Luke 1:28 (WEB)
Having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!”
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Luke 1:28 (KJV)
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.
Key words
- χαῖρεchaire · Greek
- 'Hail' — literally 'rejoice,' the greeting the prophets address to Daughter Zion (Zephaniah 3:14 LXX; Zechariah 9:9 LXX).
- κεχαριτωμένηkecharitōmenē · Greek
- 'highly favoured' — a perfect passive participle of charitoō, 'to grace': 'you who have been graced,' a completed state of grace still in effect. The Latin gratia plena, 'full of grace,' and the Hail Mary come from here.
- ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦho kyrios meta sou · Greek
- 'the Lord is with thee' — the assurance given to those chosen for a mission (Gideon, Judges 6:12).
Why it matters
Gabriel greets Mary as one already 'graced' and tells her the Lord is with her. Pitre notes the force of the Greek but deliberately does not rest the Immaculate Conception on this phrase alone; he grounds it in the New Eve typology the Fathers drew from Genesis 3:15. Read in that light, the greeting is what one would expect said to the sinless Woman of the new creation.