Luke 1:29

1:29 But ¹  she was greatly troubled ²  by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. ³ 

Luke 7:39

7:39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, ⁴  he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, ⁵  he would know who and what kind of woman ⁶  this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”

¹ 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.

² sn On the phrase greatly troubled see 1:12. Mary’s reaction was like Zechariah’s response.

³ 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).

⁴ tn The word “this” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

⁵ tn This is a good example of a second class (contrary to fact) Greek conditional sentence. The Pharisee said, in effect, “If this man were a prophet (but he is not)…”

⁶ sn The Pharisees believed in a form of separationism that would have prevented them from any kind of association with such a sinful woman.