Luke 1:64-80

64 And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue, and he spake, blessing God.

65 And fear came upon all who dwelt round about them; and in the whole hill-country of Judaea all these things were the subject of conversation.

66 And all who heard them laid them up in their heart, saying, What then will this child be? And [the] Lord's hand was with him.

67 And Zacharias his father was filled with [the] Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,

68 Blessed be [the] Lord the God of Israel, because he has visited and wrought redemption for his people,

69 and raised up a horn of deliverance for us in the house of David his servant;

70 as he spoke by [the] mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began;

71 deliverance from our enemies and out of the hand of all who hate us;

72 to fulfil ^[a] mercy with our fathers and remember his holy covenant,

73 [the] oath which he swore to Abraham our father,

74 to give us, that, saved out of the hand of our enemies, we should serve him without fear

75 in piety and righteousness before him all our days.

76 And *thou*, child, shalt be called [the] prophet of [the] Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of [the] Lord ^[b] to make ready his ways;

77 to give knowledge of deliverance ^[c] to his people by [the] remission of their sins

78 on account of [the] bowels of mercy of our God; wherein [the] dayspring ^[d] from on high has visited us,

79 to shine upon them who were sitting in darkness and in [the] shadow of death, to guide our feet into [the] way of peace.

80 -- And the child grew and was strengthened in spirit; and he was in the deserts until the day of his shewing to Israel.

Luke 1:64-80 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. 'To work,' or 'accomplish:' what the fathers had lived on by faith as promised mercy: 'Your father Abraham saw my day and was glad.'
• [b]. 'Jehovah.'
• [c]. Or 'salvation.' 'Saved' in ver. 74 is a different word: but the same as 'our deliverer from the coming wrath,' 1Thess. 1.10.
• [d]. Lit. 'rising:' see Rev. 7.2, 'sunrising.'