In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.... (Luke 1:26)

From our text in Luke you have heard the Bible’s account of how God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary. But this is not the only version of the story. There is another, unofficial, version which came to light recently when an ancient manuscript was discovered in Bethlehem. For those of us who like to stay on the cutting edge of biblical research, this new discovery is exciting and has changed forever the way we know the story of Gabriel. It took the experts a long time to translate this manuscript because it was so badly faded and worn. In addition, some ancient homemaker had used part of it to make out a shopping list. But now, at long last, the Bethlehem manuscript is available in Engl…