Luke 1:1-25
Is this thing on? Testing, one, two...
Luke 1
Introduction
1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
5In 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. 6Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.
8Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13But 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 give him the name John. 14He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15for 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 from birth. 16Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
18Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
19The angel answered, "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. 20And 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 proper time."
21Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22When 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.
23When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24After 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."
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As I've mentioned previously, I don't want to really want to be "teaching" something here. I'd rather just discuss it. But I'll try to give an overview of what I see happening here.
(Note that the headings in italics aren't in the original scriptures, they are just used to categorize things for the casual reader. Same with chapter and verse numbers. That was all added many hundreds of years after the original text was written, just to make it easier to read and refer to.)
Verses 1-4 seems to show that Luke is writing this account to his friend Theophilus. I believe it was also intended for Theophilus to share and pass on.
Verses 5-23 talks about Zechariah and Elizabeth. Zechariah is a Jewish priest, and both he and his wife are rather old and quite devout. Zechariah goes into the temple by himself to burn incense to God, and an angel appears to him, which has to be pretty cool, I'd think. Zechariah is rather scared, because angels are rather big and glowy and frightening.
The angel tells Zechariah to calm down, because he's got good news. Even though he's way old, his wife is gonna be preggers. The son is going to be quite special, and they should name him John. He'll preach about God and pave the way for the Lord.
However, Zechariah is a bit unsure. You'd think having an angel appear to you would make you a bit more confident, but apparently Zechariah and his wife were getting pretty old, and Zechariah just figured there was no way his wife's uterus was gonna hold much of anything at her age. The angel, Gabriel, is less than pleased with Zechariah's unbelief, so he tells Zechariah he will be mute until the baby is born.
After the angel takes off, Zechariah comes out of the temple, but he can't speak. And apparently he hasn't taken any sign language courses, so his ability to communicate is rather constricted.
Eventually, after his priestly shift is over or what-have-you, Zechariah goes back home to Elizabeth. Between verses 23 and 24, you could probably add, "They had some hot crazy old-people sex." She gets pregnant, and she's quite excited, because back in those days, it was socially disgraceful to not have any children -- particularly boys.
Thoughts? Opinions? Questions? How do you think you'd feel if you were, say, 80 years old, childless, and an angel showed up saying you were going to have a baby that would "pave the way for the Lord"?
posted by FTN @ 8:49 AM
14 comments
14 Comments:
First off, first post here on this entry...cool. Second, I'd like to think I'm rather versed in chapters and verses, of the bible variety. I love your refreshing "real" description in what you've read/quoted. I do however need to get my bible and read along. Always buyer beware...never hurt anyone. That being said, I can NOT imagine being 80, childless, and be told I'd be pregnant. I also would be pretty pissed that my husband kept trying to bed me...I'm *80*,all with panomining the pregnant belly, and a boner...but that's just me. Also, it's probably why I've not been chosen to carry any holy offspring. Other than the ones I have of course. ;)
B
My first thought:
"Is this covered by Medicare?"
I think Larry King did just this sort of thing, except he wasn't mute (unfortunately) and his wife was significantly older. And there was no angels, of course. And woking at CNN is not exactly the same as working at the temple. Other than that, the similarities are striking.
I don't blame Zechariah for his reaction, and Gabriel probably had other reasons for shutting the old guy's mouth. He couldn't be going about saying that he was going to have a son plus that son would be preparing the way for the Lord! They would have locked him up in a padded room! Clearly Elizabeth was the wiser of the two and was better able to keep a secret.
A woman that keeps a secret: Miracle!LOL!
But there's new language here: "[John] will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth." This concept of the Holy Spirit; it's not something we see in the OT even when concerning Elijah, is it? So right here, from the git-go, we see Luke addressing the concept of a Trinity or at least we see representations of all 3 in the same place.
John's story plays second fiddle to Jesus (as it should) but I've laways liked it.
D.
I think I'd have to have a better understanding of what it would be like to be a Jewish priest.
IMHO, it is hard to really truly understand the bible when one is evaluating it in retrospect with the end already in mind. It's kind of like reading a book backwards.
~~~Surfie~~~
Anonymous B: I have no idea how old Zechariah and Elizabeth were, but from the descriptions, I just thought 80 was a nice round number. It's funny, because to us, being 80 and pregnant sounds AWFUL. But she was excited about it. Societally, being childless was a really bad thing, so I imagine she got pretty excited. Hopefully she didn't slip and break a hip or anything, with all the celebrating.
Digger: Yeah, an oldie like Larry King fathering a child isn't a big deal -- of course, he ends up marrying younger hot chicks, for some strange reason. (They must dig the suspenders.) Good point about the Holy Spirit, that's something new. We usually think of the Holy Spirit being a distinctly "post-Jesus" issue, so it's pretty noteworthy.
Surfie: I'm no expert on Jewish priesthood, but I think it was a pretty big life commitment. The high priests were the only ones that could go into that 'inner sanctum,' and at that, only once a year.
