An Angel Visits Mary – Christmas History and Story

The angel’s visit to Mary to tell her that she will give birth to Jesus is a very special story and marks the very beginning of the story of the first Christmas.

The Bible Story – Luke 1:26-38. https://www.bible.com/bible/111/LUK.1.26-38.NIV

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of God.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’

‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’

The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit’ will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.’

‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.

The History Behind an Angel Visiting Mary Story

At the time of Jesus’s birth, Mary was most likely between fourteen to sixteen years of age.

At that time, this was a very normal age for a young woman to be married and giving birth to children.

This means that Jesus was born to a teenage mother. At the time, Joseph would have been significantly older than Mary, probably about 30 years of age.

In biblical times, Mary and Joseph would be considered a pretty normal, average looking couple.

Joseph worked as a carpenter, meaning that they were likely to be quite poor, but the church recognized carpentry as more of a religious calling and less of a profession at that time, which made it a respectable trade.

Both Mary and Joseph were members of the Jewish faith which meant that they were descendants of King David of Israel.

However, there was not much wealth in their family during that time, so Mary and Joseph were certainly not wealthy.

Mary was related by blood to the priest families in Israel.

Mary and Joseph were both from a small town in the country of Israel called Nazareth.

The town had a small center area for the church where the priests from the temple came to fulfill their prayer and fasting obligations to the faith.

Many people traveled through Nazareth as it was along a route that caravans frequently followed.

In the Jewish faith, the engagement is almost as serious a commitment as a marriage, and because of this,

Mary and Joseph’s engagement could be broken only by going through a divorce process as if they were already married.

Thinking back to the angel’s visit to Mary – that angel that visited her was named Gabriel and is God’s main messenger angel.

Throughout the Bible, Gabriel has been known to appear to the most important and most devout of God’s followers.

When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

These words are extremely important and were Gabriel’s way of telling Mary that she is a very special and important gift from God.

This is not something that a girl from a poor family, like Mary, would be used to hearing.

It is likely that she was very frightened which is why the angel told her, “Do not be afraid”.

Back in these times, Jesus’s name would have been recognized as Jeshua.

This was an extremely common name at the time that many young children had. It was not until later that Jesus became widely regarded as Jesus in the sense of the name that means ‘saviour’.

The fact that Gabriel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would be with her would have been another quite shocking thing for Mary to hear as this was another phrase that historically, was only said to people in the Bible who had very important roles.

Although Mary had a strong faith, she also had doubts and before she told Joseph about the visit from Gabriel, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth to see if Gabriel’s prediction about her having a baby would come true as well.

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Main Points About Angel Visits Mary

1. Based on the Christmas story, God sent an angel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee to a virgin.
2. The virgin’s name was Mary. She was the betrothed of a carpenter named Joseph (He was a descendant of King David).
3. When angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her that she was highly favored and God was with her.
4. The angel told Mary that she will be with a child and he shall be called the son of the Highest God.
5. Mary asked how it was possible since she was still a virgin, then the angel said the Holy Spirit will come upon her.

Conclusion

When God sent angel Gabriel to announce the fact that she was expecting, to a virgin named Mary, the angel told her that she shouldn’t be afraid.

She’d have a son and asked her to mane him Jesus as he would be God’s child and that the Lord was with her.

Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph, from the house of David.

Word Cloud for Angel Visits Mary

The following is a collection of the most used terms in this article on Angel Visits Mary. This should help in recalling related terms as used in this article at a later stage for you.

References

1. https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-stories/6/angel-visits-mary/
2. https://bibleview.org/en/bible/birthofjesus/angelgabriel/