In his Homily on Luke 6.7, Origen offered the following comments concerning Luke 1:28 and the angel Gabriel’s address to Mary:
The angel greeted Mary with
a new address, which I could not find anywhere else in Scripture. I ought to
explain this expression briefly. The angel says, “Hail, full of grace.” The
Greek word is κεχαριτωμένη. I
do not remember having read this word elsewhere in Scripture. An expression of
this kind, “Hail, full of grace,” is not addressed to a male. This greeting was
reserved for Mary alone. Mary knew the Law; she was holy, and had learned the
writings of the prophets by meditating on them daily. If Mary had known that
someone else had been greeted by words like these, she would never have been
frightened by this strange greeting. Hence the angel says to her, “Do not be
afraid, Mary! You have found grace in God’s eyes. Behold, you will conceive in
your womb. You will bear a son, and you will name him ‘Jesus.’ He will be
great, and will be called ‘Son of the Most High.’ ” (Origen, Homilies
on Luke and Fragments on Luke [trans. Joseph T. Lienhard; The Fathers of
the Church 94; Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
2009], 26)
Unfortunately, the Greek does not appear to be extant.
There is a Latin text, however:
Quia vero angelus novo
sermone Mariam salutavit, quem in omni Scriptura invenire non potui, et de hoc
pauca dicenda sunt Id enim quod ait: Ave, gratia plena, quod Græce
dicitar, κεχαριτωμενη, ubi in Scripturis alibi legerim non recordor; sed neque
ad virum istiusmodi sermo esl, Salve, gratia plena. Soli Maria haec
salutatio servatur. Si enim scisset Maria et ad alium quempiam similem factum
esse sermonem, habebat quippe legis scientiam, et erat sancta, et prophetarom
raticinia quotidiana meditatione cognoverat, nuuquam quasi peregrina eam
salutatio terruisseL Propter quod loquitur ei angelus: Ne timeas, Maria,
invenisti enim gratiam coram Domino. Ecec concipies in utero, et paries filium, et vocabis nomen
ejus Jesum. Is erit magnus, et Filius Altissimi vocabitur. (PG 13:1815-16)
An alternative translation would be:
For truly the angel greeted
Mary with a new kind of address—a form I could find nowhere in all of
Scripture—and a few words must be said about this. For the phrase “Hail, full
of grace” (rendered in Greek as κεχαριτωμενη), which I do not recall appearing
elsewhere in the Scriptures, is not a greeting ever given to any man. It is
reserved solely for Mary. For if Mary had known that a similar address had been
given to any other person—since she possessed the knowledge of the Law, was
holy, and through her daily meditation on the writings of the prophets had
recognized its meaning—this greeting would never have struck her as something
strange. Therefore the angel says to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have
found favor with the Lord. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and
you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of
the Most High.”
For a previous use of the perfect passive participle form
of χαριτοω in
Origen, see the discussion of Fragments in the Gospel of John XI (concerning John
1:16).
The perfect passive participle form of χαριτοω was used for men, not simply women, in both the LXX
and other Greek sources. See, for e.g.:
χαριτοω
and Luke 1:28 and Sirach 18:17 in the Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek
(cf. Bullard
and Hatton (UBS Handbook) on Sirach 18:17)
χαριτοω
in the perfect participle form in Symmachus's version of Psalm 17:27 (English
18:26)
χαριτοω
in the perfect passive participle form in John Chrysostom, Fragments in
Proverbs, chapter 25
χαριτοω
in the perfect passive participle form in Acts of Philip 48
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