“froM God” or “froM HeAveN”? 123 In particular, Jesus is called “son of the Most High” in 1,32, while John is called the “prophet of the Most High” in 1,76; later all believers are called the “sons of the Most High” in 6,35, while Jesus is again called “son of God Most High” in 8,28 7. In each of these cases, u[yistoj clearly functions as a circumlocution for God himself. based on these apparently strong parallels in Luke as well as in other literature 8, scholars in this camp conclude that the avnatolh, is likewise “from God Most High” — taking u[yoj as a reference specifically to God (or a “Hypostase des Gottesnamens” 9) as the personal sender of the avnatolh,. A minority of scholars has even gone so far as to conclude that avnatolh. evx u[youj refers not to Jesus but to John the baptist, due to the seemingly parallel statement in 1,76 10. one must admit that the prevalence of such similar wording in Luke does indeed give this reading a prima facie plausibility. However, when this argument is scrutinized more closely, it is apparent that it fails to take into consideration a crucial distinction: u[yoj (of which the genitive singular u[youj is used in Luke 1,78) and u[yistoj (used frequently elsewhere in Luke) are not identical. While they derive from the same root referring generally to height in classical and koine Greek, there are significant differences in the way the words are used in practice. Let us survey their usage in several relevant bodies of literature: LXX (including deuterocanonical books, using rahlfs-Hanhart as the basis), old testament pseudepigrapha (“otP”) 11, the works of Philo and Josephus (“Ph/Jo”), and the New testament 12. I have analyzed each occurrence of the two words in these respective corpora (288x for u[yoj; 230x for u[yistoj), assigning each to one of the following five categories according to its usage in context: Height measurement (e.g., Gen 6,15, tria,konta ph,cewn to. u[yoj auvth/j). High(est) point, often geographically but sometimes metaphorically, and typically rendered either with the preposition eivj or in the genitive (e.g., Hab 2,9, tou/ ta,xai eivj u[yoj nossia.n auvtou/; 2 chr 20,19, evn fwnh|/ mega,lh| eivj u[yoj, i.e. “in a supremely loud voice”). exaltation/pride/glory of mankind (e.g., 1 chr 14,2, o[ti huvxh,qh eivj u[yoj h` basilei,a auvtou/). God himself • Substantively, with or without the article (e.g., deut 32,8, o[te dieme,rizen o` u[yistoj e;qnh) 7 cf. 4Q246 ii,1: “He will be called the son of God, and they will call him son of the Most High”. 8 JAcoby relies heavily on the parallel o` blasto.j qeou/ u`yi,stou in T. Judah 24,4 (“ANATOLH”, 208). 9 LAMbertz, “Sprachliches”, 83. 10 P. vIeLHAuer, “das benedictus des zacharias”, ZTK 49 (1952) 255-272; r.J. dILLoN, The Hymns of St. Luke (cbQMS 50; Washington 2013) 77-84. 11 As collected in J. cHArLeSWortH, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Peabody, MA 2010). 12 In classical Greek, u[yoj is used ~800x in ~100 works, most commonly referring to the dimension of height or grandeur (G. bertrAM, “u[yoj ktl”, TDNT vIII, 602).