Luke 1:26-27

‘Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.

‘The sixth month.’ That is, in the sixth month from the conception of John. After Israel’s long wait, things were moving rapidly. Again Gabriel was involved. He was sent ‘from God’ to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin who was betrothed to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David (and would be David’s heir). And the name of the virgin was Mary.

Gabriel was sent from God to Nazareth. Every leading Jew would have mocked at the idea. Galilee was despised. No prophet ever came from Galilee (John 7:52). While accepted as part of mainstream Judaism, it was seen as somewhat unorthodox, and a home of rebels. And it was too closely involved with Gentiles. And besides the people did not speak properly. They slurred their gutturals.

It was a fertile land, rich in soil and pasturage, with a great variety of trees and widely agricultural. Galileans thought agriculturally. It was also constantly a hotbed of seething rebellion. While under the Roman yoke it was ruled by Herod Antipas, and this differentiated it from Judaea. It saw itself as having more right to independence, and Galileans were seen as natural rebels. Even its Rabbis were seen as lax in their behaviour (by Rabbinical standards). They were known to chat with women in the street, and even to walk alone in the streets at night! And as for Nazareth, it was proverbially a small and insignificant hillside town. ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ (John 1:46).

So for Gabriel, the mighty angel who stood in the presence of God, to have come to Nazareth, would have been seen as ridiculous. And yet so it was. For it was in these surroundings that God would choose to bring up the One who was one day to be greater than all the prophets, the fulfiller of the promises of Scripture, and especially of Isaiah.

And then he had come to speak to a virgin. The fact is emphasised twice in the verse. For central to this passage is that she had ‘never known (had sexual relations with) a man’ (Luke 1:14). Whatever some expositors might say, Luke wants us to be in no doubt of this fact.

But she was a ‘betrothed’ virgin. That means not only that she was ‘engaged’ but that, while still not yet married, she was legally bound to her future husband. For her to be released would require a ‘divorce’ (Matthew 1:19). It was fairly well known for a betrothed couple to have sexual relations with each other, and it was not frowned on, although possibly seen as lax. But in this case we are assured that they did not behave in this way. Both sought to live perfectly before God. The normal period of a betrothal was twelve months.

And the man to whom she was betrothed was Joseph, a son of David, seen by the Jews as, in theory at least, in line to be king of Israel. This was why he was called to Bethlehem, his recognised birthplace and the site of the family lands, in order to make his oath of allegiance to Augustus (Luke 2:4). This relationship with David is interestingly brought out in that in many years to come his descendants would be brought before Vespasian because of their recognised lineage, when he wanted, after the rebellion in the name of the sons of David, to rid the world of sons of David once and for all, only for them to be sent away in contempt, back to their ploughs, because they were so clearly peasants. But it was important that Joseph was a son of David, for from this would arise the fact that his adopted son was also a son of David, and thus heir to the promises. (Official adoption conferred equal rights to blood birth).

And the woman’s name was Mary. We know nothing of her background or her antecedents, although some see the genealogy in Luke 3:0 as being that of Mary, confirming that she too was of the house of David. The fact that the angel declares that her son will be of the line of David would seem to confirm this.