The Annunciation
Luke then tells the story of Gabriel's visit to Mary, informing her that she will soon have a virgin conception by God. This is not found in Matthew 1:20, which has an unnamed angel appear to Joseph after having discovered Mary is pregnant. Gabriel goes to Nazareth and finds Mary, who Luke tells us is a virgin engaged to Joseph. The name Mary means excellence, while Joseph means "May Yahweh add." (Brown et al. 680)
Gabriel greets her with the word kecharitōmenē, meaning favored or graced, presumably by God. She does not seem to understand why she is favored, but Gabriel then tells her:
- Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end (30-33)
This seems to follow the same pattern as the announcement of John's birth and is also about fulfillment of God's promises. Jesus means "God Saves" (Brown et al. 680) She tells Gabriel she is a virgin but Gabriel says God will give her the child, and thus he will be the Son of God. He then points out how her relative Elizabeth, though old, is now carrying a child, and how "...nothing is impossible with God." 37, then he leaves. Luke states Mary is a virgin, and that she is somehow descended from Aaron, but here says Jesus will inherit his "father"'s throne, or David's. In his Genealogy of Jesus in chapter 3 Aaron is not listed as an ancestor is his Davidic line, and so his descent from David seems to be, according to Luke, legal not biological.
In Daniel 9:24-27 Gabriel gives a prophecy about seventy weeks and the "Anointed One". If one adds the 180 days that Elizabeth was pregnant before Mary's conception plus the 270 days of Mary's pregnancy plus the forty days of "purification" in Luke 2:22, one gets 490 days, or seventy weeks. (Brown et al. 681) Many Christians have seen this as a fulfillment of prophecy, but skeptics tend to counter that Luke could be constructing his story to fit what he sees as fulfillments of prophecy, whether real or not. God's promise of a messiah from the house of David is in 2 Samuel 7
It is significant that Luke states that Mary lives in Nazareth, a small backwater town. He thus has God's grace bestowed on a young, unmarried woman living in an insignificant town. Luke frequently has favor shown on women, sinners, and various "unimportant" people. (Brown et al. 681)
Paul never mentions a virgin birth for Jesus, but in Romans 1:3-4 speaks of him as the Son of God by virtue of his resurrection, and states he had a more than human nature. Luke here has Jesus' divine nature declared from the first moment of his conception. (Brown et al. 680)
Read more about this topic: Luke 1