Lukas 1:12-13

1:12 And Zechariah, visibly shaken when he saw the angel, ¹  was seized with fear. ²  1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, ³  and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son; you ⁴  will name him John. ⁵ 

Lukas 1:30

1:30 So ⁶  the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, ⁷  Mary, for you have found favor ⁸  with God!

[1:12]  ¹ tn The words “the angel” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:12]  ² tn Or “and he was afraid”; Grk “fear fell upon him.” Fear is common when supernatural agents appear (1:29-30, 65; 2:9; 5:8-10; 9:34; 24:38; Exod 15:16; Judg 6:22-23; 13:6, 22; 2 Sam 6:9).

[1:13]  ³ tn The passive means that the prayer was heard by God.

[1:13]  sn Your prayer has been heard. Zechariah’s prayer while offering the sacrifice would have been for the nation, but the answer to the prayer also gave them a long hoped-for child, a hope they had abandoned because of their old age.

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Grk “a son, and you”; καί (kai) has not been translated. Instead a semicolon is used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Grk “you will call his name John.” The future tense here functions like a command (see ExSyn 569-70). This same construction occurs in v. 31.

[1:13]  sn “Do not be afraid…you must call his name John.” This is a standard birth announcement (see Gen 16:11; Isa 7:14; Matt 1:21; Luke 1:31).

[1:30]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that Gabriel’s statement is a response to Mary’s perplexity over the greeting.

[1:30]  ⁷ sn Do not be afraid. See 1:13 for a similar statement to Zechariah.

[1:30]  ⁸ tn Or “grace.”

[1:30]  sn The expression found favor is a Semitism, common in the OT (Gen 6:8; 18:3; 43:14; 2 Sam 15:25). God has chosen to act on this person’s behalf.