John Calvin Commentary Luke 1:55

"(As he spake unto our fathers) Toward Abraham and his seed for ever." — Luke 1:55 (ASV)

To Abraham and to his seed. If you read these words in close connection with the end of the previous verse, there appears to be an improper change of the case.

Instead of τῶ ᾿Αβραὰμ καὶ τῶ σπέρματι, it ought to have been (πρὸς)τὸν ᾿Αβραὰμ καὶ τὸ σπέρμα, as he spoke TO our fathers, TO Abraham and TO his seed.⁶³

But, in my opinion, there is no such close connection. Mary does not merely explain who the Fathers were to whom God spoke, but extends the power and result of the promises to all his posterity, provided they are the true seed of Abraham.

Hence it follows that the matter at hand is the solemn covenant which had been made in a special manner with Abraham and his descendants.

For other promises, which had been given to Adam, Noah, and others, referred indiscriminately to all nations.

As many of the children of Abraham according to the flesh have been cut off by their unbelief and have been thrown out as degenerate from the family of Abraham, so we, who were strangers, are admitted to it by faith and are regarded as the true seed of Abraham.

Let us therefore hold that, in consequence of God having formerly spoken to the fathers, the grace offered to them belongs equally to their posterity; and also, that the adoption has been extended to all nations, so that those who were not by nature children of Abraham may be his spiritual seed.

⁶³ Without attempting to make clear to the English reader the nature of this difficulty, which a Greek scholar will readily enough comprehend, it may suffice to say that the words, as he spake to our fathers, should be read as a parenthesis, and the words now under consideration will then be connected in the following manner: should be read as a parenthesis, and the words now under consideration will then be connected in the following manner: So as to be mindful (or, (or, in remembrance) of his mercy to Abraham, and to his seed, for ever. —— Ed.