"Hail, Mary, full of grace..." Luke 1:28

[mshealy]

Two questions: First, what exactly does “Mary” mean in Greek/Hebrew? I have heard it means “excellent.” Is this true? What significance does this have for Mariology? Second, and most important, I have noticed that traditional Catholic bibles translate Lk 1:28 as “Hail, Mary, full of grace…” However, most other bibles say something different, most typically, “Greetings, favored one…” (NRSV) “Full of grace” has a lot more significance, I think, than “favored one.” “Full of grace” goes a longer way to support doctrines like the immaculate conception, ever virgin, and the assumption, than “favored one.” So, what is the truth of the matter? Is is “full of grace” or “favored one”? What’s the best translation/exegesis here and WHY?

 

[Ann_Cheryl]

The meaning of the name Mary is not known for certain. It comes from the Hebrew name Miriam. I have seen it translated as rebellious and also bitter. There was even one translation that meant beloved.
As for the translation, I found this on EWTN
I am finding it difficult to post a link but I think I have got it.

ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=319737&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2002&Author=&Keyword=full+of+grace&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=36&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=%between%/QUOTE]

The verse is Luke 1:28. The Catholic NAB rendering is ‘… highly favored daughter.’ The New King James rendering is ‘… highly favored one.’ The word ‘one’ is italicized, which means it is not in the Greek text and is supplied because the translators decided the sense is more plain in English with the supplied noun or pronoun. That alone means that a translation with no noun or pronoun (such as ‘full of grace’) is actually more true to the Greek text.

There is no word in the Greek text that is translated ‘highly.’ The word that is translated ‘favoured’ is ‘khar-ee-tuh-oh,’ which is the verb form of ‘khar-ece’ (charis), which is our word ‘grace.’ Thus, ‘charito-o’ means: ‘indue with special honor; be highly favored; be full of or filled with grace.’

That means that ‘full of grace’ and ‘highly favored’ are both fine translations, but it seems to me that the word ‘grace’ needs to be there. In fact, the old King James had as a standard textual note for ‘highly favoured’: ‘Or, graciously accepted, or, much graced.’ Also, every time in the New Testament that you see the word ‘grace’ (save one - in James 1:11), it is the Greek word ‘charis,’ which tells me that the verb form of ‘cgaris’ is best translated with ‘grace.’

There is no Greek textual case that can be made to disparage the translation ‘full of grace.’ There is a powerful argument that ‘grace’ is better than ‘favored.’

 

[antonius]

Ann Cheryl:

The meaning of the name Mary is not known for certain. It comes from the Hebrew name Miriam. I have seen it translated as rebellious and also bitter. There was even one translation that meant beloved.

I believe the name Mary (Miryam) is derived from the Hebrew “mara” which does indeed mean “bitter.” I’m not sure what implications this name has for Mariology, since Mary the mother of Jesus (Miryam the mother of Y’eshua) was likely not the first person to bear this name – just as her son was certainly not the first Y’eshua. It is likely that both of these names were rather common in Israel at the time.
Ann Cheryl:

There is no Greek textual case that can be made to disparage the translation ‘full of grace.’ There is a powerful argument that ‘grace’ is better than ‘favored.’

The actual word that is translated “full of grace” or “highly favored” is kecharitomene – which is a perfect passive participle of charitoo. It implies a completion or perfection of charis (grace) – perhaps a more accurate expression in English would be “made full of grace” or “graced as much as one can be graced.” The interesting thing about this term is that the angel uses it to address Mary – as though it were her name, or a title.

What this specific address means for Mariology is that

(a) it is spoken by an angel, a direct messenger of God, implying that the title is God’s own chosen term for Mary of Nazareth; and

(b) being addressed specifically to Mary, rather than merely used in some way to describe her, the term is made personal and unique to her. It applies to Mary alone, and to no other personage. It is not merely a descriptive term; it is a title of address, a personal name.

