\-.49 eTi iToi'/.o'iy pcot tjCiyoc>.oc o
hvyocTo;^ 7CV.\ ocytoy to oyouoc
ocItoZ^ V.S*^ xac't TO IXeos ocvTou u; ytyioc;
Koct yiyioct TOtS ^o^ovuivot;
ocvTOyj
V.'^l i'TotVitrty xpocTo? gv ^pocxtovt ocuToZ^ hiicxopTttrsy Crripyf^ocyou? htecvo.ec xocph*oc= oci/tmv'
V.-''^ xicQstXsy ^vvocffToc? octo Opoyuv
XOCt i/'^UO'iy TOCTilVoC?,
V.5U TityiiyTecs lyt^Xy.iriy ocyocOoiy XOCt ^kovToZyToci elaTf^TfiiXsk xsvoZi,
V.54 ocyTiXaiSiTO '\erpacy,X trtuhos ocvToZ, ijcyy>(ri)ytyect iXiov;
V.^ — xxOu; \Xa./.y,iny too; tov; ^ocTipoc; y,jULu/y — tu 'A^pececu
%ai TU CT-p/JMTt OCVToZ iU TOV
ociUvoc,
mag:n^ificat
MAID
1U3
but are not so characteristic of Lk.'s style; e.g. (1) iboi) yap is found not only in Lk l"*^ 2'" 6-* 17-^ Ac 9", but also in 2 Co 7" ;* (2) diro rod vvv, said to be found in Lk 5'^' 125-^ 22'«- «^ Ac 18« only, is also found 2 Co 5^'^.t These instances alone will suffice to prove how unsafe the foundations are upon which Harnack"s argument is based.
Tiiere is one other possible source for some of the phrases which has not been mentioned, i.e. the IS Benedictions of the Synagogue (quoted by Warren, Liturgy of Ante-Nicene Church, p. 243).
v.^9 Ben. 2 : ' Thou art mi-jhty, O Lord, world without end.' V.51 Ben. 12 : ' Let the proud speedily be uprooted, broken, crushed, and humbled speedily in our days. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who breakest down the enemy and humblest the proud.' ^■\-.54. 55 Ben. 1 : ' Blessed art Thou who rememberest the pious deeds of our fathers, and sendest the Redeemer to their children's children. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the shield of Abraham.'
On the whole, then, in spite of Hamack's argu- ments, there is still room to believe that St. Luke translated, or perhaps to some extent worked up into a Greek hymn, the materials supplied to him in an Aramaic tradition or document. There was no unnatural seeking after effect. In reply to Elisa- beth's address no conventional answer would seem in place. On the other hand. Prof. Burkitt regards the wiiole of Elisabeth's words as the acknowledg- ment of Mary's salutation, and finds ' a striking narallel in Lk 2-^"^, i.e. the conversation of Mary and Simeon. In both cases Maiy's interlocutor is ^aid to have a holy Spirit, in both cases the whole of the words recorded is assigned to the inter- locutor, and the words themselves con.4.st partly of pious meditation, partly of Avords addressed ex- clusively to ^lary' (jthSt vii. p. 225). This is a question perhaps of sentiment. But few devout believers in the Incarnation would hesitate to ex[)ress their profound gratitude for the Avords of simple faith and hojie, grounded, as Spitta has certainly shoAvn, as much on the Psalms as on Hannah's song, a spontaneous offering of praise from a lowly spirit continually in communion with the Divine, and therefore never lacking words of liraise. We may regard these words as spoken in substance by the Virgin Mary, and j^et maintain the truth of the phrase of Ignatius about ' the Word proceeding from silence.' The silence re- mains unbroken. No personal dread of the possible reproach not of childlessness but of shame, no per- sonal exultation in this transcendent blessedness among women, find expression.
2. Interpretation. — The scojje of interpretation varies in accordance with the view held concerning the authorship. Harnack's description is correct so far as it goes : ' The artistic arrangement of tiie pronouns, which governs the hymn, exjjresses exactly the progress of thought, advancing from the sul:)jective to the objective in order to return again to the subjective, though in a higher form.' But he fails to express the .situation so clearly described by Liddon (p. 13) from the internal evidence.
' Like the sonsfs of Zacharias and Simeon, it is something more than a psalm, and something less than a complete Chris- tian hymn. A Christian poet, living after the Resurrection of Christ, would surely have said more ; a Hebrew psalmist would have said less than Mary. In this H.\'mn of here we observe a consciousness of nearness to the fulfilment of the great pro- mises, to which there is no parallel even in the latest of the psalms ; and yet e\en Mary floes not speak of the Promised One, as an Evangelist or an Apostle would have spoken of Him, by His Human Name, and \\ith distinct reference to the mysteries of His Life and Death and Resurrection. Her Hymn ivas a native product of one particular moment of transition in sacred religious history, and of no other ; when the twilight of the ancient dispensation was melting, but had not yet melted, into the full davlight of the new.'
* Ps SO'?- 8 53«, Is 327 3817 4422 62ii 6615.
t Gn i&'O, 2 Ch 169, To 1013 11», Is 486, Dn 10".
In Strophe I. (vv.*- ■*") she offers praise to God as His due, witii all powers of tiie soul, that is, of imagination and impulse ; and of the .spirit, with the faculties of reason and memory and will.
In Strophe II. (vv.-^--"') she dwells on the distinc- tion vouchsafed to her in becoming^ the Mother of the Incarnate Son. She is to live in the niemorj' of mankind not becau.se she deserves it, but be- cause He whose Name is holy so wills.
In Strophe III. (vv.'i-^S), turning away from self, she rises, as in moments of spiritual enlightenment any one may rise, to larger views of God's purposes in ' the shaping of human history. His presence and power are vindicated in the humbling of the proudest dynasties and the triumph of the meek. This thouglit is characteristic of a gi'oup of psalms (9. 10. 22. 25. .35. 40. 69. 109 ; cf. 4 Ezr (2 Es) 11^', Ps-Sol 5'^^-) which must often have been in the minds of the little group — .loseph, Mary, Zacharias, Elisabeth, Simeon, Anna — who were looking for the redemption of Israel.