Gabriel Appears to Mary

(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 7:1 - 7:21)
Immediately after Mary returned to Galilee, Jehovah sent his agent Gabriel to announce that she would conceive our Savior and to explain to her the manner of conceiving him.  When he appeared to her he filled the room with brilliant light.  He greeted her in a courteous manner and addressed her, "Hail to you, O Mary, the well-received Virgin of Jehovah, O Virgin full of grace!  Jehovah honors you!  You are blessed above all women -- above all men who have been born up until this time."

The Virgin was familiar with the faces of Jehovah's emissaries and regarded the divine illumination as nothing unusual.  Therefore, she was not all alarmed by the visitation nor surprised by the brilliance of the light.  She was perturbed, though, by words of the divine messenger.  What, she mused, was the meaning of so extravagant a greeting, what did it portend, what would it lead to?

Responding to her doubts, the emissary assured her, "Don't be afraid that my greeting suggests anything critical of your chastity.  You have found favor with Jehovah because of your decision to remain a virgin.  But while you will remain a virgin you will nevertheless conceive without carnal sin and give birth to a son.  He will be of greatness, reigning from sea to sea, to the rivers that run round the edge of the world.  He will be proclaimed the Son of the Most High.  While he will be born on earth in humble circumstances, he reigns with exalted status in Heaven.  Jehovah will grant him the throne of his ancestor David.  He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.  For he is the King of Kings, the Master of Masters -- and his reign will be eternal." 

 The Virgin reacted to this announcement by Jehovah's emissary not with disbelief, but with curiosity as to how to it might be brought about.  "How is this possible?  According to my vow I have not had carnal knowledge of a man.  How can I bear a child without there being the contribution of a man's seed?"

The answer Gabriel gave was this, "Do not think, Mary, that you will conceive in the normal way.  Without having intercourse with a man and while remaining a virgin, you will still conceive.  As a virgin you will give birth to a child.  And as a virgin you will nurse it.  For it will be the Spirit Divine that impregnates you and the Most High that holds you in his power, without there being any lustful passions.  Thus your offspring will be holy because it has been conceived without sin, and after birth, he will be called the Son of God."

Mary, lifting her arms and raising her eyes to the heavens, proclaimed, "Behold the maid servant of Jehovah! May this happen to me as you have said it would."

Notes
1. Agents/emissaries sent by Jehovah usually remain nameless.  Here, for this important task, an event that will later be called the Annunciation of the Virgin, the luminous being who appears is Gabriel, known popularly as the archangel who blows a horn.  (He is without his horn here.)  He greets Mary in a grand manner, mollifies her fears, and explains to her how she is going to give birth, without sexual intercourse, to the Son of God.  Significantly, Mary is not alarmed or surprised by his appearance for she regularly has visits from such heavenly beings.

2. Mary is understandably skeptical about a virgin giving birth, but Gabriel explains how it is possible through the Spirit Divine -- only he doesn't really explain it.  The seed of a man is necessary for conception, as Mary points out.  (Apparently, despite her cloistered upbringing, someone did tell her a little bit about the birds and the bees.)  While God may finds a means of artificial insemination, does he, a spirit being, possess the DNA of a man?  Gabriel is not very specific.

3. Sexual intercourse, not just that done for pleasure, but for propagation, is regarded here as sinful. Life, the ultimate good, one would think, is thus produced by an act that is sinful.  But if human beings did not sin and have sex once in a while, there would be no people for whom Jehovah could be god.  Is there no perception of this inconsistency?

4. Jesus, the Son of God, will reign over the house of Jacob and will succeed to the throne of King David.  But he will also reign over the whole world and his reign will last forever.  When and how this will come to pass is not explained, and this claim is not one that arouses Mary's curiosity. 

5. In describing the world, Gabriel alludes to rivers surrounding it.  Apparently the emissaries of Jehovah who supposedly created the world have as little knowledge about the nature of the earth as the common, ignorant people of the 1st century BC.  Before it was realized (firstly by ancient Greek philosophers) that the earth was a globe, it was widely believed that the earth was flat and that its lands were surrounded by a river or an ocean.  (Eventually one would fall off the edge -- to where, who knew?)