1:39 In those days 6 Mary got up and went hurriedly into the hill country, to a town of Judah, 7
2:1 Now 8 in those days a decree 9 went out from Caesar 10 Augustus 11 to register 12 all the empire 13 for taxes.
1 tn Grk “Thus.”
2 tn Grk “in the days.”
3 tn Grk “has looked on me” (an idiom for taking favorable notice of someone).
4 sn Barrenness was often seen as a reproach or disgrace (Lev 20:20-21; Jer 22:30), but now at her late age (the exact age is never given in Luke’s account), God had miraculously removed it (see also Luke 1:7).
5 tn Grk “among men”; but the context clearly indicates a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") here.
6 sn The expression In those days is another general time reference, though the sense of the context is that the visit came shortly after Mary miraculously conceived and shortly after the announcement about Jesus.
7 sn The author does not say exactly where Elizabeth stayed. The location is given generally as a town of Judah. Judah is about a three day trip south of Nazareth.
11 tn Grk “Now it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
12 sn This decree was a formal decree from the Roman Senate.
13 tn Or “from the emperor” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).
14 sn Caesar Augustus refers to Octavian, who was Caesar from 27
15 tn Grk “that all the empire should be registered for taxes.” The passive infinitive ἀπογράφεσθαι (apografesqai) has been rendered as an active in the translation to improve the English style. The verb is regarded as a technical term for official registration in tax lists (BDAG 108 s.v. ἀπογράφω a).
16 tn Grk “the whole (inhabited) world,” but this was a way to refer to the Roman empire (L&N 1.83).
16 sn The statement when the bridegroom is taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 9:18ff.
17 tn Grk “then in those days.”
21 tn Or “as it happened.”
22 tn Grk “they.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.