Luke 1:39-56
The stories about the birth of Jesus are placed in appendices because they are not at all essential to the message of salvation. There are a number of questions as to their authenticity. The remainder of the gospel accounts clearly are recollections of words spoken and actions taken by Jesus, though the writers were not always certain of where, when, or in what order, events occurred.
Sometime during her pregnancy, Mary rushed off to a town in the Judaean hill country to visit her relative Elizabeth and Elizabeth's husband Zachariah. When Elizabeth heard Mary call out a greeting to her, Elizabeth felt her baby leap inside her as she was filled with the Holy Spirit.
"You are so blessed among women! And so is the fruit of your womb!" exclaimed Elizabeth as Mary met her. "As soon as I heard your voice, my baby jumped for joy!"
Elizabeth told Mary she had to be highly blessed because Mary was willing to believe what God had told her. "Don't worry. Everything you were told will come true," Elizabeth said. Elizabeth's words made Mary ecstatic. She was overwhelmed that God had chosen her.
My soul is in awe of the enormity of the Lord,The writer of Matthew amplifies Mary's exultation with allusions to various Old Testament scriptures.** He writes,
and my spirit* has rejoiced in God my Savior!
For he has looked upon the low estate of his servant girl.
My goodness! From now on young and old+ will say that I am blessed!
For the Mighty One has done great things to me. Holy is his name!
Mary stayed with her cousin for three months, and then returned to her house.His mercy extends to generations and generations of those who fear him.
He has shown strength with his arm, scattering the proud with their ideas of self-glory.
He has cast rulers from their thrones and exalted those at society's bottom.
The hungry he has filled with good food, while sending away the rich empty.
He has given help to his servant Israel,
remembering to give his mercy
(which he had promised to the patriarchs)
to Abraham and his descendants forever
[We may conjecture that Mary's visit to Elizabeth occurred before Joseph became aware of Mary's pregnancy.]
* Old Testament poetry is full of couplets. The author of Matthew attributes to Mary an instance of synonymous parallelism, in which the A line is echoed and reinforced by the B line. In this case, the A line uses the word soul and the B line uses the word spirit. While some scholars among Hellenized Jews were concerned about the distinction between these two words, we see right away that both are used in place of the usual word for self: I (or, in Greek, ego).
I have no doubt that the author had on hand a report of Mary's substantive reaction, which he then phrased in poetical form.
+ Young and old: literally all generations. Mary was speaking in Aramaic. My thought is that by the time her recollection was put into Greek, the connotation had shifted. Also, it is quite likely that the author had in mind that a New Epoch was set to begin.
** In his An Introduction to the New Testament (Anchor/Doubleday 1997), Raymond E. Brown writes that "hymns or canticles of the Lukan infancy narratives" were most likely "Christian compositions that Luke adapted and placed on the lips of his first characters of his gospel." Father Brown was the first Catholic to teach at the Protestant-founded Union Theological Seminary. The Archdiocese of New York approved his book for study by Catholics. His order, the Selpician Fathers, retains the copyright.
Author's notes:
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