Later Gabriel appears again. And to whom does he speak? It is to a young unmarried woman by the name of Mary from the town of Nazareth. What message does he deliver this time? Listen! “You have found favor with God,” Gabriel tells Mary. “Look! you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you are to call his name Jesus.” Gabriel adds: “This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; . . . and he will rule as king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom.”

Chapter 2

Honored Before He Was Born

AFTER the angel Gabriel tells the young woman Mary that she will give birth to a baby boy who will become an everlasting king, Mary asks: “How is this to be, since I am having no intercourse with a man?”

“Holy spirit will come upon you,” Gabriel explains, “and power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason also what is born will be called holy, God’s Son.”

To help Mary believe his message, Gabriel continues: “And, look! Elizabeth your relative has also herself conceived a son, in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her, the so-called barren woman; because with God no declaration will be an impossibility.”

Mary accepts Gabriel’s word. And what is her response? “Look! Jehovah’s slave girl!” she exclaims. “May it take place with me according to your declaration.”