Exegesis:

kai apokritheis ho aggelos eipen autō ‘and answering the angel said to him,’ i.e. ‘and the angel answered him.’

egō eimi Gabriēl ho parestēkos enōpion tou theou ‘I am Gabriel who stand before, or, in attendance upon God,’ an implicit rebuke of Zechariah’s unbelief by stating explicitly who he is and by whom he is sent. The participial phrase ho parestēkōs etc. is the more important part of the information Gabriel gives to Zechariah: not the fact that he is Gabriel but that he stands in attendance upon God is what gives him authority.

paristamai († in the perfect with intransitive meaning) ‘to stand,’ ‘to be present.’ Here it expresses primarily that he is a servant of God. For enōpion cf. on v. 15.

kai apestalēn lalēsai pros se kai euaggelisasthai soi tauta ‘and I was sent in order to speak to you and to announce to you this good news.’ After introducing himself and stating his position Gabriel proceeds to describe the specific mission he is fulfilling at this moment; hence the aorist tense of the main verb and of the two dependent infinitives lalēsai … euaggelisasthai. Of these the former is the more general and describes in which way he was to fulfil his commission, i.e. by speaking, and the second is the more specific and characterizes what he has to speak about.

apostellō ‘to send away,’ or, ‘to send out,’ implying the idea of a commission.

euaggelizomai ‘to bring,’ or, ‘announce good news’; the good news always concerns an act of God. When used with a specific object, as ‘great joy’ (2.10), ‘the kingdom of God’ (4.43; 8.1), the idea of the good news is still implied though not always expressed in translation. When used without any object of content the verb means ‘to preach,’ as e.g. in 9.6; 20.1, but also implying the idea of the good news.

Translation:

Answered him. In some languages the verb has to be followed by a word or phrase that introduces the direct discourse, e.g., ‘thus,’ ‘saying,’ ‘with the words,’ ‘its sound,’ ‘his word (was)’ etc. Since ‘to answer’ already implies a reference to the preceding speaker, some languages prefer to omit an explicit reference to that person.

Who stand in the presence of God, or, ‘I am standing before God to serve him’ (Bible en français courant), ‘I am at God’s service’ (Dios Habla Hoy). The corresponding Javanese verb, lit. ‘to face,’ refers to people who are sitting before a prince or noble, awaiting orders or seeking an opportunity to make a request, and a Balinese equivalent means ‘to draw-near,’ ‘to approach,’ and is the root of the term for ‘servant-at-a-court’; such terms often are preferable to a literal rendering of the Greek phrase. The expression refers to a habitual state or occupation; hence one may have to add, ‘used to,’ ‘always,’ ‘daily,’ cf. also “My place is at the side of” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).

I was sent to speak to you, or, ‘God has sent me to tell you’ (Kituba). In some languages one must take a decision about the time this happened, e.g. in Foe, which possesses a near past tense, for any event taking place on the day of speaking but prior to the moment of speaking, and a remote past tense, for anything that happened yesterday or before; in the present verse tense (1) has been chosen. The verb may have to be expressed analytically, ‘to order a person to go,’ cf. ‘being told to go, I came…’ (Foe); if the implied direct discourse has to be made explicit, this becomes, ‘to tell a person, “You must go” .’ Some Indonesian languages distinguish between a verb used in reference to servants and errand-boys, and another implying a certain delegation of authority, and used e.g. in reference to Mohammed as Allah’s deputy; the latter verb is employed here, of Jesus in 4.43, of the apostles, etc.

To speak to you, and to bring you this good news. The two verbs are closely connected; hence, ‘to speak to you, announcing this good news.’ Cf. also Ekari, which uses a close-knit verb sequence, e.g. ‘tell-you + give-you,’ which indicates a full declaration. To bring you this good news. Though the phrase here does not have the more specific sense mentioned in the note on 3.18, its rendering should preferably conform as closely as idiom allows to the rendering used in the expressions discussed in that note.

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.