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The Miraculous Birth and Normal Development of the son of Man
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FIRST SECTION
EVENTS PREPARATORY TO THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
Luk_1:5-80
A. Annunciation of the Birth of His Forerunner Luk_1:5-25
18And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken [far advanced] in years. 19And the angel answering, said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show [bring] thee these glad tidings. 20And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not [didst not believe, ïὐê ἐðßóôåõóáò ] my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
21And the people waited [were waiting, ἦí ὁ ëáὸò ðñïóäïêῶí ] for Zacharias, and marvelled 22[wondered, ἐèáýìáæïí ] that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple; for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. 23And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished [completed], he departed to his own house. 24And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, 25Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein He looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
A certain priest.—Zachariah has been supposed, on insufficient grounds, to have been the high-priest. It is worthy of remark, how the meaning of both the names (Zachariah, i.e., the Lord remembers; and Elisabeth, i.e., God’s oath) was explained and fulfilled by what happened to those who bore them.
Of the course (class) of Abijah.—The descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, were exclusively called to the service of the sanctuary, and divided into four and twenty classes or orders (1 Chronicles 24), each of which ministered in the temple during a week. The descendants of Eleazar, the elder son, formed sixteen of these classes or courses; those of Ithamar, the younger, only eight,—that of Abijah being (1Ch_24:10) the eighth. From the days of Solomon, these four and twenty courses relieved each other weekly in the temple-service; it is, therefore, not to be wondered at, that attempts have frequently been made to ascertain the exact time of the year at which the Lord was born, by means of the chronological date of the week of the course of Abijah. The result of these researches, made chiefly by Scaliger, Solomon van Til, and Bengel, is communicated and criticised by Wieseler (Chronologische Synopse, pp. 140–148). It is, however, self-evident, that all such calculations must be uncertain and rash, until it can first be proved that the pregnancy of Elisabeth commenced immediately on the return of Zachariah, and that the several courses continued, each suo loco et tempore, to perform their services in unintermitted succession.
Luk_1:6. Righteous before God.—A declaration not only of their truly Israelitish and theocratic character, but also that they were persons to whom the divine approval pronounced upon Noah, Gen_7:1, might rightly be applied, and who knew, from their own experience, the “blessedness” of which David sung in Psalms 32. When the promise made to Abraham is on the point of fulfilment, we suddenly find that the true Abrahamic character (Gen_15:6; Gen_17:1), however rare, has by no means utterly disappeared in Israel.
Luk_1:9. According to the custom of the priesthood.—In the service of the sanctuary, nothing was left to accident, or to human arrangement. The lot determined who was to perform each separate portion of the sacred service, and, especially, who was each morning and evening to burn incense before the Lord. This office was considered exceedingly important and honorable. According to Josephus (Antiq. Jud. xiii. 10), a heavenly vision was also vouchsafed to John Hyrcanus during its performance. It seems impossible, however, to determine whether the vision of Zachariah took place at the time of the morning or evening offering.
Luk_1:10. Were praying.—The pious were accustomed to unite in the outer court ( ἔîù ) in silent supplication, while the priest in the sanctuary offered the incense, which was ever regarded as the symbol of acceptable prayer. Comp. Psa_141:2; Rev_5:8; Rev_8:3-4.
Luk_1:11. There appeared unto him.—It may be taken for granted, that the quiet and solitary sojourn of Zachariah in the Holy Place had both quickened and elevated his susceptibility for beholding the angelic appearance; yet the narrative certainly bears no traces of any ecstatic state, properly so called. Indeed, the fact which he must have told himself, that he saw the angel, “standing at the right side of the altar of incense” (which he may have considered a good omen), vouches for his clearness of perception, and sobriety of mind.
