What is the Annunciation, celebrated every March 25?

What is the Annunciation? What does the Bible tell us?

The Annunciation is the announcement to the Virgin Mary that she will give birth to Christ, the long -awaited Messiah. Whoever makes the announcement is the angel Gabriel. It will only be mentioned this only once in the New Testament. But he is known to the Jews, having already appeared in the Old Testament, in the book of Daniel or also in the apocryphal book of Hénoch (written by the great-grandfather of Noah and not recognized by the Catholic Church). This announcement of a miraculous pregnancy by Mary, virgin and unmarried, echoes known religious traditions, such as the miraculous birth of Noah in this book by Hénoch.

But the biblical text gives us very little details on this meeting between Marie and Gabriel, especially in the Gospel of Saint Luke. He only says that the scene takes place in Nazareth. So that today, two churches of the Annunciation coexist there. One, Catholic – The Annunciation Basilica – is on the supposed location of the House of the Virgin; And 100 meters further, also rises a Greek-Orthodox church, near the well of the said house. Tradition would like, according to Jacques’ protevangile, that Gabriel has manifested himself near a well.

In the Bible, Luc transcribes the dialogue of this announcement. Gabriel appears and salutes Marie. She is surprised by this greeting, and does not immediately understand that he is an angel who speaks to her. This greeting and this announcement of a miraculous grace are those that we find today in the prayer of “I greet you Marie”, which takes up the phraseology of dialogue. In response to this announcement, Marie sets out a hymn to give thanks to the Lord. This song, which recalls the hymn already uninformed by Anne, mother of the Prophet Samuel, in the Old Testament, will remain famous in Christianity (in the form of the Magnificat).

What do the archeology and the Bible tell us about this event?

Archeology tells us almost nothing, even nothing at all. As proof, the existence of the city of Nazareth itself (at the time of the Annunciation) is questionable. The city is not mentioned before this scene. Often archeology gives almost nothing about the historicity of biblical characters or these events, apart from a context which explains the beliefs, spiritual expectations or the lifestyles of this time. Among, the manuscripts of the Dead Sea, discovered in Qumram, a text in Aramaic, the language of Christ, announces the arrival of the Messiah, of the “son of the Most High” with a phraseology identical to that of the text of the Annunciation. At the supposed time of Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, there was a real belief in Judaism in the arrival of a Savior, descendant of King David and who will be called “Son of God”. These elements of contextuality help, at least, to better understand the biblical text of the Annunciation.

From the point of view of history, we also know nothing about the historicity of this event and these characters. The archaeological remains are very rare. The characters (Marie, Joseph) are also complicated to trace. They were only simple citizens, people of the small people who did not live in palaces. The first name Marie was the most given at the time – statistically, one in four women. So difficult to know who was really the Virgin. In Nazareth, the Catholic basilica is built on the archaeological remains of a real house. On the other hand, it is impossible to know if this house is indeed the one where the Annunciation took place.