Luke 1:26-56

B. The announcement of Jesus’ birth 1:26-56

This section parallels the one immediately preceding (Luke 1:5-25). Their forms are so similar that Luke must have arranged them to bring out the similarities between them. Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus as he had John’s birth. Again the fact of a divinely initiated birth announcement shows the unique significance of the individual to be born. In the preceding section the father was the main figure, but in this one the mother is.

"Luke presents the theology of the Incarnation in a way so holy and congruent with OT sacred history that any comparisons with pagan mythology [that the original readers may have made] seem utterly incongruous. Instead of the carnal union of a pagan god with a woman, producing some kind of semidivine offspring, Luke speaks of a spiritual overshadowing by God himself that will produce the ’holy one’ within Mary." [Note: Liefeld, p. 829.]

Luke may have obtained some of the intimate information in this section directly from Mary. In this section Luke stressed Jesus’ divine sonship (Luke 1:32; Luke 1:35) and His messianic role as ruler over God’s kingdom on earth (Luke 1:32-33). He also stressed God as the "Most High" (Luke 1:32; Luke 1:35; cf. Luke 1:76), the Holy Spirit’s power (Luke 1:35), and God’s grace (Luke 1:29-30; Luke 1:34-35; Luke 1:38).