Does the Greek greeting 'chaire' in Luke 1:28 mean the angel treated Mary as his superior?
Robert Sungenis answers no: chaire is simply the singular form of the greeting, used because Mary is the only one addressed, just as the plural chairete is used for more than one person. He holds that the grammar makes neither Mary the angel's superior nor the apostles inferior in Matthew 28:9.
A viewer, citing a native Greek speaker, asks whether the angel's use of the Greek word chaire in Luke 1:28 signifies that the angel addresses Mary as a superior, the way (he supposes) a different form was used for inferiors in Matthew 28:9.
Answer
No, chaire and its forms are not used like that in Greek, so the angel is not making Mary a superior, and Jesus is not making the apostles inferior in Matthew 28:9. Greek is a declined language, unlike English: greetings are declined for case, number, and gender. Chaire, the word the angel uses to greet Mary, is present active imperative singular, and since Mary is the only one there the angel has to use the singular. If you were addressing more than one person, like the apostles, you would not use chaire but the plural form, chairete. It is the same greeting, the same word, just declined differently because of the number of people addressed. So as much as we would like to say the angel is making Mary superior, that is not the case grammatically.