SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 1:49

1:49a

For: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For introduces the reason why all people would call Mary blessed. Some English versions, such as the Good News Translation, translate it as “because” here. In some languages this connection may be implied without a conjunction.

the Mighty One: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the Mighty One is a title for God. It refers to him as very strong and powerful. He is more powerful than all other beings. Some other ways to translate this in English are:

God All-Powerful (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
the Almighty

has done great things for me: Here the phrase great things refers to things that are very significant, important, and wonderful. Mary was referring specifically to the fact that God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah.

1:49b

The Berean Standard Bible begins a new sentence with this verse part. Other English versions connect these parts of the verse with the word “and.” The New International Version has a dash before this part of the verse, at the end of 1:49a. Use a natural way to connect 1:49a and 1:49b in your language.

Holy is His name: The word name here represents God himself and his character or nature. So the clause Holy is His name means that God is holy. If a literal translation of name would not mean that in your language, you can translate the meaning directly. For example:

Holy is he
-or-
He is holy

Holy: In this context, the word Holy refers to the fact that God is divine. He is perfect in every way and is completely pure and sinless. Because of these qualities, he is worthy of awe. In some languages there may be an idiom to describe this.

Some ways to translate Holy in this context are:

He is totally pure/good
-or-
He is worthy of all worship/awe
-or-
He is perfect
-or-
He is set apart as the only God

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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