Translation commentary on Luke 1:26

Exegesis:

en tō mēni tō hektō ‘in the sixth month,’ i.e. of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, cf. vv. 24 and 36.

apestalē, cf. on v. 19.

apo tou theou ‘from God’ or ‘by God’; if understood in the latter sense apo replaces hupo; if translated ‘from God’ apo denotes God as the initiator of the sending of the angel.

eis polin tēs Galilaias ‘to a town in (or, belonging to) Galilee’; the mentioning of Galilee gives a certain colour to the narrative since Nazareth and Galilee were despised by the Jews. For eis as contrasted with pros cf. on v. 27.

hē onoma Nazareth ‘which had the name Nazareth,’ lit.: ‘to which (was) the name’; in most, modern versions rendered by ‘named,’ or “called” (New English Bible).

Translation:

In the sixth month, if rendered literally, may easily be taken as referring to the sixth month of the calendar year. To avoid this misunderstanding one may make a more explicit reference to the events in vv. 24f, e.g. ‘such-being-the-case in month six’ (Uab Meto), au sixième mois après ces evénements (Bible en français courant), or to Elizabeth, e.g. ‘in her sixth month,’ ‘when six months of Elizabeth’s time had passed.’ In the latter case one may have to add an explicit reference to Elizabeth’s pregnancy making use of the idiomatic phrases the language possesses, e.g. ‘when Elizabeth was with abdomen of six months’ (Kituba), ‘when (it was) already the sixth month of Elizabeth’s carrying a person’ (Tagalog); cf. also on v. 36.

Angel, cf. on v. 11. Renderings containing the expression ‘sent one’ may prove troublesome in this context because the verb ‘to send’ occurs in the same sentence. To avoid repetition Batak Toba has, ‘a heavenly-one-was-sent’ instead of ‘a sent-one was sent.’

Was sent from God, or, ‘by God’ (see Exegesis). The first interpretation may lead to, .’.. Gabriel was sent by order of God,’ ‘God caused … Gabriel to be sent.’

A city of Galilee named Nazareth, or, adding classifiers to the proper name, ‘a city in the land G., named the city N.’ (Low Malay), ‘a city named N., which is in the land G.,’ ‘the city N., which is situated in (or, is part of) the region G.’ The rendering should preferably not coincide with that of ‘Nazareth of/in Galilee’ (Mt. 21.11; Mk. 1.9), which is merely a geographic indication. — City (also in 1.39; 2.3f, 11, 39; 4.29, 31, 43; 5.12; 7.11f, 37; 8.1, 27, 34, 39; 9.10; 14.21; 18.2f; 19.17, 19, 41; 21.21; 22.10; 23.19; 24.49), or some such term as, ‘houses-which-cover-an-area’ (Navajo), ‘settlement,’ ‘cluster of houses,’ in societies where the specific concept “city” is unknown; where it is to be distinguished from “village” (see on 5.17) one may say e.g., ‘large settlement.’ In rendering polis some English versions, e.g. Revised Standard Version and New English Bible differentiate between “cities” (for the large and/or important ones) and “towns” (in 8.4; 9.5; 10.1, 8, 10ff; 13.22; 23.50). If the translator follows this example he may use, ‘very large settlements’ and ‘large settlements.’ In some languages (e.g. Sranan Tongo, Bahasa Indonesia) the term used for “city” or “town” originally meant, ‘fortified place.’

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.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 1:26

Section 1:26–38

An angel told Mary that Jesus would be born

God sent an angel to tell Mary that she would have a son and that his name would be Jesus. He would be a king forever. This surprised and frightened Mary. She asked the angel how this would happen, as she was a virgin. She had never had sexual relations with a man. The angel said that the power of God would overshadow her and cause her to become pregnant. She would give birth to a son, and he would be called the Son of God. Mary believed God’s message, and she was willing for this to happen to her.

Some other possible headings for this section are:

The angel Gabriel predicts the virgin birth of Jesus the Christ
-or-
Angel Gabriel announces to the virgin Mary that God will cause her to give birth to a son
-or-
The Birth of Jesus is Announced (Good News Translation)

Paragraph 1:26–28

1:26a

In the sixth month: The phrase In the sixth month refers to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. You may want to make this information explicit. For example:

Six months after Elizabeth had become pregnant (God’s Word)
-or-
During Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy (New Century Version)

1:26b

God sent the angel Gabriel: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as God sent the angel Gabriel is literally “the angel Gabriel was sent from God” (as in the Revised Standard Version). This Greek expression is passive. You can use either an active or a passive phrase, whichever is more natural in your language for this context.

sent: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sent means “told to go (somewhere) for a certain purpose.” God told the angel to go to Nazareth to give a message to Mary.

the angel Gabriel: The angel Gabriel was also mentioned in 1:19. Gabriel was the angel who appeared to Zechariah.

angel: See the note at 1:11a for suggestions about how to translate the word angel. See also angel, Meaning 1, in the Glossary.

1:26c

to a town in Galilee called Nazareth: Nazareth was a small town with perhaps several hundred inhabitants.

Galilee: Galilee was the name of a district or area in the north part of Israel.

© 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.