1 For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,

2 Even as they delivered them to us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;

3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus,

4 That you might know the certainty of those things, wherein you have been instructed.

5 THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,

9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.

11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell on him.

13 But the angel said to him, Fear not, Zacharias: for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elisabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

14 And you shall have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

16 And many of the children 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 the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

18 And Zacharias said to the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.

19 And the angel answering said to him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak to you, and to show you these glad tidings.

20 And, behold, you shall be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because you believe not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

21 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple.

22 And when he came out, he could not speak to them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned to them, and remained speechless.

23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.

24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,

25 Thus has the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

27 To a virgin espoused 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, you that are highly favored, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women.

29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary: for you have found favor with God.

31 And, behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of his father David:

33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 Then said Mary to the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

35 And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come on you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.

36 And, behold, your cousin Elisabeth, she has also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

42 And she spoke out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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

44 For, see, as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

46 And Mary said, My soul does magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

48 For he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from now on all generations shall call me blessed.

49 For he that is mighty has done to me great things; and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

51 He has showed strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

52 He has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

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

54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;

55 As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

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

57 Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

58 And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy on her; and they rejoiced with her.

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

60 And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.

61 And they said to her, There is none of your kindred that is called by this name.

62 And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

63 And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marveled all.

64 And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, and praised God.

65 And fear came on all that dwelled round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea.

66 And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.

67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he has visited and redeemed his people,

69 And has raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

70 As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

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

72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

73 The oath which he swore to our father Abraham,

74 That he would grant to us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

76 And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

77 To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,

78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us,

79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing to Israel.

Preface. The writer, influenced by the attempts of others to record the primitive tradition of Christianity as it was handed down by the first generation of disciples, essays the same task, and having taken pains to collect, examine, sift, and arrange the contents of the written and oral tradition, presents the result to Theophilus, a Roman official of some standing, who needed fuller acquaintance with the historic basis of the oral teaching about Christianity which he had received. The preface is written in rather elaborate Greek, is modelled on the conventional lines of ancient literature, and displays some acquaintance with medical phraseology, especially that of Galen.

Luk 1:2. from the beginning, i.e. of the public ministry of Jesus, the Baptism. ministers of the Word: servants of the spoken gospel.

Luk 1:3. all things: his work is to be complete in scope. from the very first, from the Birth. If, however, we regard Luk 1:5 to Luk 2:52 as a later addition, it may mean from the Baptism. in order, not necessarily chronological but at least logical, an order in which the events and sayings are given an appropriate setting. Theophilus, possibly here a generic name, but more probably to be taken as that of an individual, a literary patron of the Evangelist's. The apocryphal Acts make him a Roman administrator of high rank at Caesarea, and the father of the centurion Cornelius. Luke may have been his freedman.

Prediction of the Birth of John the Baptist. Lk. alone gives the story, which perhaps existed independently. and had been preserved in Baptist circles like that of Act 19:1-6. Its Jewish character and form are evident: there are many reminiscences of OT incidents and language. In the days of Herod the Great (i.e. before Luk 1:4 B.C.) there lived in Judæ a ( Luk 1:39 *) a priest named Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth. She was of Aaronic descent (cf. Exo 6:23, Elisheba), and both were folk of exemplary piety. They were now, like Abraham and Sarah, advanced in life but childless. Zacharias belonged to that one of the divisions of the priesthood which was known as the class or course of Abijah ( 1Ch 24:10). Each course in turn was responsible for a week's service in the Temple. It fell to Zacharias one day to burn incense, and, contrary to the custom, he was doing this alone. As he stood at the altar an angel (Gabriel) appeared, dispelled his natural fear, and announced the fulfilment of a hope ( Luk 1:18) which had long been abandoned. Elisabeth is to bear a son John (Yahweh is gracious), who shall bring joy to many besides his parents. From his birth he is to be endowed with the Spirit, he is to live an ascetic life (cf. Jdg 13:5; Jer 1:5), and reconcile his fellow-countrymen to Yahweh, their God. In him the prophecy of Malachi ( Mal 4:5 f.*) is to be fulfilled; he is to prepare Israel for the coming and the kingdom of God. Zacharias asks a token (cf. Gen 15:8; Gen 17:17), and is told that he shall be dumb (for his incredulity) and probably deaf ( Luk 6:2) until the prediction is fulfilled (cf. Dan 10:14 f.). The angel departs; Zacharias, though physically handicapped, fulfils his week's service and goes home. His wife finds that the angelic prediction is in course of fulfilment, and rejoices that the stigma of barrenness ( Gen 30:23) has been removed from her.

