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.
People of the Bible
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.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Elizabeth
- 01
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
