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Elizabeth

Hid for five months, and then said out loud what a younger woman had not told anybody.

Elizabeth is a daughter of Aaron married to a priest, and the text says they were both righteous before God, walking blameless, and they had no child because she was barren and they were both well stricken in years. That sentence puts the two halves together without explaining them. After her husband comes home unable to speak, she conceives, and hides herself five months, saying only that the Lord has taken away her reproach among men. Then a young relative walks in and the baby moves.

Where she appearsLuke 1

Luke
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Elizabeth

The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The Account of Elizabeth

  1. 01

    Luke 1:5-7

    Both righteous, and no child

    Two facts placed side by side with no bridge between them: blameless in all the commandments, and barren, and both now old.

    Before Elizabeth is called barren, she is called righteous. The order blocks a cruel explanation before it can get started. Her lack of children is not presented as God's verdict on her conduct. The Book of Luke has already given that verdict: both husband and wife walk before God blameless. The sorrow in the next sentence is real, but it is not evidence that the previous sentence was false.

    Elizabeth also receives an ancestry of her own. She is not merely attached to a priestly husband; she is of the daughters of Aaron. The opening therefore places priestly descent on both sides of the household, then immediately refuses to let pedigree guarantee a particular outcome. Neither ancestry nor obedience has produced the child they lack. Their age closes off the easy assumption that this is simply an early stage in married life. Luke supplies no number of years, no accusation from a neighbor, and no speech from Elizabeth yet. What it does supply is enough: an honored lineage, a faithful life, and an absence that neither has removed.

    Verse by verse

    1. 1:5

      Daughters of Aaron means descent from Aaron's priestly family, not immediate daughterhood.

    2. 1:6

      Blameless describes their conduct within the Lord's commandments. It does not mean that either person is incapable of sin, as Zechariah's later unbelief shows.

    3. 1:7

      Well stricken in years establishes advanced age but gives neither spouse a numerical age.

    Luke 1:5-7

    King James Version · 3 verses

    1:5There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

    1:6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

    1:7And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

    Luke 1:5-7: Both righteous, and no child
  2. 02

    Luke 1:24-25

    She hid herself five months

    No reason is given for the hiding. What she says is that the Lord looked on her to take away her reproach among men, which is the only line she speaks about herself.

    The woman who has reason to announce something withdraws instead. Luke records five months of seclusion without supplying the motive. Modesty, caution, astonishment, or a desire to avoid questions may sound plausible, but none is named. The silence around her decision belongs to the account and should not be filled with an invented explanation. Her own words explain something else: what she understands God to have done.

    My reproach among men locates the shame carefully. The judgment she has lived under is social; Luke has already described her as righteous before God. Her pregnancy does not make a previously worthless life valuable, and her thanksgiving is not an admission that the reproach was deserved. She names the Lord's attention and the removal of a burden. That is a more exact claim than saying she has finally earned his favor. While Zechariah cannot speak, Elizabeth gives the first recorded interpretation of the fulfilled promise from inside the household. It is brief, personal, and directed toward the Lord who has looked upon her.

    Verse by verse

    1. 1:24

      Luke gives the length of Elizabeth's withdrawal but does not state why she chose it.

    2. 1:25

      Among men distinguishes the reproach she experienced socially from Luke's earlier affirmation of her righteousness before God.

    Luke 1:24-25

    King James Version · 2 verses

    1:24And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,

    1:25Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

    Luke 1:24-25: She hid herself five months
  3. 03

    Luke 1:39-45

    The mother of my Lord

    Mary greets her and the baby leaps. Filled with the Holy Ghost she speaks out with a loud voice, and the blessing she gives ends on believing that there would be a performance.

    Elizabeth does not make Mary's arrival an occasion to compare pregnancies. Her first recorded response blesses the visitor and the child she carries. That is a striking distribution of attention in a house where Elizabeth's own conception is already extraordinary. The older woman does not diminish her own gift; she recognizes that a greater arrival has entered the room with the greeting.

