Five-minute study · Day 318 · Luke 1
Luke 1:28
A word worth stopping on: highly favoured χαριτόω charitoo
'And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.' The Greek phrase behind 'highly favoured' is kecharitomene. It is a perfect passive participle of charitoo: to grace, to endow with grace. The perfect tense means the action was completed before the angel arrived. The passive voice means Mary did not generate this favor; it was done to her. Before Gabriel spoke a word, before Mary said yes or no, God had already acted. The greeting itself is startling. Angels in the Old Testament typically open with 'Fear not.' Gabriel opens with a word that appears only twice in the entire New Testament, here and in Ephesians 1:6, where Paul describes every believer as 'accepted in the beloved' using the same root.
Word study: highly favoured
- Greek
- χαριτόω
- Pronounced
- charitoo
- Strong's
- G5487
- Definition
- To grace, to bestow grace upon, to endue with special honor. A rare verb appearing only twice in the New Testament (Luke 1:28, Ephesians 1:6). The perfect passive participle kecharitomene means 'one who has been graced,' indicating a completed divine action.
Charitoo appears only twice in the New Testament. BDAG defines it as 'to cause to be the object of grace/favor, to bestow grace/favor upon.' The root is charis (grace), one of the most theologically loaded words in the New Testament (appearing 155 times). Charitoo is the verbal form: to do the action of grace to someone. The perfect passive participle kecharitomene in Luke 1:28 stacks three grammatical features. Perfect: the action is complete with lasting results. Passive: the subject received the action. Participle: it functions as a descriptor of Mary's state. She is 'the graced one.'
Fitzmyer's commentary on Luke I-IX (Anchor Bible) examines Gabriel's greeting in detail. The angel does not use Mary's name initially. He addresses her by her condition: kecharitomene. Fitzmyer notes that this is highly unusual. In Old Testament angelic encounters, the angel typically addresses the person by name (Genesis 16:8, Judges 6:12, Judges 13:3). Gabriel identifies Mary by what God has done to her. Her identity in this moment is defined by divine action.
Fitzmyer observes the parallel with Ephesians 1:6, where Paul writes that God 'hath made us accepted (echaritosen) in the beloved.' The same verb, same divine subject, same passive human recipient. What Gabriel declares about Mary individually, Paul declares about every believer collectively. The grace bestowed on Mary before the annunciation is the same grace bestowed on believers in Christ. The difference is specificity of vocation: Mary was graced for a particular task (bearing the Messiah). Believers are graced for participation in God's redemptive work. In both cases, the initiative belongs entirely to God, and the action is complete before the human subject responds.
Historical context · c. 6-4 BC
Nazareth at the Time of the Annunciation
Nazareth in the first century BC was a small agricultural village in lower Galilee, situated in a basin among the hills about 15 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. Archaeological excavations conducted since 1955, particularly by Bellarmino Bagatti of the Franciscan Biblical Institute, revealed that the village consisted of modest limestone dwellings, many of them built into hillside caves with stone facades added to the front. Storage pits, olive presses, and wine vats carved into the bedrock indicate an agrarian economy. Population estimates range from 200 to 400 people.
Nazareth does not appear in the Old Testament, the Talmud, or Josephus. Its obscurity is reflected in Nathanael's remark in John 1:46: 'Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?' A fragmentary Hebrew inscription discovered at Caesarea Maritima in 1962 (the 'Nazareth Inscription') lists Nazareth among the villages where priestly families settled after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, confirming the village's existence and its connection to the priestly order of Hapizzez.
Fitzmyer notes that Mary was likely between 12 and 14 years old at the time of the annunciation, consistent with Jewish betrothal customs in the late Second Temple period. The Mishnah (Niddah 5:6) records that girls could be betrothed from the age of twelve. Gabriel's visit to a teenage girl in an obscure village carries its own theological weight. The God who could have chosen any circumstance chose this one. The setting strips away every expectation of grandeur and leaves only the divine initiative: kecharitomene, graced before the angel ever arrived.
For reflection
The perfect tense means God acted on Mary before Gabriel spoke. Before she knew, before she consented, she was already graced. Where in your own story can you see evidence that God was working before you were aware of it?
Look backward. The moments you thought were coincidence or luck may have been kecharitomene: grace already completed, waiting for you to notice.
Sources: BDAG; Fitzmyer, "Luke I-IX" (AB)