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Luke

Lukechapter 1

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Speaks with:Luke 1×19Acts 10×6Genesis 17×5Matthew 1×6Luke 2×4John 20×4

Summary

Chapter summary

Luke's prologue to Theophilus. Zacharias at the altar, Gabriel, the naming of John promised. Annunciation to Mary: 'behold the handmaid of the Lord.' The Visitation; Mary's Magnificat. Birth of John; Zacharias's Benedictus. Two song-bracketed scenes open Luke's infancy narrative.

Context

Gospel · Luke — Luke overview

  • A. 1–4 Why Luke Wrote It Down for Theophilus
  • B. 5–25 Gabriel Comes to Zacharias at the Altar
  • C. 26–38 Gabriel Comes to Mary at Nazareth
  • D. 39–56 Mary Visits Elizabeth; My Soul Magnifies the Lord
  • E. 57–80 John Is Born and Zacharias Prophesies

The outline

  1. A.Why Luke Wrote It Down for Theophilusvv. 1 to 4

    Read vv. 1 to 4 →

  2. B.Gabriel Comes to Zacharias at the Altarvv. 5 to 25

    Read vv. 5 to 25 →

  3. C.Gabriel Comes to Mary at Nazarethvv. 26 to 38

    Read vv. 26 to 38 →

  4. D.Mary Visits Elizabeth; My Soul Magnifies the Lordvv. 39 to 56

    Read vv. 39 to 56 →

  5. E.John Is Born and Zacharias Prophesiesvv. 57 to 80

    Read vv. 57 to 80 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The messenger before his face

Pattern

Malachi closes the Old Testament with a messenger sent to prepare the way and Elijah promised before the great day. The Gospels open exactly there: Gabriel says John will go in the spirit and power of Elias, Mark begins his book with Malachi's verse, and Jesus says of John, this is he of whom it is written.

The seam between the Testaments is a single promise kept. Four centuries of silence end with the very figure the last prophet named, and Jesus himself supplies the identification.

  1. Malachi 3:1

    Behold, I will send my messenger

  2. Malachi 4:5-6

    Elijah before the great and dreadful day

    The Old Testament's last promise: Elijah sent to turn the heart of the fathers to the children.

  3. Matthew 11:10

    Jesus names John as the messenger

    For this is he, of whom it is written.

  4. Mark 1:2

    Mark opens his Gospel with the verse

  5. Luke 1:17 you are here

    In the spirit and power of Elias

    Before John's birth the angel binds Malachi's two promises to him.

The lamp for David's sake

Pattern

God promises David a house and a throne established for ever. Through the kings that follow, Judah is spared again and again for David's sake, so that his lamp is not put out in Jerusalem. The scroll of Kings ends with the line alive at a table in Babylon, and Luke gives the throne of his father David to Jesus.

Every northern dynasty in Kings is cut off on schedule, while Judah's one dynasty survives every wicked king it produces, and the text says why in one repeated phrase. The lamp promise is the engine of two books, and the New Testament states where it lands. A reader who follows the phrase follows the plot.

  1. 2 Samuel 7:12-16

    The covenant with David

    Thy throne shall be established for ever.

  2. 1 Kings 11:36

    A light alway in Jerusalem

    One tribe kept for Solomon's son, that David my servant may have a light alway before me.

  3. 1 Kings 15:4

    A lamp under a bad king

    For David's sake did the LORD give him a lamp in Jerusalem.

  4. 2 Kings 8:19

    Judah spared for David's sake

    The LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light.

  5. 2 Kings 19:34

    The city defended for David's sake

    I will defend this city, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

  6. 2 Kings 25:27-30

    The line alive in Babylon

    Jehoiachin lifted from prison, eating bread at the king of Babylon's table all the days of his life.

  7. Luke 1:32-33 you are here

    The throne of his father David

    Luke states where the promise lands: the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

The world behind this chapter

Luke 1
When
The last years of Herod the Great · c. 7–5 BC
Where
The temple sanctuary in Jerusalem, a village in the hill country of Judea, and Nazareth in Galilee
Who first heard it
Theophilus and Greek-speaking readers who needed the temple system explained

The history

Priestly service ran on a rota. The priesthood was divided into twenty-four courses, and each course came up to Jerusalem to serve for a week, twice a year, plus the great festivals. Zechariah belonged to one of them, which is why he is at the sanctuary at all and why he goes home again afterwards.

Burning the incense was the assignment of a lifetime. There were far more priests than duties, so the tasks were allotted, and a man who drew the incense offering was ordinarily not eligible again. Zechariah is standing in the holiest place he will ever stand, on the one day he will ever stand there, when the angel appears.

Meanwhile the crowd is outside praying. The people gathered in the courts at the hour of incense, morning and afternoon, and waited for the priest to come out and pronounce the blessing. When Zechariah cannot speak, the whole assembly knows something has happened.

Naming took place at circumcision on the eighth day, and the family expected a name from the family. Elizabeth's insistence on John broke the custom, which is why they appealed to the father — and why a man who could not speak asked for a writing tablet, a wax-covered board written on with a stylus.

What it meant to them

Luke tells Theophilus at the outset exactly what kind of book this is: he has followed everything carefully from the beginning, checked with those who were eyewitnesses from the first, and set it in order so that his reader may know the certainty of what he has been taught.

Then Mary's song sets the terms for the whole Gospel. God has scattered the proud, brought down rulers from their thrones, lifted the humble, filled the hungry, and sent the rich away empty. A Greek reader of rank was being told at the start which way this kingdom runs.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Luke 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 32 · Prophecy and fulfillment

Gabriel: 'the THRONE of his father David'

2 Samuel 7:12→

And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.

public-domain quotation

v. 35 · An echo of this verse

'The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee' echoes the glory-cloud over the tabernacle; Mary as new dwelling.

Exodus 40:34→

Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

Hays, Echoes in the Gospels

This page draws on E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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