Luk_1:13. Thy prayer is heard.—It is generally thought, that the secret prayer of Zachariah for a son, known to God, and long uttered in vain, is here intended. But would the aged Zachariah have limited himself to this request? Did no higher aspiration, than a merely personal one, arise from the heart of a priest in the Holy Place? Must not Zachariah have been among the ðñïóäå÷üìåíïé ëýôñùóéí ἐí ἸåñïõóáëÞì , spoken of Luk_2:38? And is it not therefore probable, that the chief matter of his prayer might be expressed by the words of the Psalmist (Psa_14:7): “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion?” For all these reasons, we conclude, with Meyer, that the prayer of the priest had special reference to the coming of Messiah. A twofold answer to this prayer is promised: first, that Messiah shall indeed appear in his days; and secondly, that he shall himself be the father of the forerunner, who was to prepare His way (Malachi 4)—an honor he could not have ventured to anticipate. Zachariah sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things—earthly joy of a father, etc.—are added to him (Mat_6:33).
John.—Hebr.: Jochanan (i.e., God is gracious; equivalent to the German Gotthold). According to an old Greek glossary: ἸùÜííçò , ἐí ᾧ ἐóôéí ἡ ÷Üñéò . The name of the forerunner, as well as that of Jesus (Mat_1:21), was prescribed before his birth. Was this distinction vouchsafed also to the mother of our Lord, whose name has since been so idolized?
Luk_1:15. He shall be great in the sight of the Lord.—Truly great, then; for just what a man is in God’s eyes, that is he indeed, neither more nor less. A silent hint also, that no earthly greatness is to be expected; for “that which is highly esteemed before men is an abomination in the sight of the Lord.”
He shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.—Plainly referring to the condition of the Nazarites, for the origin and laws concerning whom, see Numbers 4. Act_21:24 shows that such vows were not unusual in Israel in New Testament times. This appointment places the forerunner, in this respect also, on a level with Samson and Samuel, who, as well as himself, were born to their parents contrary to all natural hopes and expectations.
From his mother’s womb;—i.e., not merely inde a puero, according to Kuinoel’s lax interpretation, but before he shall have seen the light of life (comp. Luk_1:41), from his earliest origin.
Luk_1:17. In the spirit and power of Elijah.—An evident reference to the last of the prophets, Mal_3:1; Mal_4:5-6, whose words are thus endorsed by the angel. The expression, “the Lord their God,” Luk_1:16, alludes not exclusively to the Messiah, but to the Jehovah of Israel, of whom it is said, that He Himself should appear in glory when the divinely commissioned Messiah should come into the world. The true subjects of Messiah are also the “people prepared for the Lord” the God of Israel.
To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.—The feeling of the paternal relationship had grown cold in many hearts, in the midst of the moral corruption of Israel: when the forerunner lifts up his voice, the ties of family affection shall be strengthened. Others interpret this, to restore to the children the devout disposition of their fathers.
Luk_1:18. For I am an old man.—According to the law of Moses the Levites were not permitted to serve beyond their fiftieth year, Num_4:3; Num_8:24. But this law did not apply to the priests, and Zachariah was probably much older than fifty. His objection seems, in itself, as natural as that of Mary, Luk_1:34; but the Lord, who sees the heart, knows how to distinguish between the objections of unbelief, and the natural questionings of innocence.
Luk_1:19. I am Gabriel.—An answer full of dignity, and at the same time perfectly intelligible to a priest well instructed in the Holy Scriptures, who would recognize, by this name, the heavenly messenger, revealed to Daniel (Luk_8:16; Luk_9:21) as one admitted to very intimate relations with the Godhead. The belief in different classes of angels, though a development of later days, was the fruit of direct revelation. They who look on the Book of Daniel as the invention of a later age, cannot credit his angelology; and the angelic world, which was opened to Zachariah and to Mary, is closed to them, as a punishment of their unbelief.
Luk_1:20. Thou shalt he dumb, and not able to speak.—This is no mere repetition, but the first member of the sentence is the consequence of the second. The notion, that a natural dumbness, arising from an apoplectic stroke, is here meant, is one of those curiosities of Rationalism, which have only an antiquarian interest.
Luk_1:21. And the people were waiting for Zachariah.—According to many interpreters, they were waiting to receive the blessing. It does not, however, appear that this was always the office of the priest who offered incense. It seems more probable, that, not being accustomed to find the priest remain longer in the sanctuary than was strictly necessary, some might have feared, when Zachariah had been some time expected in vain, that some misfortune, or sign of the divine displeasure, had befallen him.
