Luke1chapter 1

Luke 1:1-4

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us: Luke opens with the most polished periodic sentence in the New Testament, four verses forming one Greek clause, the mark of a trained writer addressing an educated reader. He names his method in the same breath, eyewitnesses who were also ministers of the word, and his own aim to write in order, tracing all things accurately from the first. The purpose is stated plainly to Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed, history written to ground faith already held, not to invent it.

Luke 1:5-7

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea situates the whole Gospel under a dateable, verifiable reign, Herod the Great, whose death in 4 BC anchors the incarnation's chronology against every skeptical redating. Zacharias belonged to the course of Abia, one of the twenty-four priestly courses fixed since David in 1 Chronicles 24:10, and Elisabeth too descended from Aaron, so John is priest by both lines before he is prophet by any calling. Luke states their righteousness plainly, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, then immediately adds the wound, they had no child, for Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. The bench reads the pairing as deliberate, godliness is no exemption from grief, and the childless righteous couple stands in the line of Abraham and Sarah, Hannah and Elkanah, where a barren womb becomes the place God chooses to act.

Luke 1:8-10

And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course opens an ordinary day, a priest performing his rostered duty at the appointed time. According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense, an honor priests drew only once in a lifetime by lot from among thousands, so this ordinary morning became the day of Zacharias's life. He entered the Holy Place alone while the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense, the visible smoke and the unseen prayers rising together, the picture Psalm 141:2 already supplied, let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense.

Luke 1:11-13

an angel of the Lord: An angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense meets Zacharias in the one place in the Temple where no vision was expected, the right side reading in Jewish tradition as the side of favor. Zacharias was troubled, and fear fell upon him, the ordinary human response to a theophany that Luke will repeat almost verbatim to Mary and to the shepherds, so that Fear not becomes the refrain of this whole opening. Thy prayer is heard: the commentators weigh whether this names his long prayer for a son or his priestly prayer for Israel's redemption offered that very hour, and answer that the two prayers meet in one child, for John's birth is itself Israel's redemption beginning. His name, John, the Lord is gracious, is chosen before his birth, as the messenger's own name will be at verse 31.

Luke 1:14-15

Thou shalt have joy and gladness opens the joy thread that runs the length of this Gospel, from the angels' good tidings of great joy at Bethlehem to the disciples returning to Jerusalem with great joy after the ascension. John shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, the vocabulary of the Nazirite vow from Numbers 6 without the word itself being used, placing him beside Samson and Samuel as a deliverer set apart from the womb. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb, the boldest claim in the verse, and the bench reads it as a real, particular filling for John's own prophetic office rather than a claim about the moment of regeneration, since the child cannot yet believe.

Luke 1:16-17

Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God states John's mission in the fewest words the Gospel ever gives it, plain repentance-preaching bearing plain fruit. He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias picks up Malachi 4:5-6 in substance, and the commentators note the qualification, in the spirit and power of, not a claim that John is Elijah returned in person, which harmonizes Jesus calling him Elijah in Matthew 11:14 and John denying the title of himself in John 1:21. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, quotes Malachi's own closing words nearly whole, and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord names the whole of John's work in one clause, paving the road, not building the house.

Luke 1:18-20

Whereby shall I know this, for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years echoes Abraham's own question at the promise of Isaac in Genesis 15:8, and the bench sets it beside Mary's how shall this be at verse 34 to weigh why one meets a sign of judgment and the other does not: Zacharias asks for proof against a promise he of all men should have trusted, a priest doubting an angel in the Holy Place itself, while Mary asks only how, already believing the fact. Gabriel answers by naming himself, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, one of only two angels named in Scripture, sent with glad tidings that Zacharias's unbelief has now made bittersweet. The sign is dumbness until the day these things shall be performed, discipline more than punishment, a silence that will turn his own unbelief into nine months of forced meditation before his tongue is loosed in prophecy.

Luke 1:21-23

The people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple, for the incense offering was brief and the watching crowd outside sensed the delay before they understood its cause. When he came out he could not speak, and they perceived that he had seen a vision, reading his silence rightly by his gestures, he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. The commentators note the quiet realism of what follows, no fanfare, he simply finishes out the days of his ministration and departs to his own house, the miraculous folded back into ordinary priestly routine until the child is born to make the sign public.

Luke 1:24-25

After those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, and the commentators read her seclusion as devout meditation on the mercy she had received rather than shame, keeping the wonder to herself until it could no longer be hidden. Her own words interpret the whole ordeal, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men, naming barrenness by its social weight in that world, the reproach Rachel and Hannah had also carried before her in Genesis 30:23 and 1 Samuel 1:6-7. Her joy is stated in the Lord's own action, he looked on me, echoing the covenant language of visitation that will run through the whole chapter.

