Luke 1:12-13

1:12 And Zechariah, visibly shaken when he saw the angel, 1  was seized with fear. 2  1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, 3  and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son; you 4  will name him John. 5 

Luke 1:29

1:29 But 6  she was greatly troubled 7  by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. 8 

1 tn The words “the angel” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

2 tn Or “and he was afraid”; Grk “fear fell upon him.” Fear is common when supernatural agents appear (1:29-30, 65; 2:9; 5:8-10; 9:34; 24:38; Exod 15:16; Judg 6:22-23; 13:6, 22; 2 Sam 6:9).

3 tn The passive means that the prayer was heard by God.

sn Your prayer has been heard. Zechariah’s prayer while offering the sacrifice would have been for the nation, but the answer to the prayer also gave them a long hoped-for child, a hope they had abandoned because of their old age.

4 tn Grk “a son, and you”; καί (kai) has not been translated. Instead a semicolon is used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

5 tn Grk “you will call his name John.” The future tense here functions like a command (see ExSyn 569-70). This same construction occurs in v. 31.

sn “Do not be afraid…you must call his name John.” This is a standard birth announcement (see Gen 16:11; Isa 7:14; Matt 1:21; Luke 1:31).

6 tc Most mss (A C Θ 0130 Ë13 Ï lat sy) have ἰδοῦσα (idousa, “when [she] saw [the angel]”) here as well, making Mary’s concern the appearance of the angel. This construction is harder than the shorter reading since it adds a transitive verb without an explicit object. However, the shorter reading has significant support (א B D L W Ψ Ë1 565 579 1241 sa) and on balance should probably be considered authentic.

7 sn On the phrase greatly troubled see 1:12. Mary’s reaction was like Zechariah’s response.

8 tn Grk “to wonder what kind of greeting this might be.” Luke often uses the optative this way to reveal a figure’s thinking (3:15; 8:9; 18:36; 22:23).