As far as understanding the Bible -- you are right, somewhat. And that's why I'm hoping this will be a discussion, because I've been so overexposed to the Bible in a church setting, that I can easily overlook something that might be a cause for question or confusion. I'll obviously have some bias when I look at it.
BUT... as far as having 'the end already in mind,' does that mean we don't read autobiographies of JFK, or Martin Luther King? We know how they'll end, but that doesn't take away from the story itself. I often have to remind myself that the Bible is a collection of books, not just *a* book.
I tend to view autobiographies in a different category than the bible. One is trying to extract meaning for life, essentially, from the bible whereas an autobiography is just that.
Having said that, I think to bring myself to an understanding of how I would feel in a person's shoes, specifically Zechariah, I would need to get a feel of his daily life, his mores, his culture, his education level...you get the picture (this is the sociologist coming out in me..lol).
These "events" did not happen in a vacuum and as such, it would be nice to know or have a basic understanding of what the world around him was like at that time.
Did the Jewish priets even believe in angels? Was it even in their vocabulary or teachings? What were their thoughts on the devil/evil or lack thereof?
~~~Surfie~~~
Cool site. I'll have to try and stay involved.
Interesting note: I've always wondered if the "Theophilus" that Luke addresses his books to was an actual person, as the name is literally Greek for "God-lover." I always wondered if he was simply writing it to any one who considered themselves a lover of God, and just addressed it in a poetic sort of way.
Oh, and, yes, the Jews had quite extensive ideas about angels. The "Angel of the Lord" is quite the reoccuring role in the OT, the construction of the tabernacle involved representations of "seraphim" and "cheribim", Ezekiel saw all sorts of angels, several angels are mentioned by name, especially in the deutero-canonical books like Tobit. Also, there is always the Apochryphal book of Enoch, which lays out extensive orders of angels and demons with names and all sorts of things. Enoch is what Dionysius built his heavenly hierarchy on, which is where the medieval church got all their interesting ideas about angels and demons from.
As for Zechariah's world -- it was the early Roman empire in a recently acquired client state. The Romans allowed the Jews to continue to practice their religion as it recognized it as an ancient ancestral faith, but otherwise oppressed the crap out of them. The taxes they were under were staggering, the legions garrisoned there were extremely oppressive, and they were always subject to the whims of the Imperial governor who was always a political appointee who used his position to gain status and wealth so he could quickly make his way back to Italy and civilization.
The Greeks had conquered Palestine under Alexander -- and they weren't any nicer to the Jews than the Romans -- and had made Koine the language of all learning. The Jews mostly spoke Aramaic, but generally had to also know Koine to communicate with anyone from outside (so, for instance, when Christ talked with Pilate before the crucifixion it would have to have been in Koine), and had to know Hebrew to read the scriptures. The Jews had near universal literacy in Hebrew because of this, and their early educational system -- all home based -- was fairly effective.
But still, Palestine was a dirt poor, oppressed and generally miserable place. Which was especially disheartening to the Jews who saw themselves as God's chosen people who therefore should be doing the ruling and oppressing, not people as barbaric and idolatrous as the Romans. Rebellions were constant, and the Romans weren't kind in putting them down. They liked to make examples of people.
The Jews were ruled by king Herod, but as a client state had to submit to the will of the governor. In local matters both let the Jewish elders really run things. The rabbinical elders were the elite scholarly (and wealthy) group in the region. Very holier-than-thou as a way of life. It was the elders of the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem -- the sanhedrin -- who really controlled things.
Still, the Law's perscription that only the Levites could be priests held. There were so many members of the priestly caste at this time that they were on a rotating schedule for temple worship. Zechariah was old at the time of the text, but it was probably the first and only time he would get to do his priestly duties at the temple.
That's enough for now.
Thank you, CH. Very extensive knowledge, you have. **In my best Yoda voice**
From what I gather, the Book of Enoch was "secret." Therefore, Z didn't know much about it.
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/e/enoch_book_of_history.html
Furthermore, we have to deduce that Z lived mostly in terrible fear. He probably only read or heard about "angels" and "demons," but had never experienced visual display.
Who is to say he didn't view the "angel" as a "demon?"
Think of it this way for the sake of the argument (minus the age factor):
You are walking along a subway in New York. All of the sudden a homeless guy confronts you and tells you that you are going to "lay the path of the Lord and your wife will be with child. You don't agree with me? I'm gonna make you mute!!"
Umm..okay freaky guy...whatever.
Next day, you are mute. You go to the hospital. They do infinte testing and inform you about various possibilities for your affliction. They tell you to go home and calm the heck down.
You go home and resume life and find out your wife is pregnant. Do you self-examine and wonder if you had sinned in some form or fashion? Do you trust the crusty homeless guy and believe he is an angel in disguise? Is it the devil trying to trick you?
Point being...Z obviously was not educated, believed everything he was told -- especially being a priest. He probably felt...WHAA??? WTF is going on here??? I'm certainly going to hell.
He was out of his spiritual, knowledgable, and experiential box.
~~~Surfie~~~
Wow it is really interesting to learn more of the historical background - I didn't really know that much about it.
I never knew about the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth as a child, although I would have said I knew the nativity story (as a whole) really well. Funny how that part often gets missed out.