To be imbued, personally, with as much grace as it is possible for a person to be imbued with, can there be room for sin?

 

[Brendan]

antonius:

I, since Mary the mother of Jesus (Miryam the mother of Y’eshua) was likely not the first person to bear this name – just as her son was certainly not the first Y’eshua. It is likely that both of these names were rather common in Israel at the time.

That’s correct. Miriam was the name of Mose’s sister, the one who watched over him in the basket.

It was indeed a very common Jewish name, considering the large number of ‘Marys’ in the Gospels.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus
Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of James the younger
Mary, sister of Martha and Lazurus
Mary the wife of Clopas

 

[Della]

From the Catholic encyclopedia online (an older version):

…the name miryam may be derived either from marah, to be rebellious, or from mara, to be well nourished. Etymology does not decide which of these derivations is to be preferred; but it is hardly probable that the name of a young girl should be connected with the idea of rebellion, while Orientals consider the idea of being well nourished as synonymous with beauty and bodily perfection, so that they would be apt to give their daughters a name derived from mara Mary means therefore *The beautiful * or The perfect one.

 

[But_for_Grace]

It is intresting that in the ancient Egyptian language the word “mery” means either “mighty of brow” or “blessed” especially since the holy family fled to Egypt.

 

[BM5]

“Hail full of grace” to me is light-years away from “highly favoured”.
"Full of grace “is specific and unique to the Blessed Virgin and also leads us to " Immaculate”. Highly favoured could mean anything, it loses something.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Hi Ann Cheryl,

there is a lengthy article on the name of Mary here,
newadvent.org/cathen/15464a.htm

Hebrew is my strength and as such I would go with

“bitter sea” … is based on the assumption that the name miryam is composed of the Hebrew words mar (bitter) and yam (sea).

Why is the sea bitter? Salt

What are the uses of salt?

favor to food
purification
perservation

also,

from Nave’s Topical Bible

-All animal sacrifices were required to be seasoned with Le 2:13; Ezr 6:9; Eze 43:24; Mr 9:49

-Used in ratifying covenants Nu 18:19; 2Ch 13:5

-Elisha throws, into the pool of Jericho, to purify it 2Ki 2:20, 21

-FIGURATIVE .Of the saving efficacy of the ekklesia of Christ Mt 5:13; Mr 9:49, 50; Lu 14:34 .Of wise behavior Col 4:6

So, that may be an angle you may want to look into.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

The greek under “highly favored” is used 3 times in 2 verses in the NT.

Luk 1:28 And 2532 the angel 32 came in 1525 unto 4314 her 846, and said 2036 , Hail 5463 , [thou that art] highly favoured 5487 , the Lord 2962 [is] with 3326 thee 4675: blessed 2127 [art] thou 4771 among 1722 women 1135.

---

Eph 1:6 To 1519 the praise 1868 of the glory 1391 of his 846 grace 5485, wherein 1722 3739 he hath made 5487 0 us 2248 accepted 5487 in 1722 the beloved 25 .

And, can have a wider range of meaning than assigned in luke,

1. to make graceful

a) charming, lovely, agreeable

1. to peruse with grace, compass with favour
2. to honour with blessings

Thayer’s Lexicon (Help)
blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/5/1129893391-5906.html

Since a word or phrase gains its meaning from its context, try reading Luke 1:28 with each of the above possible meanings to see which make sense. I think 2 & 3 fit better than 1. Also, try using an online parallel bible on Luke 1:28 to see the range of translation, and ask which makes sense in that context.

Simply show why a translation makes sense in the given context.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

The strongest arguement against ever virgin is the fact that married Jewish couples are expected to reproduced based on the command in Genesis. It is assumed among bible believers that both Mary and Joseph were young and healthy. If Joseph were older and unable to perform then it is possible they would not be able to fulfill the law in genesis. There is a book outside the NT which makes their marriage Josephs’ second marriage. It is possible that Joseph died during the life of Jesus because he is absent later in the gospels. At his death Jesus turned his mother over to John to care for her, thus it is possible that Mary did not have Joseph or sons to care for her.

