Luke 1:57-65

Elisabeth’s Child Is Born and Zacharias’s Tongue Is Loosed and The News of the Remarkable Events Go Round the Neighbourhood (1:57-65)

The time came round for the birth of Elisabeth’s baby and again the family and friends were to be shaken, for first Elisabeth insisted that the baby be called John, then Zacharias insisted on the same, and then finally Zacharias was able to speak again. With the birth and circumcision of John dumbness in Israel was finished and God now had a voice through which to speak. God was gently bringing home what a wonderful event was taking place.

This passage can be analysed as follows:

a Now Elisabeth’s time was fulfilled that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son.

b And her neighbours and her kinsfolk heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her, and they rejoiced with her.

c And it came about on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zacharias, after the name of the father, and his mother answered and said, “Not so, but he shall be called John.” ’

d And they said to her, “There is none of your kindred who is called by this name.

c And they made signs to his father, what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” And they all marvelled.

b And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.

a And fear came on all who dwelt round about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea.

In ‘a’ the time of John’s birth approaches, and in the parallel all that was connected with it spreads awe around the area. In ‘b’ the neighbours and kinsfolk rejoice, and in the parallel Zacharias is at last able to join in the rejoicing. In ‘c’ Elisabeth insists that he be called John, and in the parallel Zacharias insists that he be called John. Central in ‘d’ are the words drawing attention to the fact that the particular name ‘YHWH is gracious’, given to the baby, is stressing that he is separated to God even in his naming. He is not ‘of the family’, he is ‘of God’.