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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
In this and the following verses, the Holy Ghost gives us a description of John the Baptist, who was the harbinger and forerunner of our Saviour Christ; he is described, first by his parentage, being the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. This Zacharias was a priest, who had a course in the temple, or a right to officiate there when it came to his turn; for we read that David appointed the priests, the sons of Aaron, to minister by turns, and divided them into four and twenty courses, 1 Chronicles 24 every one ministering in the temple by their weeks.
Here note, that Zacharias, a priest, and attending the service of the temple, was a married person, having one of the daughters of Aaron to wife, according to the command of God, Lev_21:14 where the priest is required to marry one of his own people.
Learn hence, that neither the priests under the law did, nor the ministers of Christ under the gospel ought, to abhor the marriage-bed; nor judge themselves too pure for an institution of their Maker. The doctrine of the church of Rome, which forbids to marry, St. Paul calls a doctrine of devils.