    The source of that recognition is stated before the speech: Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. Luke does not describe a sequence of deductions from Mary's appearance or provide the words of the greeting. It gives the Spirit and then the confession, the mother of my Lord. Mary's significance is inseparable from the identity of her child. The blessing is personal without being merely congratulatory. Elizabeth also interprets her own child's movement as joy, placing the forerunner's response before his birth and before his public voice.

    The last blessing singles out Mary's belief. That emphasis falls sharply beside Zechariah's earlier failure to believe the angel's words. The contrast does not require Elizabeth to criticize her husband; Luke has already placed both responses on the page. The older woman can recognize the younger woman's faith without turning the encounter into a contest. The two households' promises meet here, and Elizabeth is the first to say what the meeting means.

    Verse by verse

    1. 1:41

      Luke explicitly connects Elizabeth's speech with the Holy Ghost. It does not state how much information Mary's greeting contained.

    2. 1:43

      My Lord identifies the child Mary carries. Elizabeth is speaking before Jesus' birth, not describing a title Mary has independently acquired.

    3. 1:44

      For joy is Elizabeth's stated interpretation of the movement, not an emotion supplied by later commentary.

    4. 1:45

      She that believed focuses the blessing on Mary's response to the Lord's word; compare Zechariah's unbelief in Luke 1:20.

    Luke 1:39-45

    King James Version · 7 verses

    1:39And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

    1:40And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

    1:41And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

    1:42And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

    1:43And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

    1:44For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

    1:45And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

    Luke 1:39-45: The mother of my Lord
  4. 04

    Luke 1:57-63

    Not so, he shall be called John

    The neighbours and cousins want the family name. She overrules them, they appeal to her husband, and he writes the same word on a tablet.

    The relatives have settled on a name before the parents have agreed to it. They are calling the child Zacharias, and Elizabeth interrupts with two wonderfully firm words: Not so. Her answer is neither hesitant nor elaborate. John is to be his name. The objection she receives is genealogical: nobody in the family bears it. Family precedent has arrived with confidence, but not with the instruction given in Luke 1:13.

    The appeal to the father then produces not a correction of the mother but confirmation. His name is John. Zechariah writes in the present tense, as though the matter is already settled, because the angel's naming preceded the community's discussion. Luke does not explain how Elizabeth learned the appointed name, and no quarrel between the parents is recorded. They agree. The people who thought they were resolving a household decision discover that the household already has its answer.

    The sequence gives Elizabeth a voice that must not disappear behind the writing table. She has spoken the right name before her husband can speak at all. The marvel in verse 63 belongs to their agreement against the proposed family pattern. It is not a declaration that a mother's testimony only becomes true when a father repeats it.

    Verse by verse

    1. 1:59

      The eighth-day circumcision follows the command in Leviticus 12:3. The family's proposed name is explicitly identified as the father's name.

    2. 1:60

      Elizabeth states the name prescribed by Gabriel in Luke 1:13. Luke does not say how that instruction was communicated to her.

    3. 1:61

      The relatives appeal to their own family naming pattern. Their objection does not establish a universal rule requiring a child to bear a relative's name.

    4. 1:63

      A writing table is a writing tablet. The father's written statement agrees with Elizabeth rather than replacing her choice with another one.

    Luke 1:57-63

    King James Version · 7 verses

    1:57Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

    1:58And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.

    1:59And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

    1:60And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.

    1:61And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.

    1:62And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

    1:63And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.

Why it matters

Elizabeth is the first person in the New Testament to name what is happening, and she does it before Mary says anything about it. She calls her the mother of my Lord, asks why this should come to her, and blesses her for believing. She also holds the line on the naming: the neighbours want the boy called after his father, and she says no, he shall be called John, which is the name given in a room she was not in.

5 songs

The music

Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.

  1. Luke 1:5-25

    A Son Named John

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  2. Luke 1

    Be It Unto Me

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  3. Luke 1:39-56

    Blessed Among Women

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  4. Luke 1:57-80

    His Name Is John

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  5. Luke 1:26-38

    The Annunciation

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