Exegesis:

pros parthenon ‘to a virgin,’ like eis polin still depending on apestalē ‘was sent’ in v. 26. In this context eis refers to the place, pros to the person to whom the angel was sent.

parthenos either has the general meaning ‘girl,’ or the specific meaning ‘virgin’; here the latter translation is preferable, since in v. 34 the fact that Mary has had no sexual intercourse, is stressed.

emnēsteumenēn andri ‘betrothed to a man.’

mnēsteuō (also 2.5) ‘to betroth,’ both times, as in Mt. 1.18, of Mary and therefore in the passive, ‘to become betrothed.’ According to Jewish law, betrothal established a legal relationship between a man and a woman, binding upon both parties, cf. Deut. 20.7; 22.23-27. It took place after the conclusion of the marriage-contract between the parents, and was performed by the exchange of something of a certain value between the parties. The interval between betrothal and marriage was usually one year, during which time the woman and her property juridically already belonged to her future husband, and unfaithfulness on her part was considered adultery.

ex oikou Dauid ‘belonging to (or, ‘one of’) the descendants of David.’ This may refer either to Joseph alone or to both Joseph and Mary, but the former is the most probable since in the subsequent clause kai to onoma tēs parthenou Mariam the repetition of the word parthenos suggests the preceding clause refers not to Mary but to Joseph.

Mariam, Greek transliteration of the Old Testament name Miryam; an alternative form is Maria.

Translation:

In some cases the verse can better be rendered as a new sentence, repeating the verb.

Virgin. Some other terms denoting ‘virgin’ are, ‘woman that is untouched’ (a qualification current also for an object that has never been used) (Batak Toba), ‘a woman with a whole (i.e. unopened) body’ (Uab Meto). In some cases, however, such terms, or descriptive phrases like, ‘a woman who has not been with a man,’ are felt to be too outspoken. Hence, in English versions the rendering has been toned down from “virgin” (AV, Revised Standard Version), via “maiden” (An American Translation, The Four Gospels – a New Translation), to “girl” (New English Bible), and in Batak Toba from ‘woman that is untouched’ to ‘girl’ (lit. ‘female child’). Similar words for ‘girl,’ ‘unmarried young woman,’ suggesting virginity without explicitly stating it, are found in Marathi, Apache, Kituba. Cultural features naturally influence connotations of possible renderings, for instance, the child marriage customs in some Tboli areas, where the boy and girl are made to sleep together at the initial marriage, but after that do not live together and may not see each other again for years. Hence, the closest attainable equivalent, ‘female adolescent,’ does not imply that a young girl is not living with her husband, and that she never had a child, but leaves uncertain whether she has ever slept with a male person or not. Accordingly one has to depend on v. 34 to make clear that Mary and Joseph had not had sexual intercourse. A different problem is encountered in Pampanga, where birhen (an adaptation of Spanish virgen ‘virgin’), when standing alone, is a name of the Virgin Mary. To exclude this meaning the version uses ‘marriageable birhen’, thus at the same time indicating that Mary was relatively young.

Betrothed. In Israel a man’s betrothed could be called ‘his wife’; transposed in modern terms her condition was like that of a girl married by proxy during the period before she meets her husband; hence, a term for ‘bride’ may be considered. The new Pampanga and Tagalog versions have adopted terms literally meaning, ‘having-been-given-approval,’ and, ‘having-been-brought-before-the authorities,’ both said of a couple which has already applied to the local civil registrar or priest for a license to marry. Similarly, Tboli uses ‘braceleted,’ a figurative expression for the giving of property for the dowry, an act that finalizes the marriage contract. Several other versions use a term for ‘promised in marriage,’ e.g. ‘publicly pledged to marry (lit. ‘reciprocally-bound’)’ (Uab Meto), a term indicating that an interchange of gifts as a pledge for marriage has taken place, and nowadays not implying secret sexual intercourse, as it did in former days. Such terms are acceptable if engagement to marriage is legally binding and officially made known in the village, as in Balinese customary law. Marriage customs, however, are changing rapidly, especially in urban centres, and the meaning of the term in question may change accordingly, e.g. from implying a strict and legal bond to a simple promise which can be broken unpunished. If the latter meaning is going to prevail, the term is too wide and loose to be used here. Descriptive renderings of the kind ‘she was going to marry Joseph,’ ‘J. had asked her to marry him,’ may be unsatisfactory because they lack the concept of being officially pledged or designated.

Of the house of David, i.e. a member of (or, belonging to, originating from) the house (or, lineage) of David, or ‘a descendant of David.’ In some receptor languages the translator is able to keep close to the term ‘house,’ e.g. in Marathi, which has a word meaning ‘family,’ ‘clan’ from the same root as ‘house’; or in Uab Meto, where the phrase ‘old house’ means ‘the original family.’ Usually, however, this is impossible, and a literal rendering would lead to expressions that have the wrong meaning (as in one older version, which by using ‘inmates of the house’ unwittingly made David a contemporary of Joseph and Mary, because in the language in question the phrase used happened to refer to people living together in the same house). In such cases a word for ‘descendants,’ ‘family/lineage/clan’ is to be preferred. — David may have to be preceded by a title, ‘King David’ (not ‘Prophet David,’ of course, although this is one of David’s titles amongst Muslims).

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.