I read an article on Luke 1:28 the other day, and I would like to address a commom, but very stubborn error that most protestants are quick to accept without giving it much thought.
The article was originally posted here, and the author intended to make a case against an alleged ‘mistranslation’ or ‘misinterpretation’ Catholics accept regarding the Angel’s greeting to the Virgin Mary in Luke 1:28.
In order to make my point clear, I will quote the author’s own words on two other biblical passages: (John 1:14) & (Acts 6:8):
“The first citation (John 1:14) refers to Jesus who IS obviously full of grace. Jesus is God in flesh, the crucified and risen Lord, who cleanses us from our sins. In the second citation (Acts 6:8) it is Stephen who IS full of grace”. Matt Slick
In analyzing the Greek original of John 1:14, Acts 6:8 & Luke 1:28, we will notice that the root word χάριτος or charitos do appear in all of them; either as a noun or as a conjugated verb.
The translation of this Greek word charitos is grace. This is how John 1:14 is translated, for instance, in the King James Bible and other protestant versions.
The ‘root’ or ‘base’ word for χάριτος (charitos) is χάρις (charis*). In Luke 1:14, however, we have χάριτος conjugated as a verb κεχαριτωμένη (kecharitomene) whereas in John 1:14 it appears as a noun. (*Charis is the root for Charisma in English).
Anyhow, the important point here is that the original meaning of χάριτος or charitos is GRACE, and all its ‘derivative’ still refer to this original meaning. An analogy with English would be the conjugation, for instance, of the noun glory into words such as glorious, gloriousness, glorified, glorying, etc…
Now, let us imagine that a person is described as ‘Glorious’. Keeping in mind the meaning of the ‘root’ glory, we could ultimately understand that a glorious person is some-one whose ‘glouriousness’ is appearent or distingued to all, thus ‘full of glory’ wouldn’t be far off the intended description either. We could not, however, from the same phrase conclude that a ‘glorious’ individual can mean higly ‘appreciated’, simply because the ‘root’ word ‘glory’ does not allow such conclusion. I am afraid, that’s exactly what happened with the protestant translation of Luke 1:28, where from the root charitos or grace, we get to ‘highly favoured’.
Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ (Lk1:28)
“It is permissible, on Greek grammatical and linguistic grounds, to paraphrase keCHARITOmene as completely, perfectly, enduringly endowed with grace.” (Blass and DeBrunner, Greek Grammar of the New Testament).
Please note that the author of the article clearly accepts the translation ‘full of Grace’ in John 1:14 and even in Acts 6:8 , but not for Luke 1:28. Is there a reason for this?
The following are the Greek Bibles I used for my research:
ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ 6:8 Greek NT: Greek Orthodox Church
ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ 6:8 Greek NT: Stephanus Textus Receptus (1550, with accents)
ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ6:8 Greek NT: Westcott/Hort with Diacritics
What would the translation be for the word charitos from Acts 20:24?