Prediction of the Birth of Jesus. Lk. alone gives this narrative. Three or four months before the birth of Elisabeth's child, Gabriel comes to Nazareth and announces to Mary, a virgin betrothed to one Joseph, a descendant of David, that she stands high in Yahweh's favour. After dispelling her fear he announces that she shall bear a son Jesus (= Joshua, saviour) who shall be called Son of the Most High (i.e. God), and fulfil the popular Messianic expectation. Mary displays some astonishment at the thought of bearing any child, and Gabriel gives further details. The Holy Spirit, the power of God, is to beget the child, and (mg.) the holy thing which is to be born shall be called the Son of God; the term is here used in the ordinary sense, not Messianic as in Luk 1:32. The angel tells Mary about Elisabeth her kinswoman, and says that nothing is impossible with God. Mary accepts her destiny, and the angel departs.

Luk 1:34 f. Many scholars regard these verses as an interpolation, either by Lk. into his source, or by a later editor into Lk. There is no MS. evidence to support this suggestion, though one Old Latin text (b) substitutes Luk 1:38 for Luk 1:34. For a full discussion see Moffatt, INT, p. 268f. Spitta would further omit Luk 1:36 f., and make Luk 1:37 follow Luk 1:33. In this case Mary's acceptance of the prediction is in contrast to Zacharias's scepticism. Besides, Elisabeth's case is hardly proof that Mary was to be the mother of the Messiah, though as an argument from the less to the greater it may serve. The idea of Luk 1:35 and its terminology are not Hebraic; spirit in Heb. is feminine. But it is possible to take overshadow in its primary Gk. sense of hide or conceal. Pregnant women were regarded as peculiarly liable to the assaults of evil spirits (cf. Rev 12:1-6). We may thus have here the idea of Satan lying in wait for the future Messiah (cf. Rev 12:1-5); to avoid any molestation the Power of the Highest will conceal the mother till the danger is past. Or it may be simply that the child, while conceived in the usual way, was to receive a special pre-natal sanctity like John ( Luk 1:15). Another difficulty in the ordinary acceptance of Luk 1:34 f. is the discrepancy with Luk 3:22, where the original reading is Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Mary Visits Elisabeth. The Magnificat. The passage links the two preceding incidents, and serves to show the inferiority of John the forerunner, to Jesus the Messiah. Mary (finding herself with child) proceeds to verify the sign. She seeks Elisabeth in a Judæ an village (perhaps Ain Karim, six miles west of Jerusalem, where a ruin called Mar Zacharias is shown). Elisabeth's unborn babe recognises the mother of the Messiah, and Elisabeth herself knows of Mary's honour, and praises her belief (follow mg. in Luk 1:45). The Song of Mary which follows is full of OT reminiscences, especially the Song of Hannah ( 1Sa 2:1-10). But it is something more than possible that it should be ascribed not to Mary but to Elisabeth. Some of the Old Latin texts (a, b, etc.; p. 601) read Elisabeth in Luk 1:46, and this is supported by Irenaeus, Niceta of Remesiana (the fourth-century author of the Te Deum), and perhaps by Cyril of Jerusalem. In the original text there was possibly no name, then some scribe inserted Mary, because Luk 1:48 seemed appropriate to her. But it is just as suitable to Elisabeth (low estate is perhaps the humiliation of childlessness), and the her of Luk 1:56 most naturally means the person who has been singing. The Syriac versions saw this, and read Mary remained with Elisabeth. Of course the name Mary (instead of she) in Luk 1:56 may be simply due to the verse being at a distance from that in which the name is previously given, but both on external and internal evidence there is much in favour of the hypothesis which assigns the song to Elisabeth, and connects it with the birth of John rather than of Jesus. In Luk 1:54 the Sinaitic Syriac has his son, which may have been original and was changed to his servant because only Jesus can be God's Son.

The Birth of John. The Benedictas. In due course Elisabeth bore her son and received the congratulations of her friends. When the babe has been circumcised and named, his mother rejects the proposal to call him Zacharias and insists on John. The deaf and dumb father confirms his wife's wish, and his power of speech is restored. The whole incident made a great impression in the district, and people recognised that some great future was before the lad, for as he grew up (the last clause of Luk 1:66 is anti cipatory) he was seen to be Divinely guided and protected. Meanwhile Zacharias is inspired and utters a song-prophecy. Luk 1:68-75, in thoroughly Jewish tone, predicts the deliverance of Israel from the oppressor by a scion of the house of David, and the restoration of the theocracy. In Luk 1:76 ff. Zacharias passes to the destiny of his son, and draws on Isa 40:3 and Mal 3:1 (perhaps also on Mar 1:4). In view of the awkward connexion between Luk 1:78 and Luk 1:77 some have thought Luk 1:76 f. an interpolation. Luk 1:76 b recalls Luk 1:17 a.

Luk 1:78. dayspring from on high: the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, the dawn of the Messianic age. dayspring: Gr. anatolè, the word used in Mat 2:1 f., and translated east; Mt. gives the Star a warlike, Lk. a peaceful, significance (Exp., Dec. Luk 19:16, pp. 414f.).

Luk 1:80. During his youth and early manhood John spends much time in desert places

Amid dull hearts a prophet never grew,

The nurse of full-grown hearts is solitude.

Cf. Jdg 13:24 f., 1Sa 2:26; Luk 2:40-52. Note the contrasts.