Luk_1:22. They perceived that he had seen a vision.—Dumbness having fallen upon him in the temple, it was a natural supposition, that this might be the result of an angelic appearance. Zachariah makes signs that the supposition is correct. Interpreters have given due prominence to the symbolic signification of this moment in the sacred history. Bengel says: “Zacharias, mutus, excludebatur tantisper ab actionibus sacerdotalibus. Prœludium legis ceremonialis finiendœ, Christo veniente.”—Chemnitz: “When the voice of the preacher (Isaiah 40) is announced, the priesthood of the Old Testament becomes silent. The Levitical blessing is silenced, when the Seed comes, in whom ‘all the families of the earth are blessed.’ ”
Luk_1:24. And she hid herself five months.—Neither, as it seems to us, from shame on account of her advanced age, nor to secure rest, nor from unbelief, nor for the sake of observing an ascetic retirement, and then suddenly making her situation known; but to leave to God, through whose extraordinary intervention she found herself in this condition, the care of making it manifest, and of taking away her reproach among men (comp. Luk_1:25). There is a remarkable coincidence in the frame of mind of Elisabeth and Mary, under similar circumstances. Elisabeth was óõããåíÞò to Mary, not merely êáôὰ óÜñêá , but also êáôὰ ðõåῦìá .
2. So many traces of divine wisdom are apparent in the narrative, that scepticism itself has no exceptions to make, but to its miraculous character. In this case the appearance of an angel is especially offensive to the tastes and notions of modern criticism. This being the first account of the kind, which we meet with in Luke’s Gospel, we may be allowed the following remarks. The existence of a higher world of spirits, can as little be proved, as denied, by any a priori reasoning; experience and history can alone decide the point. Now it is certain, on purely historical and critical grounds, that angels have been both seen and heard by well known and credible individuals; and if this be so, a higher world of spirits must exist. It has, indeed, been said (by Schleiermacher), that belief in the existence of angels has no necessary basis and support in the religious self-consciousness (or subjective experience) of the believer; but the question here is merely concerning the historical truth of biblical angelology, and not concerning the subjective experience it produces. Angels are not merely “transient emanations and effulgences of the divine essence” (Olshausen); but personal, conscious, holy beings, related, like men, to the Father of spirits. God, being the supreme and absolute Spirit, is able to employ such ëåéôïõñãéêὰ ðíåýìáôá in His service; and man, having received a spiritual element from God, cannot lack the ability of perceiving, with an enlightened eye, the appearance of beings so nearly related to himself. It is not when the bodily eye has been directed to the material world, but when a higher and more spiritual organ has been developed, and the ear opened to the voice of God, in the hours of prayer and solitude, that angelic appearances have been perceived. This power of perception, produced by God Himself, must be distinguished from the trance or vision, properly so called, wherein angels have sometimes, but by no means always, been perceived. Comp. Act_10:10; 2Co_12:1 ff. The angelic apparitions were by no means the fruit of an overstrained imagination, but objective revelations of God, by means of personal spirits; yet only capable of being received under certain subjective conditions. With respect to the angel who appeared to Zachariah, if unbelief, on hearing his name, should cavil, and doubt whether such definite names are borne in heaven, this conclusion cannot be escaped under the pretext, that Gabriel (the hero of God) is no nomen proprium, but merely an appellativum; and we have only to answer, neganti incumbit probatio.
3. There is a remarkable coincidence between Zachariah and Abraham on the one side, and Elisabeth and Sarah on the other; not only in the fact of their unfruitfulness during so many years, but also in the frame of mind in which they at length received the glad tidings. But in these parallel histories, it is, in the Old Testament, the man who is strong, the woman weak, in faith (Gen_18:12); while here, on the contrary, it is the man whose faith falters. Even in the very first chapter of Luke, woman, who had so long been thrown into obscurity in the shadow of man, begins, in the persons of Mary and Elisabeth, to take her place in the foreground, by the heroism of a living faith; as if to show that she is no longer the slave of man, but a fellow-heir with him of the grace of life (1Pe_3:7). It is, however, quite in keeping with divine wisdom that in this case unbelief in view of the rising sun of the gospel salvation is much more severely punished than under the old dispensation. The clearer the light, the more intolerable the shade in the eyes of God. On the psychological ground of the doubt of Zachariah, compare the fine remarks of Dr. Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. 1, p. 65 (German ed.).
