Reflections on the Nativity

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, various lectionaries and Bible studies had me reading over and over those passages in which the angels announce various unexpected plans. After a while, the repetition starts sounding ritualistic:

Yikes, an angel.
Don't be afraid. This is going to happen.
Whaaa?

One thing bothered me. It seemed that Zechariah and Mary both had questions to ask about the predicted unnatural pregnancies, but Zechariah got punished for it by being unable to speak until the baby was born, while Mary did not. Was it just because she was young and probably cuter? In the English, their questions seem the same:

Zechariah: How shall I know this?
Mary: How will this be?


To my ear, these sound very similar, and I wondered about the Greek and lo and behold, I found this: http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm which allowed me to get a rudimentary understanding of the Greek words used.

Zechariah uses the word gnOsomai: he's asking about how he shall know--have knowledge. Mary's question pOs estai is asking how shall this be. In other words, it's a practical, procedural question, not an epistemological one. Given Mary's position and tasks in life, she is just wondering how to implement the plan, not how to understand it. That, apparently, is the correct approach to take when an angel tells you something.