By John A. Huffman, Jr.
In Nazareth today you can visit two sites church tradition associates with Mary. One is the new Latin Church of the Annunciation, the most recent of numerous churches having been built on a site where the Greek graffiti of "Hail Mary" was found which dated back to the second century. The Latin Church believed that this was the site where she was visited by the angel Gabriel. The Orthodox Church has a tradition that the Annunication took place not only at the site of the present Latin basilica but also at Mary's well, a short distance away, over which it has built its own church. This tradition also comes from the apocryphal Gospel of James, which has no canonical authority.
What we do know for certain is that this young Jewish woman was a virgin, betrothed to Joseph. We do know for certain that when Elizabeth, Mary's relative, was six months pregnant with John the Baptist, the angel Gabriel appeared to her.
Advertisement
Mary was greatly troubled. She wondered what kind of a greeting this might be. The angel alerted her to the fact that she should not be afraid.
"Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end" (
Luke 1:30-33).
Mary, stunned by this word, questions this. "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God" (
Luke 1:34-35).
Then the angel went on to tell how Mary's relative, Elizabeth who was barren and elderly, would, in her old age, have a child. "For nothing is impossible with God" (
Luke 1:37). Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant." Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her (
Luke 1:38).
You can picture what must have been going on in this young woman's mind. She had heard her parents talk about unwed mothers. Jewish teenagers got pregnant in the first century the same way as do American teenagers in the twentieth. It made sense that she would go visit her relative Elizabeth who lived some eighty miles away in the hills of Judea. Upon Mary's arrival, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She sensed the baby in her own womb leap. With a loud voice, Elizabeth proclaimed these words so etched in Christian tradition: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!" (
Luke 1:42).