Surfie: Regarding the 'autobiographical' thing -- the Gospels, and Luke particularly, are quite autobiographical of Jesus' life. Standing on its own, I don't see a huge difference between it and a story of another famous historical figure, except that quite a few don't believe the story of Jesus solely because it resides in the Bible, a book they generally don't agree with. Most of Luke is a straightforward account of what Jesus did, and the words that he spoke. So you could easily say that a book about Martin Luther King Jr is also 'trying to extract meaning for life,' because it might contain many of his speeches.
I'm not enough up on my knowledge of Jewish priests or the Book of Enoch... But I'm also not quite sure why you are assuming that Zechariah lived in terrible fear. He *was* fairly educated, because to be a high priest or rabbi, you had to get a pretty extensive education (at least relatively for that time period). Most accounts of appearances by angels do say that people were terribly afraid, and shook with fear, but there is no indication in the text that they thought they were demons. Being that Zechariah was inside the "Holy of Holies," the most holy place on earth, where they believed God actually resided, so much so that no one could even go inside except ONE high priest ONE time per year... I'm doubting that he might mistake the angel for a demon.
But you do have a good point -- we really don't know exactly what he was thinking.
XH: I've seen similar notes on "Theophilus." I don't know. And thanks for the additions about the social and political state of the region at the time. I'm glad I don't have to know three different languages to get around my town easily!
Starrynite: The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth isn't even included in all of the Gospel accounts of Jesus. It definitely is one of those 'subplots' that doesn't get mentioned as often.
Um, well, the book of Enoch was "secret" in that it is apocalyptic literature, which means it's entirely written in symbols and codes, not "secret" in the sense that nobody knew about it.
Zechariah probably wasn't educated in the sense of the rabbi's, but he would have been well-versed in the Jewish scriptures as well as in the rabbinical commentaries of them. All Jews were expected to read Hebrew so that they could study the Torah, and priests doubly so. He didn't have the classical Greek education that many others did, but we can be fairly sure that he did know his Tanakh.
Did he live in fear? That's a pretty big assumption. I mean, he certainly would have had a healthy, um, respect for the Romans, but I wouldn't necessarily say he lived in fear.
As for confusing the Angel with a demon, I would probably say not. What the angel did was absolutely according to the pattern of earlier stories. Sampson for instance. Demons really didn't interact with people in that sort of way. But he WAS skeptical, which is why he asked for confirmation. It is certainly fair to say that he was way out of his experience. As would anyone put in that situation.
The Roman oppression is part of what stirred the Jews to such expectations of the immediate revelation of the Messiah. Messianic prophesies had been around for centuries at this point, but because of their current situation the Jews were in ready expectation for their King to be revealed, so he could crush the Romans and lead them to world domination. There were quite a few false messiahs in the centuries before Christ and at least one major one after Christ. The Jews knew they needed a Savior and expected one from God. The eternal irony is that they were correct in that this was the time of the Messiah, but when He came they did not recognize Him and ended up murdering Him. The one they had been praying for, waiting for, and were in such dire need of. And all because when He came He was far, far more than they had expected. His kingdom is not a small, temporary kingdom of this earth, but an eternal and universal heavenly kingdom.
But anyway, understand that as shocking as having an angel come visit you in your old age and tell you that you're going to have a son is, hearing this son described like this: "And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord," would be just as shocking to a Jew at this time. The messiah? He's coming? Finally! And my son will be the herald of His coming, preparing His way?
A bit much to take.
By the way, I would not, personally, assume that Zechariah was the high priest. Luke's account shows him to be a priest of a particular order who was going to serve on a particular week, and Zechariah happened to be picked by lots to serve a particular day at the altar of incense, which was not in the Holy of Holies.
The idea that Zechariah was a high priest was part of the assumption that the events in Luke 1 took place on Yom Kippur, therefore establishing the rough date of John's conception and, through that, of Jesus's conception and therefore His birth on December 25th. Since many people feel the date of Christ's birth was actually in the spring (because Isaelite shepherds didn't take their sheep out in the winter), that whole time line is suspect.
It seems like if he was a high priest more would have been made of that. Also, the office of High Priest was not on a rotating schedule. There was one and only one and he served until he died. (And on the death of the high priest special things would happen, like manslayers could leave the cities of refuge and go home). The office of High Priest was a really big deal, and the guy who held it was a really, really important guy. Zechariah, on the other hand, seems far more like a commoner to me.
But it's all speculation, really.
I always expect these stories to have some kind of moral to them. I don't see it here. (And if they don't, why do we keep retelling them?)
The stories are retold because they are true! They tell true events that actually happened. Morals, shmorals, Christianity is based on historical fact. The gospels relate those facts.
XH: I had a momentary memory lapse. Not sure why I was thinking Zechariah was the High Priest here. Thanks for correcting me.
O272: Oh, but the book has just begun. There is plenty more to come. And why do we keep retelling them? I'd say that, first of all, it's just a very interesting story (taken as a part of the whole). Second of all, it's the beginning and foundation of Christianity.
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