BIBLE STUDIES

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• Christmas According to Luke (2024) by Anna Grace Glaize

• Women in the Bible: The Overlooked & Misunderstood, A Four-Week Study (2024) by Anna Grace Glaize

• Holy Week Wonderings: Women of Holy Week Study (2024) by Anna Grace Glaize

• The Women Who Made Jesus: a Four-Part Advent Study (2023) by Anna Grace Glaize

RECENTLY PUBLISHED:

CHRISTMAS ACCORDING TO LUKE

By: Anna Grace Glaize

This four-week study examines the Christmas story through the women characters in the Gospel of Luke. Luke’s account of Christmas begins with the unexpected pregnancies of two Jewish women, one too old (Elizabeth) and one too single (Mary). The story ends with the prophet Anna, an elderly widow, praising God for the birth of Jesus.  

It’s no surprise that women are central in Luke’s Christmas narrative. Luke has more women characters than any of the other Gospels. This is no accident. The author of Luke, who’s also responsible for Acts of the Apostles, uses women to communicate a vital part of the Gospel’s message—God lifts up the lowly. God’s activity in the world extends beyond the boundaries of women and men, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor. The expansiveness of Jesus’ ministry is anticipated from the very beginning of the Gospel of Luke. The message is clear: What will the birth of this child mean to the world? To find out, look to the lowly. Look at the women. 

Hannah

It may seem strange to start a New Testament study with an Old Testament woman. But Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, is vital to understanding the key women figures in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna all parallel Hannah in important ways. 

Read 1 Samuel 1-2

Hannah’s barrenness recalls the Israelite matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel. After suffering under Peninnah’s cruelty, and Elkanah’s words fail to console her, Hannah turns to God. Yet her fervent prayer leads to another humiliation. Eli, the priest at Shiloh, thinks she’s drunk. Poor Hannah can’t catch a break. Interestingly, Hannah’s silent prayer may be more remarkable in context than modern audiences might think. “At a time when prayer was said aloud, Hannah’s personal and private prayer was an innovation and regarded skeptically by the priest” (1).

Though even a priest suspects her, God answers Hannah’s prayer. She has a son named Samuel, who will grow up to be a great prophet in Israel. Hannah is responsible for Samuel’s naming; name-giving is almost always done by the mother in the Bible. She keeps her vow to God and gives Samuel to Eli. Samuel grows up ministering at Shiloh, and Hannah has three more sons and two daughters. 

• Hannah’s prayer is judged by Eli but ends up being heard by God. Are there any spiritual practices you use that may seem strange to others but bring you closer to God? 

Hannah’s story is interrupted by the Song of Hannah, a prayer of thanksgiving. The prayer echoes the triumphal language of prayers and prophecies elsewhere in the Bible (2). Remarkably, Hannah’s prayer uses descriptions of warfare to describe the ordeals of motherhood (1 Sam 2:4). The longest speech attributed to this devout and long-suffering woman is a victory song. 

• What in your life deserves a victory song? 

The Song of Hannah also mentions a king (1 Sam 2:10). At the time, Israel had no king. Hannah’s son Samuel would become the last judge of Israel and anoint Saul as Israel’s first king. The word “messiah” simply means anointed. Because of her reference to a future king, Hannah is recognized as a prophet in Jewish tradition. Hannah’s son ushers in Israel’s age of kings, and Mary’s son “will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33). 

Mary draws on Hannah’s words when she visits her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth becomes pregnant after years of infertility, much like Hannah, and she too gives birth to an important figure—John the Baptist. These women are linked by their miraculous pregnancies, but Hannah’s legacy expands beyond motherhood. The prophet Anna, whose name is the Hellenized form of Hannah, is a widow, apparently without children. Her story concludes the birth narratives as she rejoices in the coming redemption she sees in the infant Jesus. 

Hannah and her legacy in Luke is a reminder: “God’s saving work did not begin with Jesus; we see it borne witness to throughout the scriptures as Hannah sings of it in her time and in days to come as would Mary, echoing her song. Jesus is the continuation and embodiment of that salvation, himself an annunciation, of good news” (3).

• Hannah is a reminder of God’s work in the world even before the birth of Christ. When do you need to be reminded that God is at work? 

God who remembered Hannah,

may we be as creative as she was

in seeking your presence

and as joyful as she was 

in recounting your saving work. 

Elizabeth

Read Luke 1: 5-45; 57-66

Much like Hannah, Elizabeth is a “barren woman whom God makes fruitful”(4).  She is explicitly called righteous, but, through no fault of her own, Elizabeth is in a precarious position at the beginning of Luke’s narrative. “Socially, failure to bear children had grave consequences for women: disfavor with the husband and his family, possible occasion for divorce, embarrassment to the woman’s father, contempt, shame, humiliation...” (5). It’s clear Elizabeth’s struggles with infertility weighed heavily on her. She calls her inability to conceive her “disgrace” (Luke 1:25). 

A descendant of the priest Aaron, Elizabeth’s righteousness is on display throughout the story. In contrast to her husband’s doubt, there’s no hint that Elizabeth responds to her pregnancy with anything but wholehearted faith. When Elizabeth greets her relative Mary, she may well be intentionally referencing her own sacred scriptures (Luke 1:42; Judges 5:24; Judith 13:18) (6). Moreover, the first Christological confession in the Gospel of Luke is made by Elizabeth. 

