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Luk 1:35. Δύναμις ὑψίστου, the power of the Highest) Often these words are put in conjunction, Spirit and Power, as in Luk 1:17; but in this passage the Power of the Highest rather denotes, by Metonymy,[9] the Highest, whose Power is infinite. So we have the expression, the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1Co 5:4. The coming of the Holy Ghost upon Mary made her fit for receiving the overshadowing of the power of the Highest.-ἐπισκιάσει σοι, shall overshadow thee) This overshadowing denotes the mildest and most gentle [most modified] operation of the Divine power, whereby it was effected that the Divine Fire did not consume Mary, but made her fruitful. Comp. Mar 9:7 [the cloud overshadowed them at the transfiguration]; Exo 33:22. Many suppose allusion is here made to חפה, veiled, as a bride. It was not fitting that the will of man or of the flesh should help towards this [the Saviour’s incarnation]. It was from the substance of Mary that the elements were taken, whatever contributed not only to the ΣΎΛΛΗΨΙς, the conception, but also to the nourishment of the holy fetus [embryo]. And this is considered [is to be viewed so], either antecedently to the moment of actual union with the Λόγος, or else in the very act and state of union. Antecedently to the union, it [what was taken from the substance of the mother] no otherwise than the mother herself, required to be redeemed by virtue of the λύτρον, redemption, about to be effected through the ΘΕΆΝΘΡΩΠΟΝ, God-man, Christ, and was sanctified by the Holy Spirit; and thus it was that the union of the ΛΌΓΟς and the flesh, now [made] holy, had place. I may purchase a farm: and out of the produce of that farm, when subsequently well cultivated, I may pay the price for the farm itself, which has become much more valuable since its cultivation. David bought the area [site] of the temple for a few shekels of silver [2Sa 24:24]; but the same area became inestimably valuable, when the temple was built upon it.[10]-διὸ καὶ, wherefore also) Thus the Angel gives a satisfactory answer to the question, How, Luk 1:34.-τὸ γεννώμενον,[11] which is being conceived [given birth to; not as Engl. Vers. Which shall be born]) in this new and extraordinary manner. Abstract terms, and such as are expressed in the neuter gender, are very much in consonance with those first beginnings of the Gospel revelation; Luk 1:68; Luk 1:71; Luk 1:78; Luk 2:25; Luk 2:30; Luk 2:38.-ἅγιον, Holy) This word is regarded by Tertullian, the Syr[12] Version, the author of the discourse against all heresies in Athanasius, and others of the ancients, as part of the predicate, It shall be called Holy, (and) the Son of God. At all events, the sense of the sentence is most full and compressed: There is a something which is to be given birth to: that which is being given birth to, shall be holy; this holy thing shall be called the Son of God. The whole is inferred from the immediately preceding words of the angel, and that in some such way as the following: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee; wherefore that, which is being given birth to, shall be Holy. The Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; wherefore that Holy thing shall be called the Son of God. Luk 1:32 is parallel to this: Thy Son shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. In Divine things, greatness and holiness very much harmonize. It was concerning this Holy One that the same angel spake in Dan 9:24.
[9] See Append. Here the substitution of the Adjunct (the Power) for the Subject (the Highest).-ED. and TRANSL.
[10] So Jesus purchased our flesh (humanity) by the redemption about to be made by Him, and then afterwards, by the union of the Λόγος to it, and by the actual paying of the price of His blood, as God-man, made it infinitely more precious.-ED. and TRANSL.
[11] The words ἐκ σοῦ, of thee, subjoined to this participle, had been declared in the margin of the larger Ed. to be an improbable reading; but in Ed. 2 the reading is raised to the sign δ, and is given in the Vers. Germ., though enclosed in brackets. Therefore Bengel ought not to have been reckoned, in the Bibl. Theol. Tom. viii. p. 106, among those who have omitted these words.-E. B.
[12] yr. the Peschito Syriac Version: second cent.: publ. and corrected by Cureton, from MS. of fifth cent.
Lachm. reads ἐκ σοῦ (though in brackets), with C corrected later, ac, some MSS. of Vulg. Iren. Cypr.: and, before γεννώμενον, Hil. ABDb omit the words; and so Tischend.-ED. and TRANSL.