Tuesday, July 18, 2023

I. Howard Marshall on Mary's Surprise at Gabriel's Greeting

  

It is sometimes said that Mary’s surprise was because it was not customary for a man to give a greeting (ἀσπασμός, 1:41, 44; 11:43; 20:46) to a Jewish woman. But the rabbinic evidence is late and scanty (SB II, 99), and Mary’s wonder was occasioned more by the character of a greeting which addressed her in such exalted terms, and implied that, like the great men of OT times, she was chosen to serve God and to be empowered by him (W. C. van Unnik, ‘Dominus Vobiscum: The Background of a Liturgical Formula’, in A. J. B. Higgins (ed.), New Testament Essays, Manchester, 1959, 270–305). (I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text [New International Greek Testament Commentary; Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978], 66.)