it is a troubled feeling, very natural in a young girl who is suddenly made aware of the unexpected presence of a strange person. The T. R. indicates two causes of trouble: “And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying. ” By the omission of ἰδοῦσα, when she saw, the Alexs. leave only one remaining. But this very simplification casts suspicion on their reading. The two ancient Syriac and Latin translations here agree with the T. R. The meaning is, that trouble was joined to the surprise caused by the sight of the angel, as soon as his words had confirmed the reality of his presence. Ποταπός denotes properly the origin (ποῦ τὸ ἀπό). But this term applies also to the contents and value, as is the case here. What was the meaning the import of...Having thus prepared Mary, the angel proceeds with the message he has brought.