4. It is a striking proof of the divine wisdom, that John is announced as the second Elijah. This name gives the earliest indication of his mission, as reformer, in an extremely corrupt nation; of his struggle, in resisting single-handed the false gods of his age, as Elijah did Ahab and Jezebel; of his fate, in being first persecuted and rejected, but afterward honored. The likeness of John the Baptist to Elijah, strikes us not only in his outward appearance, his clothing, and way of living, but in his spirit and character, as a preacher of repentance. The difference between them—consisting chiefly in the fact, that the second Elijah performed no miracles—is explained by the peculiarity of his relation to the Messiah. If the latter were to appear as a prophet mighty in word and deed, His forerunner could do no miracles, without dividing the attention, and provoking a comparison, which must have been to the prejudice of one or the other. He who would cavil because the head of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets is encircled by no halo of miracles, will find his answer, Joh_10:41.
5. On the formerly often-questioned genuineness of the two first chapters of Luke, comp. Credner, “Einleitung in das N. T. ” p. 131; on the whole of Luke’s narrative of events preceding the birth of Christ, J. P. Lange, “On the Historical Character of the Canonical Gospels, especially on the History of the Childhood of Jesus,” Duisburg, 1836; and (though with critical discrimination) “Die Jugendgeschichte des Herrn,” by Dr. E. J. Gelpke, Bern, Chur (Coire), and Leipzig, 1842.
Starke:—In prayer, we should remember the presence of angels.—Even one of the holiest of men cannot stand before an angel.—Even the true servants of God are not without infirmities.—Nothing is great, but what is great before God.—God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, Eph_3:20.—The more intimate the communion of a Christian with his God, the more certain his chastisement when he offends Him.—He who sins with his mouth, is punished in his mouth.—God has an eye upon His people, though no one else should see them.—There are times when the children of God bear reproach; there are also times when God takes away their reproach before men: in both His grace is shown.
Footnotes:
Luk_1:5.—As a question of principle, I would advocate a uniform spelling of Scripture names, conforming Hebrew names as much as possible to the Hebrew, and Greek names to the Greek original. This would require an alteration of Zacharias into Zachariah, Abia into Abijah, Elias into Elijah, Jeremy into Jeremiah, etc. But as Zacharias occurs so often in this chapter, I left it undisturbed. Comp. my Critical Note to Commentary on Matthew, 1:16, vol. i. p. 48.
Luk_1:5.—The E. V. follows the textus rec. and Cod. A.: ἡ ãõíὴ áὐôïῦ (uxor illius). But the best uncial MSS. (Sinait., B., C.*, D., L., X.), and the modern critical editions of Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles, read ãõíὴ (without the article) áὐôῶ , uxor illi, he had a wife; and so also van Oosterzee in his German Version: er hatte ein Weib. The received text is a correction for perspicuity sake. The other differences of reading in this section are still less insignificant and not worth mentioning in this Commentary, as they are also passed by in the original. See the Critical Apparatus in Tischendorf’s Greek Testament, editio septima of 1859, and Tregelles’ Greek Testament, Part ii., containing Luke and John.
Luk_1:9.—Van Oosterzee likewise observes the (unessential) distinction between ἱåñáôåýåéí , Luk_1:8, and ἱåñáôåßá , Luk_1:9, and renders (with Luther) the first Priesteramt, the second Priesterthum. The Latin Vulgate, however, has in both cases sacerdotium, and de Wette Priesteramt. The E. V. renders ἱåñáôåßá , which occurs twice in the Greek Testament, the priest’s office, Luk_1:9, and the office of the priesthood, Heb_7:5, and ἱåñÜôåõìá , priesthood, 1Pe_2:5; 1Pe_2:9.—P. S.]
[It should not be inferred from the text that Schleiermacher denied the existence of angels altogether. He only denied the existence of Satan and the evil angels.—P. S.]