Prediction of the Birth of Jesus. Lk. alone gives this narrative. Three or four months before the birth of Elisabeth's child, Gabriel comes to Nazareth and announces to Mary, a virgin betrothed to one Joseph, a descendant of David, that she stands high in Yahweh's favour. After dispelling her fear he announces that she shall bear a son Jesus (= Joshua, saviour) who shall be called Son of the Most High (i.e. God), and fulfil the popular Messianic expectation. Mary displays some astonishment at the thought of bearing any child, and Gabriel gives further details. The Holy Spirit, the power of God, is to beget the child, and (mg.) the holy thing which is to be born shall be called the Son of God; the term is here used in the ordinary sense, not Messianic as in Luke 1:32. The angel tells Mary about Elisabeth her kinswoman, and says that nothing is impossible with God. Mary accepts her destiny, and the angel departs.
Luke 1:34 f. Many scholars regard these verses as an interpolation, either by Lk. into his source, or by a later editor into Lk. There is no MS. evidence to support this suggestion, though one Old Latin text (b) substitutes Luke 1:38 for Luke 1:34. For a full discussion see Moffatt, INT, p. 268f. Spitta would further omit Luke 1:36 f., and make Luke 1:37 follow Luke 1:33. In this case Mary's acceptance of the prediction is in contrast to Zacharias's scepticism. Besides, Elisabeth's case is hardly proof that Mary was to be the mother of the Messiah, though as an argument from the less to the greater it may serve. The idea of Luke 1:35 and its terminology are not Hebraic; spirit in Heb. is feminine. But it is possible to take overshadow in its primary Gk. sense of hide or conceal. Pregnant women were regarded as peculiarly liable to the assaults of evil spirits (cf. Revelation 12:1-6). We may thus have here the idea of Satan lying in wait for the future Messiah (cf. Revelation 12:1-5); to avoid any molestation the Power of the Highest will conceal the mother till the danger is past. Or it may be simply that the child, while conceived in the usual way, was to receive a special pre-natal sanctity like John (Luke 1:15). Another difficulty in the ordinary acceptance of Luke 1:34 f. is the discrepancy with Luke 3:22, where the original reading is Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.