Juraj Feník - Róbert Lapko, «Annunciations to Mary in Luke 1–2», Vol. 96 (2015) 498-524
In addition to the scene conventionally known as "the Annunciation" (Luke 1,26-38), three other texts in the infancy narrative qualify to be classed as such. This article proposes an understanding of 2,8-20; 2,22- 35; 2,41-52 as annunciation pericopes by highlighting the fact that other characters, namely, the shepherds, Simeon, and Jesus function as messengers communicating to Mary further information about her son. It identifies the messenger, the act of speaking, the message, and the reference to Jesus' mother in each of the four scenes. Luke's infancy narrative, so the argument runs, contains four annunciation scenes in which a progressive revelation about Jesus addressed to his mother takes place.
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and Radl champions the following: “Den Höhepunkt der Erzählung
bilden die geheimnisvollen und ahnungsschweren Aussagen über
das Kind (und vielleicht auch seine Mutter)” 24. In addition, Koet
notes that many scholars “den programmatischen Charakter dieser
Verse für das lukanische Doppelwerk insgesamt betont haben” 25.
After noting the family’s arrival in Jerusalem for presentation
(2,22-24), the evangelist in a sudden switch starts to introduce a
character whose principal role consists in delivering a new annun-
ciation to Mary regarding the identity of the child. An irreducible
ingredient in Luke’s meticulous presentation of the man is a three-
fold emphasis on the Holy Spirit in 2,25b-27. Besides mentioning
the Spirit’s presence in Simeon (2,25b) and a previous revelation
by the Spirit about seeing the Lord’s Messiah (2,26), Luke depicts
the man’s arrival in the temple as taking place through the agency
of the Spirit (2,27). The Spirit-oriented profile is therefore of con-
sequence in that it accentuates Simeon as a man sent by God, not
as someone with a self-adopted role of announcing. Such charac-
terization serves to include him in the line of previous personae to
function as messengers: Gabriel sent avpo. tou/ qeou/ (1,26) in the
first annunciation, and the shepherds who pass on the message
made known to them by a;ggeloj kuri,ou (2,9) in the second an-
nunciation. The third annunciation scene also involves a character
commissioned for his task by God.
Luke casts the man in the role of speaker by making him the
subject of the verbs euvlo,ghsen and ei=pen in 2,28b. This manœuvre
starts to highlight the character’s speaking function. Apart from
2,33 that features the parents’ reaction to what has been said, the
man’s words comprise a relatively long section (2,29-35), falling
into two parts (2,29-32 and 2,34b-35), as the identification of dif-
ferent addressees suggests. Whereas in the first part Simeon ad-
dresses God 26, in the second he turns his words to Mary. Although
24
RADL, Der Ursprung Jesu, 229.
25
B.J. KOET, “Simeons Worte (Lk 2,29-32.34c-35) und Israels Geschick”,
The Four Gospels 1992. Festschrift Frans Neirynck (eds. C.M. TUCKETT –
G. VAN BELLE – F. VAN SEGBROECK – J. VERHEYDEN) (BETL 100; Leiden 1992)
II, 1549-1569, here 1550.
26
A.M. GARCÍA SERRANO, The Presentation in the Temple. The Narrative
Function of Lk 2:22-39 in Luke-Acts (AnBib 197; Roma 2012) 176, writes:
“This is the first time in the whole of the infancy narrative that a human character
addresses God directly”.
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