Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 1:26-56, A village girl, a greeting and a song of reversal
Gabriel greets Mary, a betrothed girl in Nazareth, with news that she will bear the son of David. She goes to Elizabeth in the hill country and sings of God bringing down rulers and lifting up the humble.
Luke 1:26-56, in every translation this tool compares.
Gabriel visits Mary, a young woman of Nazareth promised in marriage to Joseph, a descendant of David, and announces a son who will rule David's kingdom without end. Mary asks how this can happen to a virgin, hears that God's Spirit and power will bring it about, and agrees. She then visits her relative Elizabeth, whose own unborn son stirs at her arrival, and Mary answers with a song about God overturning the powerful and raising up the poor.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/judeans-and-galileans\/","n":"Galilee and the Galileans","s":"Small farming and fishing villages, ringed by Greek cities, with two new royal towns that the Gospels never say Jesus entered. Most of Jesus' story happens in places of a few hundred to a few thousand people.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/betrothal-and-weddings\/","n":"Betrothal and the wedding feast","s":"A betrothal was a binding marriage contract made months before the couple lived together. The wedding that completed it was a week-long feast.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
Nazareth was a lowly village beside Jerusalem's great building projects, and its size is disputed: Keener's background commentary estimates sixteen hundred to two thousand people, while his notes say many scholars think it had only a few hundred. It is never named in the Old Testament or in the Jewish writings of the day; the first inscription to mention it, found at Caesarea Maritima in 1962, puts the eighteenth priestly course in Nazareth (Strauss). The greeting is itself a surprise. Rank decided who greeted whom and with what words, and a young, unmarried village girl had virtually no standing (Keener and his notes); Strauss adds that a girl was usually betrothed between twelve and fourteen. The trip to the Judean hill country took three to five days, and with bandits on the roads Mary would not have gone alone (Keener). Her song closely resembles Hannah's in 1 Samuel 2, down to the word for the rulers brought down in 1:52 (Keener; Wright; the cultural backgrounds article on Mary's song), and many Jews expected the lowly to be raised and the proud brought low at the end (Keener's notes). Wright says the song is about God and about revolution.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 1:26-27, 1:28-29, 1:39-40, 1:46-47 and 1:52-53
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 1:26, 1:27, 1:28, 1:39, 4:16 and 6:21
- N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, comment on Luke 1:39-56
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Mary's Allusions to Hannah's Song
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 1:26, 1:27, 1:39 and 1:52-53 and sidebars Inscription Bearing the Name of Nazareth and Messianic Expectation in Jesus' Day
