Lucas 1:34

‘And Mary said to the angel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” ’

There is a sweet innocence about these words. As little teen-age Mary stood there with all these high powered theological ideas being presented to her the only thing that struck her as a problem was how all this could be when she had no husband. We may assume from her question that Gabriel has made it clear that this is to happen immediately (otherwise why such a question from a betrothed woman?).

These words are central to the chiasmus and are therefore intended to be emphasised. This whole passage is therefore built around them. All are intended to weigh them in their minds and consider their significance. The question was that as she had never had sexual relations with a man, how could this possibly be? And the reply was that it would be, not through some named man, but because the Holy Spirit would come on her, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, with the result that the child Who would be born would be called ‘Holy’, ‘the Son of God. Now by all normal methods of interpretation that signified only one thing. A remarkable birth through the activity of God which would produce a unique human being Who would be like the God Who was called ‘Holy’ in Isaiah 57:15. He would be of the same nature as God, God’s Son. And while Mary would undoubtedly simply have been bewildered and unable to comprehend it at the time, there was only one place in Scripture to which this could be applied. And that is Isaiah 7:14 where because of the failure of the sons of the house of David, the place of their heirs was instead be taken by one not born of the sons of David, but miraculously born through a pure unmarried woman of marriageable age (LXX - ‘virgin’), a son who could be called ‘the Everlasting God’ and would one day rule over God’s everlasting kingdom (Isaiah 9:6-7).