 

[SFH]

Daniel Marsh:

The strongest arguement against ever virgin is the fact that married Jewish couples are expected to reproduced based on the command in Genesis. It is assumed among bible believers that both Mary and Joseph were young and healthy. If Joseph were older and unable to perform then it is possible they would not be able to fulfill the law in genesis. There is a book outside the NT which makes their marriage Josephs’ second marriage. It is possible that Joseph died during the life of Jesus because he is absent later in the gospels. At his death Jesus turned his mother over to John to care for her, thus it is possible that Mary did not have Joseph or sons to care for her.

Correction: There is no command to reproduce in Genesis. The words spoken at creation are a blessing. Note that the same words are said to the animals, which were not capable of receiving a command.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

interresting,

It is listed as the 63 of the 613 mitzvot (commandments).
jewfaq.org/613.htm

Much could be said in response, but only one comment is essential: Genesis 1:28 is not a commandment, but a blessing. It does not refer to what humans must do to please God, but to what God does for and through humankind. The text says, “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’” (RSV). Fertility is not a command but a blessing that God gives to his creatures, to animals as well as humans (Gen. 1:22). The filling of the Earth is a gift of God’s wisdom and shows forth his glory as Creator (Ps. 104:24, 31; Isa. 6:3).

christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/014/4.58.html

 

[Verbum]

Hi MShealy,

The Greek does mean “highly-favored one.”

The verb used in Greek comes from the word “Charis”, which means “favor”. There is a corresponding Latin word for “charis”, which is “gratia”, but no corresponding Latin verb for the Greek verb “charitoo”. So the Latin used a circumlocution, “gratia plena” (full of [God’s] favor), and that was fine for the Latin.

Now, until modern times, Catholic bibles had to be translated from the Latin, so it was natural to translate '“full of grace”. The problem is that, since the Latin translation was first done, the word “grace” has acquired a theological meaning that it did not necessarily have in the original Latin and still less in the original Greek.

It is true that some Fathers and other theologians have used this phrase to support Mary’s special privileges, like the Immaculate Conception, but doing this, they were not consecrating a particular translation of the Bible, but stating a belief that they had received from Tradition. A Father can wrongly quote the bible, but doing this, he is a witness to the timeless tradition of the Church. (Another case is the “shall crush the head of the serpent” passage in Genesis, which was originally wrongly interpreted as applying directly to Mary).

In conclusion, “full of grace” is fine if you understand it as it was originally understood, but “highly favored” is more correct as being closer to the original text.

Verbum

 

[jimmy]

Ann Cheryl:

The meaning of the name Mary is not known for certain. It comes from the Hebrew name Miriam. I have seen it translated as rebellious and also bitter. There was even one translation that meant beloved.
As for the translation, I found this on EWTN
I am finding it difficult to post a link but I think I have got it.

The verse is Luke 1:28. The Catholic NAB rendering is ‘… highly favored daughter.’ The New King James rendering is ‘… highly favored one.’ The word ‘one’ is italicized, which means it is not in the Greek text and is supplied because the translators decided the sense is more plain in English with the supplied noun or pronoun. That alone means that a translation with no noun or pronoun (such as ‘full of grace’) is actually more true to the Greek text.

There is no word in the Greek text that is translated ‘highly.’ The word that is translated ‘favoured’ is ‘khar-ee-tuh-oh,’ which is the verb form of ‘khar-ece’ (charis), which is our word ‘grace.’ Thus, ‘charito-o’ means: ‘indue with special honor; be highly favored; be full of or filled with grace.’

