Elizabeth (Luke 1)

It seemed only fitting that considering that, as my phd does focus on the Gospel of Luke, I should start featuring it a bit more on my blog. The main reason that this hasn’t been the case so far is that I have spent quite a bit of time dealing with background issues in the Old Testament and other Jewish and Greek literature rather than Luke itself. I have done some research on Luke but most of that is too dense to be put up here where I like to try and keep things as simple and straightforward as possible while still being interesting.

Quite some time ago, I did a post on Zechariah, a temple priest and the father of John the Baptist. He is the first character we meet in the Gospel. It seemed only right to also have a look at his wife, Elizabeth, who is also incredibly important to the story here. Elizabeth is introduced in Luke 1:5, just after her husband. Here, we learn that she is a descendent of Aaron, so is also from a priestly family, just like Zechariah. In verse 6 Luke tells us that both Elizabeth and Zechariah were good and faithful Jews who had followed the commands of the law all their lives. However, in verse 7 their main problem is highlighted. They have no children because Elizabeth is barren and both are getting old i.e. past the age of having children. This statement should remind us of another couple in the Old Testament who also had this problem. 

Okay, there are actually several couples. The first and most important are Abraham and Sarah. In Genesis 11:30 we are told that Sarah is barren and that she and Abraham had no children as a result. By Genesis 18:11 both Sarah and Abraham have grown old and are past being able to have children even if Sarah wasn’t barren. But out of this bleak situation, God provides them with a son, Isaac (Gen 21:1-7). 

The second couple are Hannah and her husband Elkanah (who had children with his other wife, Peninnah) in 1 Samuel 1-2. Hannah and Elkanah are also described as people faithful to God as they go up to worship God at Shiloh (the place to worship God at the time) and offer sacrifices there every year. Hannah prays to God and asks him for a son who she will then set before God as a nazarite (as detailed in Number 6) as a response (1 Sam 1:10-11). Her prayer is also answered and she dedicates her son Samuel to God’s service at Shiloh.
 
So the situation of Elizabeth echoes that of several other Old Testament couples who God intervenes for and provides with children, removing their shame in being childless. Not only this but both Isaac and Samuel are important figures in the Old Testament. It is through Isaac that the nations of Israel (through Jacob) and Edom (through Esau) come. Samuel is the great prophet of Israel who anoints the first two kings over the nation, Saul and David. So it would have been of no surprise to Luke’s readers that an angel appears to Zechariah and announces that his wife will bear him a son, who will also be an important figure in Israel’s history, despite the age of his parents and barrenness of his mother.

Elizabeth does two other important things during her brief appearance in the early chapters of Luke. Firstly, when Mary comes to visit her, she recognises that Mary has a special blessed status as the woman chosen to bear the saviour of Israel (Luke 1:41-45). This insight is inspired by the unborn John leaping in her womb when she hears Mary’s greeting and the Holy Spirit who comes upon her (Luke 1:41). This shows the relationship between the two boys who have been promised to Elizabeth and Mary – that John is the lesser of the two who comes before Jesus preparing the way. 

Secondly, after John’s birth, when he is to be circumcised and named, she insists that he is named John rather than Zechariah after his father (Luke 1:59-60). This is obedient to the command that Gabriel gave the Zechariah to name the boy John (Luke 1:13), despite the fact that John was not a family name.

This is all we learn about Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke. After the naming of John and Zechariah’s prophecy, the focus shifts to the birth and childhood of Jesus and then the ministries of John and Jesus. She does not appear in the Gospel again (unlike Mary). We are not told whether Zechariah and Elizabeth had any more children as Hannah and Elkanah did or whether John was their only child as Isaac was for Abraham and Sarah. 

What we do learn through the story of Elizabeth is that God is once again at work in the history of his people, just as he did in the Old Testament, raising up people who would move forward his plans for his people Israel and indeed all of his creation, just as he raised up Isaac and Samuel. This tells us as readers that something important is happening in the narrative that Luke is setting forth here and that it will have many parallels with how God has worked among his people in the past. For that story, we have to continue reading the Gospel of Luke with the story of Israel in the Old Testament in mind.