It’s no surprise, then, that she is the mother of John the Baptist. John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus, and in Luke’s narrative, Elizabeth does the same for Mary. The angel Gabriel even cites Elizabeth as an example for Mary when reassuring her of God’s work in the world (Luke 1:36). Elizabeth’s story can be read as preparing the way for what follows in Luke-Acts, also. What God does for Elizabeth is a precursor to what God does through Jesus for the whole world. God reverses her fate in the pattern that becomes so characteristic of the Gospel of Luke. The disgraced woman will have joy and gladness. Those in the most precarious positions in society will become the first to recognize the identity of Christ. 

• Who, in society or in your personal life, has paved the way for you? 

• Mary goes to stay with Elizabeth after she discovers she’s pregnant. Why do you think she does this? What does Mary’s visit tell us about Elizabeth? 

• Elizabeth insists her son be named John to the surprise of her community. Have you ever done something that confused your friends and family, but that you knew was right?

God who looked favorably on Elizabeth,

may we teach our children 

to leap for joy 

at the sight of an unexpected visitor. 

Let us be known to our relatives 

as a soft place to land. 

Mary

Read Luke 1:26-38

• How were you raised to think about Mary? What are some assumptions made about her?

Elizabeth’s surprising pregnancy prepares Luke’s audience for an even more remarkable story— the shocking pregnancy of Mary. When Mary hears the news of Jesus’ conception, she is at first perplexed and afraid. But her confusion quickly turns to acceptance, telling Gabriel, “Here am I, the slave of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) (7).  

The NRSVUE translates “slave” as “servant,” somewhat softening Mary’s response. There was no distinction between a servant and a slave in Mary’s world. The title “slave of God” is applied to a few extraordinary characters in Mary’s scriptures: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, the prophets, and Hannah. Mary’s response to Gabriel’s message is both courageous and audacious given her word choice puts her in conversation with the Bible’s greatest figures. 

Read Luke 1:46-55

Audacity might not be the most obvious attribute applied to Mary, but it is fitting. Not only does she dare to collaborate with the Spirit in bringing God into the world, her song in Luke envisions a world turned upside down. Echoing her spiritual ancestor Hannah, Mary insists God’s justice will be done. The Song of Mary, known as the Magnificat because of its opening lines, “is the great New Testament song of liberation–personal and social, moral and economic–a revolutionary document of intense conflict and victory” (8).  

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and theologian executed by the Nazis, called the Magnificat, “the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary hymn ever sung.” Yet she sings it before her child is even born, during a time when she and her fellow Jews were living under the rule of the Roman empire. Why is it important to sing about justice during times of injustice? (9)

• What is it about Mary and her song that connects with even non-religious audiences? (10)

God who lifts up the lowly,

when we remember the songs of our ancestors

and the stories of our scriptures,

may we be as audacious as Mary

in our hope for the world.

Anna

Read Luke 2:22-38

Anna is the only woman in the Gospel of Luke to be called a prophet. She’s also a widow and an elderly one at that. As a widow, Anna occupied a precarious position in her society; widows lived outside the protection of the patriarchal system and without the privileges of their male counterparts. That’s why the Bible is so insistent that they be cared for and treated fairly (11). While widowhood might not be as much of a societal concern today as it was in biblical times, at 84 Anna is also an old woman when we meet her in Luke. Eldercare is very much a contemporary need. But pay attention to how the author of Luke introduces Anna. Luke makes sure we know she’s a prophet before we learn that she’s old and before we know that she’s a widow. Whatever else Anna is, she is first and foremost a spokesperson for God. 

• There are parts of Anna’s identity that might make her easy to discount. What does it say about God that God speaks through people like Anna? What are the things today that might make a person easy to ignore, even if they might be preaching God’s word? 

Anna never left the temple. Since she’s a widow, and presumably childless, it may be that she had nowhere else to go. Yet she is active in the life of her community, and her presence at the temple enables her to witness God’s incarnation. Though we’re told very little about Anna, the facts we’re given do not imply an easy existence. Despite this, she speaks of God’s goodness and sees in Jesus a future filled with hope. 

• Why is community so important to the religious life? What communities are you a part of that make you hopeful? 

• Anna is an 84-year-old woman celebrating the birth of a child. Where do you interact with people who aren’t your age? What’s the importance of intergenerational community?

• There are more women, and more widows, in the Gospel of Luke than in any other Gospel. What about the message of Jesus is Luke trying to convey by using these three women to tell the story of Christ’s birth? 

• Which of the four women in this study do you most identify with? 

God of the widow and the orphan,

who spoke to Anna

and filled her last days with new life,

give us the courage to live in community.

Make us like Anna,

who was surrounded by people

and saw Christ. 

REFERENCES:

• (1) “Hannah” by Lillian R. Klein in Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament edited by Carol Meyers (2001).

• (2)  Ps 34:1-3; Ps 103:17; Hab 3:18

• (3)  A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church-Year W by Wilda C. Gafney (2021), pg. 14. 

• (4) “The Gospel of Luke” by Jane D. Schaberg and Sharon H. Ringe in Women's Bible Commentary, edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley (2012), pg. 501.

• (5) “Elizabeth” by Vasiliki Limbris in Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament edited by Carol Meyers (2001), pg. 73-74.

• (6) A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church-Year W by Wilda C. Gafney (2021), pg. 7. 

• (7) Translation from A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church-Year W by Wilda C. Gafney (2021), pg. 2.

• (8) “The Gospel of Luke” by Jane D. Schaberg and Sharon H. Ringe in Women's Bible Commentary, edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley (2012), pg. 504. 

• (9) “Song of Revolutionary Mothers” by Savina J. Martin

• (10) The Virgin Mary Returns as an Icon for Pop Stars and Social Justice Warriors?” by Whitney Bauck

• (11) Deut 10:14-19; Deut 14:29; Deut 24:17-22; Deut 27:19; Jer 49:11; Ps 68:5; Ps 146:9