Luke 1:26-28

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth ties Mary's annunciation to Elisabeth's pregnancy by an exact clock, the same messenger sent twice within half a year. Nazareth carries no mention in the Old Testament and no reputation worth having, so much that John 1:46 later asks can any good thing come out of Nazareth, and the bench reads the obscurity as characteristic of how God works, the greatest event in history breaking into an unremarkable town. Mary is espoused, legally bound to Joseph though not yet living with him, of the house of David, carrying the royal line the angel is about to invoke. Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: the Greek names grace received, not merit possessed, the same grace-word Paul will use of every believer in Ephesians 1:6, and the commentators caution against reading more into the greeting than the grammar carries.

Luke 1:29-30

She was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be, a different trouble than Zacharias's fear at the vision itself; Mary ponders the content of the greeting, the verb suggesting careful reasoning rather than mere alarm, a trait Luke will note again at 2:19 and 2:51. The angel's Fear not, Mary answers the trouble directly, and for thou hast found favour with God restates the greeting in plainer language, favour rather than merit, the same word used of Noah in Genesis 6:8 and of the whole nation of Israel elsewhere. The commentators note Mary's composure across the whole scene, question and submission both, without the demand for a sign that met Zacharias.

Luke 1:31-33

Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS gives the name before the child breathes, the Lord saves, by the same means used with Joseph in Matthew 1:21. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest reaches beyond John's greatness at verse 15 into a different category altogether, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David names the covenant of 2 Samuel 7:12-16 by its plainest term, an actual throne promised to an actual son of David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end: the commentators read this as Davidic kingship carried to its full, final and eternal form, the promise Israel had held for a thousand years now given a face and a birthdate.

Luke 1:34-35

How shall this be, seeing I know not a man asks only the manner, not the fact, which the bench distinguishes sharply from Zacharias's demand for proof; Mary already believes and only wants to understand the means, since she knows the ordinary path to motherhood is closed to her. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee uses the same verb the Greek Old Testament gives the cloud of glory overshadowing the tabernacle in Exodus 40:35, the same divine presence now settling on a womb rather than a tent. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God ties the virgin conception directly to the title, the child's holiness and deity traced to the manner of his coming, no human father anywhere in the account.

Luke 1:36-38

Thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age gives Mary a confirming sign she never asked for, the same courtesy withheld from Zacharias because he demanded rather than trusted, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren ties the two conceptions together as evidence of one hand at work. For with God nothing shall be impossible restates Genesis 18:14's word to Sarah almost exactly, the same God who opened one old womb now opening a young one by an even greater wonder. Mary's answer closes the scene, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word, a bondservant's word, not a queen's, and the commentators across the centuries have set her submission beside Eve's disobedience as the willing yes that undoes the ancient no.

Luke 1:39-41

Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, a trip of some eighty miles from Nazareth to the hill country of Judah, traditionally located at Ein Kerem, undertaken quickly by a young woman carrying news she could share with almost no one else. When Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: the unborn John responds to the presence of the unborn Christ before either child can speak or reason, a wordless recognition the commentators read as John's first act of prophetic ministry, in the womb before it is in the wilderness.

Luke 1:42-45

She spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb: Elisabeth's greeting, filled with the Holy Ghost, arrives at Mary's door before Mary has said a word about the child's identity, so the recognition is revealed to her, not reported to her. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me: an older kinswoman, herself the mother of a promised prophet, calls the child in Mary's womb her Lord, one of the earliest confessions of Christ's deity in the Gospel, spoken by the Holy Ghost through an unborn child's mother. Elisabeth explains her own son's leap, for joy, naming the movement's meaning rather than leaving it as mere reflex, and closes with a commendation that stands in deliberate contrast to her own husband's unbelief, blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Luke 1:46-48

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour opens the Magnificat, a Hebrew psalm in Greek dress built on the pattern of Hannah's song at 1 Samuel 2:1-10, another woman raised from reproach who sang before her son grew to serve as priest and prophet. My Saviour is a word the church has weighed carefully across the centuries, Mary naming God as her own deliverer and so numbering herself among those who need saving grace like every other believer. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden strikes the note the whole song will develop, God choosing the low and overlooked, a servant girl in an unremarkable town, to carry the world's redemption, and from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed is fulfilled every time the church has sung this very song since.

Luke 1:49-50

For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name turns from what God has done for Mary specifically to who God is in himself, the particular miracle grounded in God's own holiness. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation widens the song from Mary's own case to the whole line of the faithful, mercy not confined to one womb but running the length of covenant history. The commentators note the hinge this verse forms, closing the first movement of personal thanksgiving and opening the second movement of God's dealings with the proud and the poor.

Luke 1:51-53

He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts opens the great reversal that runs the length of Luke's Gospel, the poor-and-reversal thread this book carries more than any other Gospel. The verbs stand in the Greek aorist, a past tense used prophetically, the outcome so certain that Mary sings of it as already accomplished though the kingdom has barely begun. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree; he hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away: the commentators read this as the settled character of God's kingdom, stated plainly here and acted out across the whole Gospel in Jesus' own choice of company, feasts, and parables.

