The Annunciation
An angel came to a young woman in Nazareth with news that would change history, and Mary answered, "be it unto me according to thy word."
In the sixth month of Elisabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city of Galilee, to a virgin named Mary who was espoused to Joseph of the house of David. Gabriel greeted her as highly favored and told her she would conceive and bring forth a son, call His name JESUS, and that He would be called the Son of the Highest and reign over the house of Jacob for ever. When Mary asked how this could be, seeing she knew not a man, the angel answered that the Holy Ghost would come upon her and the power of the Highest would overshadow her, adding that her cousin Elisabeth had conceived a son in her old age, 'For with God nothing shall be impossible.' Mary answered with humble trust: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.'
Did You Know?
Gabriel had appeared six months earlier to Zechariah in the temple to announce the birth of John the Baptist.
Gabriel's promise that the child would receive 'the throne of his father David' echoes God's covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7.
The Feast of the Annunciation is traditionally kept on March 25, nine months before Christmas.
Key Passage
The Annunciation
Luke 1:26-38
26nd in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
Meanwhile in the World
The Roman Empire is at its peak under Augustus and Tiberius (Pax Romana). Rome controls the entire Mediterranean world. Roads, common language (Greek), and peace make travel and communication easy - the 'fullness of time.' Herod the Great rules Judea as a client king.
