In Luke
1:28, Mary is greeted thusly by Gabriel:
And he came to her and said, "Hail, one
who has been favoured, the Lord is with you" (my translation)
The term “one
who has been favoured” is κεχαριτωμένη, the feminine singular vocative
perfect passive participle of χαριτοω (to favour/grace). The same morphological
form of the verb (perfect passive participle) is found in LXX Sirach 18:17, as
I have discussed at
Luke
1:28 and κεχαριτωμενη: Evidence for the Immaculate Conception of Mary? (cf.
Chapter 2: "The Immaculate Conception: Does the Bible Teach It?" pp.
35-65 of my book Behold
the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology [2017]).
While not found in all versions of the LXX, in Symmachus’ version of Psa
17[18]:26, the same morphological form of χαριτοω appears and, as with Sirach 18:17, has no
theological significance:
“To the pure (κεχαριτωμενω; “favoured”) you will show
yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.”
The common
Catholic appeal to the morphological form of χαριτοω in Luke 1:28 is based on reading
way too much into it, and ignores how Mary’s being “favoured/grace” is
explicitly explained by Gabriel in v. 30:
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary,
for thou hast found favour (χαρις, the root word of χαριτοω) with God.
For more on biblical
(and Latter-day Saint) Mariology, be sure to check out my book on the topic:
