Luke1:37

1: “no word”

The word used here means “word or speech” and by implication a “matter or topic that is spoken of.” It can even be translated as simply as “a thing.” But we must remember that the foundational meaning of this word is “word,” not “thing.”  It is not the one used to describe Jesus as the “Word of God;” it is the other common word for “word.” Because of the implied use as a “thing,” or “a matter,” to render the sentence as “nothing will be impossible with God” is acceptable, but does not convey the full power of the Greek text. However, the full intention of the text is difficult to convey in English and any attempts to do so become clumsy. Therefore, in my two-column system, the translation column may sometimes seem too simplistic while the paraphrase column may seem too involved. That is the nature of translating from one language to another. There was a sense that speaking something made it more real than just thinking it, so nothing that has gotten to the stage of being spoken out loud by God will be impossible with God. Nothing that God proposes and declares will be beyond His ability to fulfill. God never says something without fully intending on following through with it. In other words, the angel is saying, “God has spoken it, and He will do it, both for Elizabeth and for you.” We know that God can do anything He wants to, whether He has declared it to us or not, but that is not the point here. The point is that He has told Mary, through the angel, that something extraordinary would happen, and since God had said it, you can know with certainty that He will follow through.