seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Luke 1:1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a] among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn[c] of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn[c] of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit[d]; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
a. Luke 1:1 Or been surely believed
b. Luke 1:35 Or So the child to be born will be called holy,
c. Luke 1:69 Horn here symbolizes a strong king.
d. Luke 1:80 Or in the Spirit
Mary was a child. She was only twelve or thirteen years old. Yet she was old enough to be married and have children in those days. So if Mary was "old enough"... I wonder how old Elizabeth was! How old is old when children start families before they are in their teens.
These outtakes are from the easy English site.
Luke was not a Jew. We know this from Colossians 4:11-14. Paul names the three Jews who were with him in Rome. Luke was not one of them but he was with Paul there. All the other writers of the New Testament were Jews.
Luke travelled with Paul on some of his journeys. The evidence for this is that, in several places in Acts, Luke uses the words, ‘we’ or ‘us’. Luke was a medical doctor by profession (Colossians 4:14). There is a tradition that he was born in the city called Antioch in Syria.
Luke was not one of the original disciples of Christ. But he studied the accounts of Christ’s life that were available to him. And he talked with those people who had been with Jesus. Some of the detail shows that probably Luke spoke with Mary the mother of Jesus.
Luke shows that Jesus was a real man. In addition, he shows that Jesus was the Son of God.
Luke calls the message that they passed on: ‘the word’. ‘The word’ means the gospel and especially what Jesus taught. So, many Bible translations say that these people were ‘servants of the word’. They were probably the apostles and teachers in the first Christian churches.
We do not know who Theophilus was. His name means ‘friend of God’. Theophilus was a proper name. Luke calls him ‘most excellent Theophilus’. This seems to show that Theophilus was a real person. And he was an important man, like Festus (Acts 26:25). Theophilus may have been the person who would publish this book. That is, he would arrange for other people to make copies of it. He could have been a *Greek or *Roman government official.
Luke wrote this book for Theophilus but he intended other people to read it as well. He wanted Theophilus and other people to have a true record. By this means, they could be sure of what they had learned. They could understand the gospel and they could believe in the Lord Jesus.
Now back to the story..... the easy English site continues....
Zechariah and Elizabeth were good people. They loved God and they obeyed his law. They were not able to have children and now they were too old. It was impossible for them to have a child. This caused them to be sad. And Elizabeth felt ashamed that she could not have a child.
Zechariah wanted to have a child. He and Elizabeth had probably prayed often to God about it. The *angel came with the news that God had heard those prayers. And Elizabeth would give birth to a son. But Zechariah must give the name John to that child.
John in the Hebrew language combines the name of God with the word for kindness. Therefore, John means ‘the Lord has been kind’.
The angel told Zechariah that his name was Gabriel. Gabriel means God’s soldier’. This was a direct message from God. So Zechariah did not believe God. But God would do what he said. Because of this, Zechariah would not be able to speak until after John was born.
God sent the same angel to Mary as he had sent to Zechariah. The angel Gabriel came to Mary in Nazareth. It was the 6th month since Elizabeth became pregnant.
The appearance of the angel surprised Mary. What he said made her feel uneasy. She did not know what to expect. But the angel told her not to be afraid. He had come from God. He told her that she pleased God. So, she had nothing of which to be afraid.
Gabriel told Mary that God had chosen her for the human birth of his son, Jesus. She had never had sex, but she would have a baby. No man would be the father of Jesus. His birth would be a miracle of the Holy Spirit. The prophet Isaiah had said that this would happen (Isaiah 7:14).
The angel told Mary that this relative of hers would have a baby. But Elizabeth was so old that this was not possible. For a normal birth, she was too old. But she had carried the child for 6 months already. This would have encouraged Mary. The Lord was causing the birth of John; and the Lord would cause the birth of Jesus.
God is able to do what he wants. Nothing is impossible for him.
It seems that Zechariah had been working at the Temple for a while. He was one of the priests who burned the incense...... so He wasn't one of the janitors. Elizabeth must have been up there in age, based on the chores her husband was assigned. It seems to me that Elizabeth's age was important to Luke, the doctor who is writing this book. Luke knew how dangerous the late age maternity could be. Elizabeth must have put herself on bed rest as soon as she figured out she was now pregnant.
It says that John leaped in her belly when Mary came around. It's a shame men will never really understand what that means. Having a baby inside.... moving around.... hiccuping.... twitching..... kicking..... is like a tiny little butterfly at first.... and then it's just odd. In the ninth month with my son.... I was sitting at the counter in a restaurant and my son kept running his foot along the edge of the counter. I guess it was bugging him.... but it felt odd. When Luke describes John as leaping..... that's a huge deal.
It was a big deal, according to Luke, that Zechariah's son should be named Zechariah. If Zechariah's son was not named Zechariah.... it would have been almost as acceptable for him to have been named after some other person of prominence in Zechariah's family. But Gabriel told them to name him John. That caused quite a stir.... but notice..... they didn't take Elizabeth's word.... Zechariah had final say. Figures.... see #metoo is not a new thought.
So now.... John is born... and he's growing up in the beauty of nature..... and Jesus is conceived..... He's beginning His mission to save the world..... and John's getting ready to herald His message.
