Exegesis:
hē ‘she.’ The article is used here as a personal pronoun (cf. Moule 123).
epi tō logō ‘because of the saying.’ The preposition indicates here that Mary’s bewilderment is due to the angel’s word; hence, Revised Standard Version, cf. à ces mots (Bible de Jérusalem) and “at what he said” (An American Translation).
logos ‘the saying,’ i.e. the words spoken by the angel.
dietarachthē ‘she was (greatly) perplexed,’ probably stronger than etarachthē ‘was perplexed’ (v. 12), cf. L-Sc, s.v. diatarassō.
dielogizeto ‘she stood there wondering’; durative imperfect after the (punctiliar) aorist dietarachthē.
dialogizomai ‘to ponder,’ or ‘to argue,’ here the former.
potapos eiē ho aspasmos houtos, lit.: ‘of what kind (or ‘meaning’) this greeting might be,’ hence: “What this greeting might mean” (New English Bible).
potapos (also 7.39) ‘of what sort,’ always suggesting something extraordinary, either good (cf. 1 Jn. 3.1) or bad (cf. 7.39).
aspasmos ‘greeting,’ always of formal or solemn salutations.
Translation:
But she, or, preferably, ‘thereupon she (or Mary).’ In several languages a better translation is obtained by shifting the prepositional phrase to the head of the sentence, ‘at (or hearing) his word she…,’ or, ‘when Mary heard what the angel was saying, she….’
Some idioms for she was … troubled are, ‘her breath (was) anxious’ (Tboli), ‘her mind was upset’ (Marathi), ‘she had a crumpled heart’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC in 24.38), ‘her members shook’ (Navajo). In Sranan Tongo one has to use an active construction, ‘this word confused her.’
She considered in her mind, or, ‘she was thinking/asking-herself,’ ‘her heart said’ (Batak Toba), ‘she puzzled forth and puzzled back’ (Sranan Tongo). The aspect is inceptive-continuative, for Mary started wondering and continued in that state.
What sort of greeting this might be. Direct discourse is obligatory, or preferable in several cases, e.g. in Sediq, Ekari, Dravidian languages. The clause is in dubitative mood, to be expressed by modal verbal forms or particles, or by adverbial qualifications such as, “possible” (Phillips). Greeting. If no specific verb for ‘to greet (with words)’ exists, an expression can often be used that is built on the word formula of greeting, cf. on “hail” in v. 28; hence e.g., ‘this odi’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘this well-saying’ (Balinese). With some syntactic shifts this may lead to renderings such as, ‘Why does he say (or, What can it possibly mean that he says) “hail” to me?’ Where, however, the language does not possess a common formula of greeting, or the expression for ‘to greet’ refers to gestures, and not to words (cf. on v. 28), the verb may have to be rendered more generically, e.g. ‘to speak (kindly, or, graciously) to’; hence, ‘What in-the-world-is-he-saying-to-me’ (Navajo). To call attention to Gabriel’s unusual behaviour (cf. Exegesis, last entry on v. 28) it may be advisable to use here, ‘to deign to speak (kindly/graciously) to.’
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.