It is not strictly a verb, it is a participle which is a verbal-adjective. It is in the vocative case, the perfect tense, passive mood, and feminine gender. To translate it as “be full of grace” or “be highly favored” is not a literal translation. The literal translation would be closer to “Hail, who has been filled with grace, the Lord is with you.” This maintains the voice, case, and tense. The fact that it is a vocative tense for the participle means that the angel is using it as an address to Mary. She is “filled with grace”, in the same way she is Mary. It is passive meaning that she has been filled. It is a perfect tense meaning that the action happened in the past and continues into the present. She was filled at some time in the past and she is still filled with grace.

 

[jimmy]

Verbum:

Hi MShealy,

The Greek does mean “highly-favored one.”

The verb used in Greek comes from the word “Charis”, which means “favor”. There is a corresponding Latin word for “charis”, which is “gratia”, but no corresponding Latin verb for the Greek verb “charitoo”. So the Latin used a circumlocution, “gratia plena” (full of [God’s] favor), and that was fine for the Latin.

Now, until modern times, Catholic bibles had to be translated from the Latin, so it was natural to translate '“full of grace”. The problem is that, since the Latin translation was first done, the word “grace” has acquired a theological meaning that it did not necessarily have in the original Latin and still less in the original Greek.

It is true that some Fathers and other theologians have used this phrase to support Mary’s special privileges, like the Immaculate Conception, but doing this, they were not consecrating a particular translation of the Bible, but stating a belief that they had received from Tradition. A Father can wrongly quote the bible, but doing this, he is a witness to the timeless tradition of the Church. (Another case is the “shall crush the head of the serpent” passage in Genesis, which was originally wrongly interpreted as applying directly to Mary).

In conclusion, “full of grace” is fine if you understand it as it was originally understood, but “highly favored” is more correct as being closer to the original text.

Verbum

The problem with this is that derivatives of this word are used in pretty much every place where the word grace is translated. If you change the meaning of the word in this verse you also change it in every other verse it is used, for example Ephesians.

The word xariti( xaritomena is from the same word ) is used in Ephesians to mean the grace that saves you.

 

[BM5]

" Full of Grace means more to me than highly favoured could ever come close to so I’ll stick with that "

About Gen.
Wrongly interpeted ? By who ?
So what is the latest new interpetation and who made it ?

 

[Dr_M]

It doesn’t feel “Catholic” to me if I say Hail, favored one. I’ve stopped reading the Bible in English because of this. I prefer Spanish, lolz.

 

[Mannyfit75]

" Full of Grace means more to me than highly favoured could ever come close to so I’ll stick with that "

About Gen.
Wrongly interpeted ? By who ?
So what is the latest new interpetation and who made it ?

In the original Latin it is “gratia plena”

The Greek word is kecharitomene." This is a unique title given to Mary, and suggests a perfection of grace from a past event. Mary is not just “highly favored.” She has been perfected in grace by God. “Full of grace” is only used to describe one other person - Jesus Christ in John 1:14.

 

[Dr_M]

In the original Latin it is “gratia plena”

The Greek word is kecharitomene." This is a unique title given to Mary, and suggests a perfection of grace from a past event. Mary is not just “highly favored.” She has been perfected in grace by God. “Full of grace” is only used to describe one other person - Jesus Christ in John 1:14.

Word

 

[victus]

The greek under “highly favored” is used 3 times in 2 verses in the NT.

Luk 1:28 And 2532 the angel 32 came in 1525 unto 4314 her 846, and said 2036 , Hail 5463 , [thou that art] highly favoured 5487 , the Lord 2962 [is] with 3326 thee 4675: blessed 2127 [art] thou 4771 among 1722 women 1135.

---

Eph 1:6 To 1519 the praise 1868 of the glory 1391 of his 846 grace 5485, wherein 1722 3739 he hath made 5487 0 us 2248 accepted 5487 in 1722 the beloved 25 .

The greek word, kecharitomene, in Luke 1:28 is only used once in the whole bible. Not even found in the Septuagint.