Luke 1:54-55

He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy closes the Magnificat where it must close, not with Mary alone but with the whole nation whose story this child continues, the language echoing Psalm 98:3, he hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever names the promise by its oldest address, Genesis 12:3 and 22:18, every nation blessed in Abraham's seed, and Mary sings it as a promise now being kept rather than merely recalled. The bench reads the whole song as a hinge between Testaments, Hannah's grammar carrying Israel's oldest hope into the moment of its fulfillment.

Luke 1:56-58

Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house, a stay long enough to see Elisabeth well along and short enough that the timing has left commentators guessing whether Mary left just before or just after John's birth, a detail the text does not settle. Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son closes months of concealment in the plainest possible sentence, the sign Gabriel promised now visible to the whole hill country. Her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her, the joy thread sounding again, mercy made public and shared rather than hoarded.

Luke 1:59-63

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, keeping the covenant sign commanded at Genesis 17:12 and Leviticus 12:3, and custom expected the boy to carry his father's name, so they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. His mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John surprises the family, since Zacharias has been unable to speak or write since the annunciation and the name was given to him alone in the Temple, so Elisabeth's insistence suggests the couple had found some way to communicate the angel's instruction during the months of his silence. They made signs to his father, how he would have him called, and he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John, his obedience arriving in the same silence his earlier doubt had cost him. And they marvelled all closes the scene, the whole family and the neighbours watching a promise nine months old finally take its name.

Luke 1:64-66

His mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God: the healing follows directly on his written act of obedience, the same tongue that once demanded a sign now released the moment his own faith is finally exercised. Fear came on all that dwelt round about them, the same reverent awe that met Gabriel's own appearances, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea, the whole neighbourhood now carrying a story it cannot yet fully explain. All they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be, a question Luke leaves open rather than answering, and closes with the plain verdict, the hand of the Lord was with him, the same phrase Scripture gives Joseph and Samuel before it explains how.

Luke 1:67-70

His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied opens the Benedictus, Zacharias's tongue loosed not merely for ordinary speech but for prophecy, nine months of enforced silence issuing in one of the church's oldest hymns. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people states the song's whole theme in one line, visitation and redemption arriving together in a newborn cousin's cry. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David draws directly on 2 Samuel 22:3 and Psalm 18:2, the horn a settled Hebrew figure for strength and kingship, here located precisely in David's own house. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began ties the whole song to every prophetic voice of the Old Testament at once, a birth two people are singing over already the fulfillment of everything the prophets said.

Luke 1:71-72

That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us, spoken under Roman occupation, and the commentators name two ways to hear it, a longing for national deliverance from Rome that many first hearers surely felt, and the deeper spiritual deliverance from sin and its dominion that the child's whole ministry will actually deliver, both readings held together rather than one erasing the other. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant roots the deliverance in the Abrahamic covenant already named in Mary's song, mercy not improvised but promised centuries before and now kept. Zacharias sings as a priest who has spent a lifetime under foreign rule inside a covenant that had seemed, humanly, to be running out of time, and the two hopes, national and spiritual, meet in the same child without contradiction.

Luke 1:73-75

The oath which he sware to our father Abraham names the covenant by its most solemn form, an oath God swore by himself at Genesis 22:16-18 because there was none greater to swear by. That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear names the purpose of deliverance, not safety for its own sake but freedom to serve, and in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life completes it, worship and obedience as the intended outcome of every rescue God performs. The bench reads this as the song's real center, salvation aimed always at a serving, holy people, not merely a rescued one.

Luke 1:76-77

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest turns the song from the Messiah just celebrated to the infant lying beside his father, John's whole vocation compressed into a single title higher than any priest could otherwise claim. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways draws together Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, the forerunner language already given to Gabriel at verse 17 now sung back to the child himself. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins previews John's own preaching in exact terms, the content of his ministry named before he can speak a word of it.

Luke 1:78-79

Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us names Christ by a title the Greek Old Testament also gives the Messiah, translated Branch at Zechariah 3:8 and 6:12 and echoed in Malachi 4:2's Sun of righteousness, the rising light now visiting rather than merely promised. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death draws directly on Isaiah 9:2, the same verse Matthew will apply to Christ's Galilean ministry in Matthew 4:16. To guide our feet into the way of peace closes the Benedictus exactly where the angels will open chapter two, peace on earth, the whole canticle ending on the word that will announce the Saviour's birth.

Luke 1:80

And the child grew: And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel closes the chapter in the same understated way Luke will close Jesus' own childhood at 2:40 and 2:52, a whole youth folded into one verse. Some historians have proposed contact with the wilderness community at Qumran to account for John's desert upbringing, a possibility worth naming honestly though the text itself claims nothing of the kind, only growth and hiddenness. The chapter that opened with an old priest struck silent in the Temple ends with a boy growing unseen in the wilderness, both waiting on God's own timing for the day of his shewing unto Israel.