02_Feník Lapko_498-524_498-524 10/12/15 10:15 Pagina 501 501 ANNUNCIATIONS TO MARY IN LUKE 1–2 501 tells the virgin that she will conceive and bear a son and name him Jesus. For the moment the relationship Mary-Jesus appears in the forefront of the message. The next two verbs (1,32a) shift attention more particularly to Jesus by taking him as the subject and referring to him as one destined to be great (e;stai) and to be called the son of the Most High (klhqh,setai), another piece of information for Mary. Next she learns (1,32b-33a), hearing the sixth verb in the fu- ture tense, that God — injected here as the new subject — will give Jesus the throne of David (dw,sei) and that Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob forever, as the seventh verb promises (basileu,sei). The rapid succession of verbs is brought to a close with the asser- tion in 1,33b — expressed as it is through the eighth verb in future tense, with te,loj as the subject — that there will be no end to Jesus’ rule (ouvk e;stai). As the Lucan narrative has it so far, in the first part of his message Gabriel announces that Mary is to become the mother of the Davidic Messiah whom she is to name Jesus. The statements of this announcement are couched in traditional lan- guage inspired by the classic statements of the Davidic promise found in 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89 4. Pietsch summarizes the con- tent of 1,31-33 well: “Die Verse stehen zunächst noch ganz inner- halb der jüdischen und frühen judenchristlichen Messiaserwartung, in deren Vorstellung und Sprache der Engel die Messiasrolle des Kindes ankündigt” 5. The second part of the angel’s speech is elicited by Mary’s ques- tion in 1,34 as to the how (pw/j) of what has just been foretold. Whatever the exact logic of the question in the narrative is 6, it serves “to give the angel the further opportunity to speak of the child’s identity” 7. Before spelling out the content of the second part 4 See the chart in M.L. STRAUSS, The Davidic Messiah in Luke-Acts. The Promise and its Fulfillment in Lukan Christology (JSNTSup 110; Sheffield 1995) 88-89. 5 M. PIETSCH, Dieser ist der Spross Davids. Studien zur Rezeptionsge- schichte der Nathanverheissung im alttestamentlichen, zwischentestamentli- chen und neutestamentlichen Schrifttum (WMANT 100; Neukirchen-Vluyn 2003) 267. 6 See PELLEGRINO, Maria di Nazaret, Profezia del Regno, 203-311, for a recent assessment of the role Mary’s query plays in the story. 7 D.T. LANDRY, “Narrative Logic in the Annunciation to Mary (Luke 1:26- 38)”, JBL 114 (1995) 65-79, here 69. For L. LEGRAND, L’Annonce à Marie.