John Calvin Commentary Luke 1:26

"Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth," — Luke 1:26 (ASV)

Now in the sixth month. It was a wonderful dispensation of the divine purpose, and far removed from the ordinary judgment of men, that God determined to make the beginning of the generation of the herald more illustrious than that of His own Son. The prophecy concerning John was published in the temple and universally known. Christ is promised to a virgin in an obscure town of Judea, and this prophecy remains buried in the heart of a young woman. But it was fitting that, even from the birth of Christ, that saying should be fulfilled: “it pleased God by foolishness to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

The treasure of this mystery was committed by Him to a virgin in such a manner that, eventually, when the right time came, it might be communicated to all the godly. It was, I admit, a humble kind of guardianship; but whether for testing the humility of faith or restraining the pride of the ungodly, it was the most suitable.

Let us learn, even when the reason does not immediately appear, to submit modestly to God. Let us not be ashamed to receive instruction from her who carried in her womb Christ, the eternal “wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). There is nothing we should more carefully avoid than the proud contempt that would deprive us of the knowledge of the inestimable secret, which God has purposely “hid from the wise and prudent, and revealed” to the humble and “to babes” (Luke 10:21).

It was, I think, for the same reason that He chose a virgin betrothed to a man. There is no foundation for Origen’s opinion that He did this for the purpose of concealing from Satan the salvation which He was preparing to bestow on humanity. The marriage was a veil held out before the eyes of the world, so that He who was commonly “supposed to be the son of Joseph” (Luke 3:23) might eventually be believed and acknowledged by the godly to be the Son of God.

Yet the entrance of Christ into the world was not destitute of glory, for the splendor of His Godhead was manifested from the beginning by His heavenly Father. Angels announced that “a Savior was born” (Luke 2:11), but their voice was only heard by the shepherds and traveled no further. One miracle—everywhere published by “the wise men who came from the east” (Matthew 2:1), that they had seen a star which proclaimed the birth of the Highest King—may have been highly celebrated. Yet we see how God kept His Son, as it were, in concealment until the time of His full manifestation arrived, and then erected for Him a platform, that He might be seen by all.

The participle μεμνηστευμένην, which is used by the Evangelist, signifies that the virgin had then been engaged to her bridegroom but was not yet given as a wife to her husband. For it was customary among Jewish parents to keep their daughters at home for some time after they had been betrothed to men; otherwise, the law relating to the seduction of a “betrothed damsel” (Deuteronomy 22:23) would have been unnecessary. Luke says that Joseph was of the house of David; for families are usually reckoned by the names of the men. However, we will speak more fully on this point in another place.