1:18 Zechariah 4 said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? 5 For I am an old man, and my wife is old as well.” 6 1:19 The 7 angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands 8 in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring 9 you this good news.
2:21 At 15 the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel 16 before he was conceived in the womb.
12:8 “I 20 tell you, whoever acknowledges 21 me before men, 22 the Son of Man will also acknowledge 23 before God’s angels.
1 tn The passive means that the prayer was heard by God.
2 tn Grk “a son, and you”; καί (kai) has not been translated. Instead a semicolon is used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 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.
4 tn Grk “And Zechariah.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
5 tn Grk “How will I know this?”
6 tn Grk “is advanced in days” (an idiom for old age).
7 tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
8 tn Grk “the one who is standing before God.”
9 tn Grk “to announce these things of good news to you.”
10 tn Grk “And the angel said to her.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. The pronoun αὐτῇ (auth, “to her”) has not been included in the translation since it is redundant in contemporary English.
11 sn The phrase will overshadow is a reference to God’s glorious presence at work (Exod 40:34-35; Ps 91:4).
12 tn Or “the one born holy will be called the Son of God.” The wording of this phrase depends on whether the adjective is a predicate adjective, as in the text, or is an adjective modifying the participle serving as the subject. The absence of an article with the adjective speaks for a predicate position. Other less appealing options supply a verb for “holy”; thus “the one who is born will be holy”; or argue that both “holy” and “Son of God” are predicates, so “The one who is born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
13 tc A few
14 tn Or “Therefore the holy child to be born will be called the Son of God.” There are two ways to understand the Greek phrase τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον (to gennwmenon {agion) here. First, τὸ γεννώμενον could be considered a substantival participle with ἅγιον as an adjective in the second predicate position, thus making a complete sentence; this interpretation is reflected in the translation above. Second, τὸ ἅγιον could be considered a substantival adjective with γεννώμενον acting as an adjectival participle, thus making the phrase the subject of the verb κληθήσεται (klhqhsetai); this interpretation is reflected in the alternative reading. Treating the participle γεννώμενον as adjectival is a bit unnatural for the very reason that it forces one to understand ἅγιον as substantival; this introduces a new idea in the text with ἅγιον when an already new topic is being introduced with γεννώμενον. Semantically this would overload the new subject introduced at this point. For this reason the first interpretation is preferred.
13 tn Grk “And when eight days were completed.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
14 sn Jesus’ parents obeyed the angel as Zechariah and Elizabeth had (1:57-66). These events are taking place very much under God’s direction.
16 sn How one responds now to Jesus and his teaching is a reflection of how Jesus, as the Son of Man who judges, will respond then in the final judgment.
17 tn This pronoun (τοῦτον, touton) is in emphatic position in its own clause in the Greek text: “of that person the Son of Man will be ashamed…”
18 tn Grk “in the glory of him and of the Father and of the holy angels.” “Glory” is repeated here in the translation for clarity and smoothness because the literal phrase is unacceptably awkward in contemporary English.
19 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
20 tn Or “confesses.”
21 tn Although this is a generic reference and includes both males and females, in this context “men” has been retained because of the wordplay with the Son of Man and the contrast with the angels. The same is true of the occurrence of “men” in v. 9.
22 sn This acknowledgment will take place at the judgment. Of course, the Son of Man is a reference to Jesus as it has been throughout the Gospel. On Jesus and judgment, see 22:69; Acts 10:42-43; 17:31.