Luke 1

Syntactic observation

Of the four gospels this is the only place where the author states what he did, and those four verses (1-4) hold **ten words unique in the corpus** — ἐπειδήπερ, inasmuch as; ἐπιχειρέω, to undertake; ἀνατάσσομαι, to compile in order; διήγησις, a narrative; πληροφορέω, to be fully accomplished; αὐτόπτης, an eyewitness; κράτιστος, most excellent; Θεόφιλος; κατηχέω, to be instructed by hearing; ἀσφάλεια, certainty. Nowhere else in this corpus do first occurrences crowd so thickly. Besides these, παρακολουθέω, to follow closely, stands at two places, the other Mark 16:17 — inside the longer ending, printed under ⟦ ⟧. ἀκριβῶς, accurately, is also one of two, the other Matthew 2:8, where Herod says search **accurately** for the child. καθεξῆς, in order, occurs twice in Luke (1:3, 8:1). The build of the sentence is striking too: v.1 says many have undertaken, v.2 as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses handed down to us, and v.3 it seemed good to me also … to write. So the author first records that others came before him, then states what he did in three adverbs — ἄνωθεν, from the beginning; ἀκριβῶς, accurately; καθεξῆς, in order. Verse 4 gives the purpose: ἵνα ἐπιγνῷς … τὴν ἀσφάλειαν, that you may know the certainty.

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Lost in translation

Syntactic observation

The Greek of the preface (vv.1-4) and the Greek from v.5 differ in texture. Verses 1-4 are one long periodic sentence; v.5 opens Ἐγένετο ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις…, it came to pass in the days of… — the narrative manner of the Septuagint. So having written four lines of Greek preface the author changes his style at once. ἐγένετο occurs seven times in this chapter (vv.5, 8, 23, 41, 44, 59, 65) — and not once in the four lines of preface. ἐφημερία, a priestly division, occurs twice in the corpus and both are in this chapter (1:5, 8). And Luke dates the time by persons: the days of Herod the king, the division of Abijah, one of the daughters of Aaron. Such circumstantial marking is absent from Mark; Matthew has Herod (2:1) but names no division or descent. The δικαιώματα, ordinances, and ἄμεμπτοι, blameless, of v.6 are both unique in the corpus. Verse 7 states the couple's condition with στεῖρα, barren, and προβεβηκότες ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις, advanced in their days — and at v.36 that στεῖρα returns: she who was called barren. The word stands three times in the corpus, all three in Luke, and **the third turns it over at 23:29** — μακάριαι αἱ στεῖραι, blessed are the barren. What is a burden at 1:7 is a blessing at 23:29. And since the μακαρίζω of v.48 shares its root with the μακάριος of 23:29, within one book they will call me blessed stands over against blessed are the barren.

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Syntactic observation

κεχαριτωμένη is the perfect passive participle of χαριτόω, and the verb is **unique in the corpus**. It shares a root with χάρις, grace, which occurs eight times in Luke and four in John and not at all in Matthew or Mark. So the root is familiar and the form is not. Being perfect passive it means one who stands in a state of having been graced — and Luke himself unfolds it at v.30: εὗρες γὰρ χάριν παρὰ τῷ θεῷ, for you have found grace with God. The gloss is inside the text, and the translation need not anticipate it at v.28. The χαῖρε before it divides too: an imperative meaning rejoice, and also the ordinary greeting of the day. Verse 29 takes it up — Mary διεταράχθη, was greatly troubled (unique in the corpus), and reasons ποταπὸς εἴη ὁ ἀσπασμὸς οὗτος, what sort of greeting this might be — the text itself calling it a greeting.

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Syntactic observation

The song's first two lines run on two verbs — μεγαλύνει, magnifies, and ἠγαλλίασεν, rejoiced. μεγαλύνω occurs three times in the corpus, one of them Matthew 23:5, where **the Pharisees enlarge their own tassels**. The third is twelve verses on, at 1:58 — ἐμεγάλυνεν κύριος τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ, the Lord magnified his mercy — and there the Lord is the subject. One verb: a man enlarges his clothes, a life magnifies the Lord, the Lord magnifies his own mercy — three places, three subjects. ἀγαλλιάω runs once in Matthew, twice in John, twice in Luke. The tenses divide too: v.46 is present (μεγαλύνει) and v.47 aorist (ἠγαλλίασεν), and the aorists continue through vv.48-55 (ἐπέβλεψεν, ἐποίησεν, διεσκόρπισεν, καθεῖλεν, ὕψωσεν, ἐνέπλησεν, ἐξαπέστειλεν, ἀντελάβετο). So it opens in the present and passes at once into the past, and those pasts state as done what has not yet happened. The ταπείνωσις, lowliness, and μακαρίζω, to call blessed, of v.48 are both unique in the corpus, and the ταπεινούς, the lowly, of v.52 answers the first — lowliness twice, once Mary's own and once that of those who are lifted.

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Syntactic observation

Two words hang here. σπλάγχνα, bowels, is unique in the corpus, while the verb σπλαγχνίζομαι, to be moved with compassion, is common — five times in Matthew, three in Mark, three in Luke. So the verb recurs and the noun stands once. We have rendered the verb as compassion and recorded the bodily sense as loss (fixed at Mark 6:34); here the noun itself appears and that body shows. ἀνατολή occurs eight times in the corpus, seven of them the east or the rising of the sun (Matt 2:1, 2, 9 of the magi; 8:11; 24:27; Mark 16:8; Luke 13:29), and only this one of a person or a light. Hence the versions divide: read from the sun it is a dawn, read from plants it is a shoot; the Greek settles neither. Verse 79 continues at once with ἐπιφᾶναι τοῖς ἐν σκότει, to shine on those sitting in darkness, which brings the light reading nearer. The σκότος and σκιὰ θανάτου of v.79 sound the same Isaiah passage as Matthew 4:16 — and in our corpus σκότος is fixed as the dark.

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