Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a daughter of…

“They took the whole temple service for a week each. his wife was of the daughters of Aaron--The priests might marry into any tribe, but "it was most commendable of all to marry one of the priests' line" [LIGHTFOOT].”

for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from…

“(See Mt 11:10, 11.) drink neither wine nor strong drink--that is, shall be a Nazarite, or "a separated one" (Nu 6:2, &c.).”

“How can I be sure of this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

“Whereby, &c.--Mary believed what was far harder without a sign. Abraham, though older, and doubtless Sarah, too, when the same promise was made to him, "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God."”

The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

“As the mother of our Lord, she was the most "blessed among women" in external distinction; but let them listen to the Lord's own words. "Nay, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it." (See on Lu 11:27).”

Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.

“The angel purposely conforms his language to Isaiah's famous prophecy (Isa 7:14) [CALVIN]. This is but an echo of the sublime prediction in Isa 9:6, 7.”

“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

“How, &c.--not the unbelief of Zacharias, "Whereby shall I know this?" but, taking the fact for granted, "How is it to be, so contrary to the unbroken law of human birth?" Instead of reproof, therefore, her question is answered in mysterious detail.”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

“Son of God--That Christ is the Son of God in His divine and eternal nature is clear from all the New Testament; yet here we see that Sonship efflorescing into human and palpable manifestation by His being born, through "the power of the Highest," an…”

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word to her will be fulfilled.”

“An additional benediction on the Virgin for her implicit faith, in tacit and delicate contrast with her own husband. for--rather, as in the Margin, "that."”

Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant.

“His "Anointed," whose horn He will exalt (1Sa 2:10); in the Virgin's song, it is as the "Help" promised to Israel by all the prophets. My soul . . . my spirit--"all that is within me" (Ps 103:1).”

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people.

“Lord God of Israel--the ancient covenant God of the peculiar people. visited and redeemed--that is, in order to redeem: returned after long absence, and broken His long silence (see Mt 15:31).”

because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dawn will visit us from on high,

“Through the tender mercy of our God--the sole spring, necessarily, of all salvation for sinners. dayspring from on high--either Christ Himself, as the "Sun of righteousness" (Mal 4:2), arising on a dark world [BEZA, GROTIUS, CALVIN, DE WETTE, OLSHAUSEN, &c.], or the light which He…”

While they were there, the time came for her Child to be born.

“A little longer stay at Nazareth, and the prophecy would have failed. But lo! with no intention certainly on her part, much less of Cæsar Augustus, to fulfil the prophecy, she is brought from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and at that nick of time her period…”

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. She wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the…

“The ancient tradition, that our Lord was born in a grotto or cave, is quite consistent with this, the country being rocky.”

Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!

“Compare Isa 9:6, "Unto us a Child is born." It is a birth--"The Word is made flesh" (Joh 1:14). "In the city of David"--in the right line and at the right spot; where prophecy bade us look for Him, and faith accordingly expected Him.”

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!”

“"Peace" with God is the grand necessity of a fallen world. To bring in this, and all other peace in its train, was the prime errand of the Saviour to this earth, and, along with it, Heaven's whole "good will to men"--the divine complacency on…”

When the eight days until His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.

“Still the circumcision of Christ had a profound bearing on His own work--by few rightly apprehended.”

And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written…

“It was in obedience to this "law of Moses," that the Virgin presented her babe unto the Lord, "in the east gate of the court called Nicanor's Gate, where she herself would be sprinkled by the priest with the blood of her sacrifice" [LIGHTFOOT].”

The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

“How would the one sight gild the gloom of the other! He was, probably, by this time, advanced in years. The Spirit guided him to the temple at the very moment when the Virgin was about to present Him to the Lord.”

There was also a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, who was well along in years. She had been married for seven years,

“Anna--or, Hannah. a prophetess--another evidence that "the last times" in which God was to "pour out His Spirit upon all flesh" were at hand.”

When Jesus’ parents had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

“Nothing is more difficult than to fix the precise order in which the visit of the Magi, with the flight into and return from Egypt (Mt 2:13-23), are to be taken, in relation to the circumcision and presentation of Christ in the temple, here recorded.”

Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

“This would give full scope for all that "astonished them in His understanding and answers." Not that He assumed the office of teaching--"His hour" for that "was not yet come," and His equipment for that was not complete; for He had yet to "increase in…”

during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

“(Also see on Mt 3:1.) word of God came unto John--Such formulas, of course, are never used when speaking of Jesus, because the divine nature manifested itself in Him not at certain isolated moments of His life.”

Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”

“And thus the "fruits" which would evidence their repentance were just resistance to the reigning sins, particularly of the class to which the penitent belonged, and the manifestation of an opposite spirit.”

But when he rebuked Herod the tetrarch regarding his brother’s wife Herodias and all the evils he had done,

“(Also see on Mt 3:12.) and for all the evils which Herod had done--important fact here only mentioned, showing how thoroughgoing was the fidelity of the Baptist to his royal hearer, and how strong must have been the workings of conscience in that slave of…”

“Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.”

“Master--betokening not surely a first acquaintance, but a relationship already formed. all night--the usual time of fishing then (Joh 21:3), and even now Peter, as a fisherman, knew how hopeless it was to "let down his net" again, save as a mere act of faith…”