Luke 1:12-13

1:12 And Zechariah, visibly shaken when he saw the angel, ¹  was seized with fear. ²  1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, ³  and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son; you ⁴  will name him John. ⁵ 

Luke 1:29

1:29 But ⁶  she was greatly troubled ⁷  by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. ⁸ 

¹ tn The words “the angel” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

² tn Or “and he was afraid”; Grk “fear fell upon him.” Fear is common when supernatural agents appear (1:29-30, 65; 2:9; 5:8-10; 9:34; 24:38; Exod 15:16; Judg 6:22-23; 13:6, 22; 2 Sam 6:9).

³ tn The passive means that the prayer was heard by God.

⁴ tn Grk “a son, and you”; καί (kai) has not been translated. Instead a semicolon is used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁵ tn Grk “you will call his name John.” The future tense here functions like a command (see ExSyn 569-70). This same construction occurs in v. 31.

⁶ tc Most mss (A C Θ 0130 ˹³ Ï lat sy) have ἰδοῦσα (idousa, “when [she] saw [the angel]”) here as well, making Mary’s concern the appearance of the angel. This construction is harder than the shorter reading since it adds a transitive verb without an explicit object. However, the shorter reading has significant support (א B D L W Ψ Ë¹ 565 579 1241 sa) and on balance should probably be considered authentic.

⁷ sn On the phrase greatly troubled see 1:12. Mary’s reaction was like Zechariah’s response.

⁸ tn Grk “to wonder what kind of greeting this might be.” Luke often uses the optative this way to reveal a figure’s thinking (3:15; 8:9; 18:36; 22:23).