Luke 1:28 records Gabriel's greeting of Mary as "Χαίρε, κεχαριτομένη".
On “Hail, Full of Grace”
The Greek is Χαίρε, κεχαριτομένη.
κεχαριτομένη is the feminine, passive perfect participle of χαριτόω.
The root of χαριτόω is χάρις, grace, the genitive of which is χάριτος.
-οω: chiefly derived from from o-stems. Verbs in –οω are usually factitive, denoting to cause or to make. (Greek Grammer for Colleges, Herbert Weyr Smyth)
Per Strong’s concordance, χαριτόω means to endowed with grace.
Passive indicates that the subject is the recipient of the action.
Perfect indicates that the action is completed.
Participle indicates that it is adjectival in meaning (in this particular case, used substantively)
κεχαριτομένη, therefore means “female for whom the reception of grace has been completed”.
χαίρε is a royal greeting, literally meaning “rejoice!”
Therefore, contrary to protestant translations, κεχαριτομένη is not best translated “highly favored one”, but, as Jerome translated it, gratia plena, or “full of grace”
Add a comment