Luke 1:57-80

The Birth of John the Baptist

57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.

58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord ¹had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

59 And ²on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,

60 but his mother answered, "No; ³he shall be called John."

61 And they said to her, "None of your relatives is called by this name."

62 And ⁴they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.

63 And he asked for ⁵a writing tablet and wrote, ⁶"His name is John." And they all wondered.

64 ⁷And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue ⁸loosed, and he spoke, ⁹blessing God.

65 And ¹⁰fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all ¹¹the hill country of Judea,

66 and all who heard them ¹²laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be?" For ¹³the hand of the Lord was with him.

Zechariah's Prophecy

67 And his father Zechariah ¹⁴was filled with the Holy Spirit and ¹⁵prophesied, saying,

68 ¹⁶"Blessed be the Lord ¹⁷God of Israel, for he has ¹⁸visited and ¹⁹redeemed his people

69 and ²⁰has raised up ²¹a horn of salvation for us ²²in the house of his servant David,

70 ²³as ²⁴he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

71 ²⁵that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;

72 ²⁶to show the mercy promised to our fathers and ²⁷to remember his holy ²⁸covenant,

73 ²⁹the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him ³⁰without fear,

75 ³¹in holiness and righteousness before him ³²all our days.

76 And you, child, will be called ³³the prophet of ³⁴the Most High; for ³⁵you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people ³⁶in the forgiveness of their sins,

78 because of the ³⁷tender mercy of our God, whereby ³⁸the sunrise shall ³⁹visit us^[a]40from on high

79 to ⁴¹give light to ⁴²those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into ⁴³the way of ⁴⁴peace."

80 ⁴⁵And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was ⁴⁶in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Luke 1:57-80 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LUKE

The writer of this Gospel, Luke, has been, by some, thought, as Origen {a} relates, to be the same with Lucius, mentioned in Ro 16:21, but he seems rather to be, and without doubt is, Luke the beloved physician, who was a companion of the Apostle Paul in great part of his travels in the Gentile world: he came with him to Jerusalem, and from thence accompanied him to Rome, and continued with him when in prison, and was with him to the last; see Ac 16:10,11 \Col 4:14 2Ti 4:11 Phm 1:24\. Jerom {b}, and others, say, he was a physician of Antioch in Syria; where it may be the Apostle Paul met with him, and might be the happy instrument of his conversion; so that he seems to be, by nation, a Syrian, as Jerom {c} calls him. Grotius thinks his name is Roman, and that it is the contraction of Lucilius. It is not an Hebrew name, but might be in common use in Syria; for though the Jews reckon owqwl, "Lukus", among foreign names, yet say {d} a it was a very illustrious one, and well known to them, as it may well be thought to be if Syriac, the language being spoke by them: and many Jews lived in Syria, and particularly in Antioch. Some say that this Gospel was written by the advice, and assistance, and under the direction of the Apostle Paul, as the Gospel according to Mark was by that of Peter; though the following preface does not seem so well to accord with this. Eusebius says {e} that it was the sense of the ancients, that whenever the Apostle Paul makes mention of his Gospel, he intends this according to Luke. The time of the writing of it is not certain; some say it was written in the fifteenth year after the ascension of our Lord; others in the twenty second; and others in the twenty seventh. It is commonly thought to have been written after the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, according to the order in which it stands; but this is rejected by some learned men, who rather think that Luke wrote first of all: and indeed, there are some things in his preface which look as if there had not, as yet, been any authentic account published, at least which was come to the knowledge of this evangelist. The place where he wrote it is also uncertain. Jerom says {f}, he wrote it in the parts of Achaia, perhaps at Corinth: according to the titles prefixed to the Syriac and Persic versions, he wrote it in Alexandria: the former of these runs thus;

``the Gospel of Luke, the Evangelist, which he spake and published in Greek in Alexandria the great.''

And the latter thus;

``the Gospel of Luke, which he wrote in the Greek tongue in Alexandria of Egypt.''

However, it is agreed on all hands, that it is genuine, and of divine inspiration. Eusebius {g} relates, that it was affirmed by some, that this Gospel, together with those of Matthew and Mark, were brought to the Apostle John, who approved of them, and bore witness to the truth in them.

{a} In Rom. xvi. 21. {b} Catalog. Script. Eccles. sect. 17. fol. 91. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 4. {c} Praefat in Luc. {d} T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 11. 2. & Gloss. in ib. {e} Ubi supra. (Hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 39.) {f} Praefat in Luc. {g} Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 24.

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 19:19
• 2. Luke 2:21; Genesis 17:12; Leviticus 12:3; Philippians 3:5
• 3. ver. 13
• 4. ver. 22
• 5. Isaiah 8:1; Isaiah 30:8
• 6. [See ver. 60 above]
• 7. ver. 20
• 8. Mark 7:35
• 9. Luke 2:28; Luke 24:53
• 10. Luke 7:16
• 11. See ver. 39
• 12. [Luke 2:19, 51]
• 13. Acts 11:21; Acts 13:11
• 14. ver. 15, 41
• 15. Joel 2:28
• 16. 1 Kings 1:48; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Ezra 7:27; Psalms 41:13; Psalms 72:18; Psalms 106:48
• 17. Isaiah 29:23; Matthew 15:31; Acts 13:17
• 18. Luke 7:16; Exodus 4:31; [ver. 78; Acts 15:14; Hebrews 2:6]
• 19. Luke 2:38; Psalms 111:9; Psalms 130:7, 8; [Luke 24:21; Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 59:20]
• 20. 1 Samuel 2:1, 10; Psalms 132:17; Ezekiel 29:21
• 21. 2 Samuel 22:3; Psalms 18:2
• 22. ver. 32
• 23. Romans 1:2; [Jeremiah 23:5, 6]
• 24. Acts 3:21
• 25. Psalms 106:10
• 26. Micah 7:20
• 27. Leviticus 26:42; Psalms 105:8, 9; [ver. 54, 55]
• 28. See Romans 9:4
• 29. Genesis 22:16-18; Genesis 26:3; Hebrews 6:13, 14
• 30. Zephaniah 3:15
• 31. Ephesians 4:24; [1 Thessalonians 2:10; Titus 2:12]
• 32. [Jeremiah 32:39(Heb.); Matthew 28:20(Gk.)]
• 33. Luke 7:26; Luke 20:6; Matthew 11:9; Matthew 14:5
• 34. See ver. 32
• 35. ver. 17; Luke 3:4; Luke 7:27; Malachi 3:1; Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:2, 3
• 36. [Matthew 26:28; Mark 1:4]
• 37. Colossians 3:12(Gk.)
• 38. Malachi 4:2; Ephesians 5:14; 2 Peter 1:19
• 39. See ver. 68
• 40. Luke 24:49
• 41. Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:16; [Acts 26:18]; See John 8:12
• 42. Psalms 107:10; Isaiah 42:7
• 43. Romans 3:17
• 44. See Luke 2:14
• 45. Luke 2:40
• 46. Matthew 3:1; Matthew 11:7

Footnotes

• [a]. Or when the sunrise shall dawn upon us; some manuscripts since the sunrise has visited us