Mary's Visitation

 
     As a part of the coming forth of the Messiah the angel Gabriel was sent from God to visit the virgin Mary of Nazareth of Galilee. We of the LDS faith understand this angel Gabriel to be the same as the Biblical prophet Noah upon whom now was laid the patriarch of the human family after the great flood. Only in the gospel of Luke is this 'annunciation visitation' to Mary recorded. I suppose that is artist were to conceptualize Mary's visitation with the understanding that the angel was Noah, they might illustrate it somewhat differently. What the angel said to Mary according to Luke was this:

    "Hail, thou that are highly favoured, the Lor is with thee: blessed art thou amoung women. ... Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS [JEHOSHUA]. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord [LORD GOD] God shall give him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob [Israel] for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." ~ Luke 1:28, 30-33

The Greek name JESUS is the same name as the Hebrew name Joshua or more formally, JEHOSHUA, which means JEHOVAH DELIVERER or SAVIOUR. That this child was actually to be the Spirit God Jehovah come to earth to obtain his own temporal body and to become the Redeemer of mankind is assured as eslewhere he teaches that he was the God of Abraham and that before Abaraham was 'I AM'. And here Gabriel speaks of this child's father as David, yet he also states that he would be the 'Son of the Highest' meaning the Son of God. Thus later Jesus will question well when he quotes from Palsms 110 concerning David's Lord and David's Lord's LORD or Father, and how then is David his Father, the father of Jehovah, of JESUS?

Of course we understand that Mary was a descendant of King David, as was he husband to be, her near cousin Joseph. And while JESUS would be the Son of God or the Son of that Man of Holiness, as well as the son of man, being born of Mary who was the heir to David's throne. And this was a part of the marriage arrangement between the two families, as Mary's father was heir but had no sons. Thus Joseph, Mary's near kinsman was selected that therefore thay jointly would leave no question as who would be the heir to the throne of David. It would be Mary's first born son and Mary's husband was Joseph, where in lay the support of it. We will not go into the debate over Jesus' ancestry, yet Jacob of the 'Royal descent', as give by Matthew, was Mary's father. And Joseph's paternal ancestry was given by Luke, Heli being Joseph's immediate father and Jacob's younger brother. And the way that Jacob was the father of Joseph was by Joseph's marriage to Jacob's daughter Mary.

Mary then asked the angel the puzzling question, for she knew that she was not yet married. "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (Luke 1:34)

The angel Gabriel then answered her:

    "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing [being or child] which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke 1:35

The angel also went on to tell mary of another miracle birth by her elderly maternal cousin Elisabeth who was already six months along. "For with God nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37) Thus Mary was satisfied by that answer though we today ought to also see and understand by knowing more science with even less faith, that if artificial insemination is possible to be performed by medical doctors today, certainly the far greater power of God is far more capable of effecting what man has historically termed an 'immaculate conception' whereby Mary was still a virgin though carrying the Son of God and was even so until after Jesus' birth before ever knowing a man, her husband Joseph, by whom she did have other children after her first born son Jesus, the Son of God.

Thus Mary, by her faith in God, did consent by replying, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."