26. Comp. 'Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ,' pp. 143-149. Also the
article on 'Marriage' in Cassell's Bible-Educator, vol. iv. pp. 267-270.
27. There was a third mode, by cohabitation; but this was highly disapproved of even by
the Rabbis.
28. The assertion of Professor Wünsche (Neue Beitr. zur Erläuter. d. Evang. p. 7) that the
practice of betrothal was confined exclusively, or almost so, to Judæa, is quite
ungrounded. The passages to wh ich he refers (Kethub. i. 5 - not 3 - and especially Keth.
12 a) are irrelevant. Keth. 12 a marks the simpler and purer customs of Galilee, but does
not refer to betrothals.
Five months of Elisabeth's sacred retirement had passed, when a strange messenger
brought its first tidings to her kinswoman in far-off Galilee. It was not in the solemn
grandeur of the Temple, between the golden altar of incense and the seven-branched
candlesticks that the Angel Gabriel now appeared, but in the privacy of a humble home at
Nazareth. The greatest honor bestowed on man was to come amidst circumstances of
deepest human lowliness, as if the more clearly to mark the exclusively Divine character
of what was to happen. And, although the awe of the Supernatural must unconscious ly
have fallen upon her, it was not so much the sudden appearance of the mysterious
stranger in her retirement that startled the maiden, as the words of his greeting, implying
unthought blessing. The 'Peace to thee'29 was, indeed, the well-known salutation, while
the words, 'The Lord is with thee' might waken the remembrance of the Angelic call, to
great deliverance in the past.30 But this designation of 'highly favored'31 came upon her
with bewildering surprise, perhaps not so much from its contrast to the humbleness of her
estate, as from the self-conscious humility of her heart. And it was intended so, for of all
feelings this would now most become her. Accordingly, it is this story of special 'favour'
or grace, which the Angel traces in rapid outline, from the conception of the Virgin-
Mother to the distinctive, Divinely- given Name, symbolic of the meaning of His coming;
His absolute greatness; His acknowledgment as the Son of God; and the fulfillment in
Him of the great Davidic hope, with its never-ceasing royalty, 32 and its never-ending,
boundless Kingdom.33
29. I have rendered the Greek χαιρε by the Hebrew Μωλ# and for the correctness of it
refer the reader to Grimm's remarks on 1 Macc. x. 18 (Exeget. Handb. zu d. Apokryph.
3tte Lief. p. 149).
30. Judg. vi. 12.
31. Bengel aptly remarks, 'Non ut mater gratiae, sed ut filia gratiae.' Even Jeremy
Taylor's remarks (Life of Christ, ed. Pickering, vol. i. p. 56) would here require
modification. Following the best critical authorities, I have omitted the words, 'Blessed
art thou among women.'
32. We here refer, as an interesting corroboration, to the Targum on Ps. xlv. 7 (6 in our A.
V.). But this interest is intensely increased when we read it, not as in our editions of the
Targum, but as found in a MS. copy of the year 1208 (given by Levy in his Targum.
Wörterb. vol. i. p. 390 a). Translating it from that reading, the Targum thus renders Ps.