Luke 1:1-61

1 Forasmuch as many have undertaken to draw up a relation concerning the matters fully believed among us,

2 as those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses of and attendants ^[a] on the Word have delivered them to us,

3 it has seemed good to *me* also, accurately acquainted from the origin with all things, to write to thee with method, most excellent Theophilus,

4 that thou mightest know the certainty of those things in which thou hast been instructed.

5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest, by name Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth.

6 And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances ^[b] of the Lord blameless.

7 And they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years. ^[c]

8 And it came to pass, as he fulfilled his priestly service before God in the order of his course,

9 it fell to him by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter into the temple of the Lord to burn incense.

10 And all the multitude of the people were praying without at the hour of incense.

11 And an angel of [the] Lord appeared to him, standing on the right of the altar of incense.

12 And Zacharias was troubled, seeing [him], and fear fell upon him.

13 But the angel said to him, Fear not, Zacharias, because thy supplication has been heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. ^[d]

14 And he shall be to thee joy ^[e] and rejoicing, and many shall rejoice at his birth.

15 For he shall be great before [the] Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with [the] Holy Spirit, even from ^[f] his mother's womb.

16 And many of the sons of Israel shall he turn to [the] Lord their God.

17 And *he* shall go before him in [the] spirit and power of Elias, to turn hearts of fathers to children, and disobedient ones to ^[g] [the] thoughts of just [men], to make ready for [the] Lord a prepared people.

18 And Zacharias said to the angel, How shall I know this, for *I* am an old man, and my wife advanced in years? ^[h]

19 And the angel answering, said to him, *I* am Gabriel, who stand before God, and I have been sent to speak to thee, and to bring these glad tidings ^[i] to thee;

20 and behold, thou shalt be silent and not able to speak, till the day in which these things shall take place, because thou hast not believed my words, the which ^[j] shall be fulfilled in their time.

21 And the people were awaiting Zacharias, and they wondered at his delaying in the temple.

22 But when he came out he could not speak to them, and they recognised ^[k] that he had seen a vision in the temple. ^[l] And he was making signs to them, and continued dumb.

23 And it came to pass, when the days of his service were completed, he departed to his house.

24 Now after these days, Elizabeth his wife conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,

25 Thus has [the] Lord ^[m] done to me in [these] days in which he looked upon [me] to take away my reproach among men.

26 But in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent of God to a city of Galilee, of which [the] name [was] Nazareth,

27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name [was] Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name [was] Mary.

28 And the angel came in to her, and said, Hail, [thou] favoured one! the Lord [is] with thee: [blessed art *thou* amongst women].

29 But she, [seeing] [the angel], was troubled at his word, and reasoned in her mind what ^[n] this salutation might be.

30 And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God;

31 and behold, thou shalt conceive in the womb and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

32 *He* shall be great, and shall be called Son of [the] Highest; ^[o] and [the] Lord God ^[p] shall give him the throne of David his father;

33 and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for the ages, ^[q] and of his kingdom there shall not be an end.

34 But Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, since ^[r] I know not a man?

35 And the angel answering said to her, [The] Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of [the] Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born ^[s] shall be called Son of God.

36 And behold, Elizabeth, thy kinswoman, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month to her that was called barren:

37 for nothing shall be impossible with God.

38 And Mary said, Behold the bondmaid of [the] Lord; be it to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

39 And Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah,

40 and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth.

41 And it came to pass, as Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with [the] Holy Spirit,

42 and cried out with a loud voice and said, Blessed [art] *thou* amongst women, and blessed the fruit of thy womb.

43 And whence [is] this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

44 For behold, as the voice of thy salutation sounded ^[t] in my ears, the babe leaped with joy in my womb.

45 And blessed [is] she that has believed, for there shall be a fulfilment of the things spoken to her from [the] Lord.

46 And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.

48 For he has looked upon the low estate of his bondmaid; for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

49 For the Mighty One has done to me great things, and holy [is] his name;

50 and his mercy [is] to generations and generations to them that fear him.

51 He has wrought strength with his arm; he has scattered haughty [ones] in the thought of their heart.

52 He has put down rulers from thrones, and exalted the lowly.

53 He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich empty.

54 He has helped Israel his servant, in order to remember mercy,

55 (as he spoke to our fathers,) to Abraham and to his seed for ever.

56 And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her house.

57 But the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth that she should bring forth, and she gave birth to a son.

58 And her neighbours and kinsfolk heard that [the] Lord ^[u] had magnified his mercy with her, and they rejoiced with her.

59 And it came to pass on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called it after the name of his father, Zacharias.

60 And his mother answering said, No; but he shall be called John.

61 And they said to her, There is no one among thy kinsfolk who is called by this name.

Luke 1:1-61 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]. Huperetes: see Note, 1Cor. 4.1.
• [b]. Dikaioma: see Rom. 1.32.
• [c]. Lit. 'in their days.'
• [d]. * Meaning, 'Jehovah is gracious.'
• [e]. Or 'thou shalt have joy and rejoicing.'
• [f]. The Greek preposition indicates the time from when it would take place: see Gal. 1.15.
• [g]. En: but 'through' would suppose other men, whereas it is here characteristic merely of their own new path. The word for 'thoughts' here is that for 'practical wisdom.'
• [h]. Lit. 'in her days.'
• [i]. Or 'to bring the glad tidings of these things.' Lit. 'evangelize these things.'
• [j]. 'Which are such as shall be:' giving the character, not merely a relative pronoun. I have imitated an expression of the Authorized Version, by adding the article, which though somewhat antiquated, gives in a measure the idea of character, and may serve to distinguish the sense; so ch. 10.42.
• [k]. Naos, the shrine.
• [l]. As 'know,' Matt. 7.16.
• [m]. 'Jehovah.'
• [n]. 'Of what nature or character:' what the aim or meaning of it was.
• [o]. 'Highest' is a name, Hebrew Elyon. I notice therefore the absence of 'the:' see Gen. 14.18.
• [p]. 'Jehovah Elohim:' only occurrence in the Gospels.
• [q]. Or 'for ever;' but it is plural.
• [r]. See Note, Matt. 18.32.
• [s]. Or 'begotten.'
• [t]. Lit. 'took place.'
• [u]. 'Jehovah:' so vers. 66 and 68.