Luke 1:31-33

1:31 Listen: ¹  You will become pregnant ²  and give birth to ³  a son, and you will name him ⁴  Jesus. ⁵  1:32 He ⁶  will be great, ⁷  and will be called the Son of the Most High, ⁸  and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father ⁹  David. 1:33 He ¹⁰  will reign over the house of Jacob ¹¹  forever, and his kingdom will never end.”

¹ tn Grk “And behold.”

² tn Grk “you will conceive in your womb.”

³ tn Or “and bear.”

⁴ tn Grk “you will call his name.”

⁵ tn See v. 13 for a similar construction.

⁶ tn Grk “this one.”

⁷ sn Compare the description of Jesus as great here with 1:15, “great before the Lord.” Jesus is greater than John, since he is Messiah compared to a prophet. Great is stated absolutely without qualification to make the point.

⁸ sn The expression Most High is a way to refer to God without naming him. Such avoiding of direct reference to God was common in 1st century Judaism out of reverence for the divine name.

⁹ tn Or “ancestor.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. A new sentence is begun here in the translation because of the length of the sentence in Greek.

¹¹ tn Or “over Israel.”