The Bible Says
Luke 1:5-7 Meaning

There are no apparent parallel gospel accounts of Luke 1:5-7.

Luke 1:5 establishes the historical setting:

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth (v 5).

After introducing his gospel account of Jesus’s life and ministry on earth as “having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order” (Luke 1:3b), Luke grounds his biographical record: In the days of Herod, king of Judea.

King Herod

In writing this, Luke claims that from a historical perspective the direct origins of the Gospel began during Herod’s reign as king of Judea. The Roman Senate appointed Herod king of Judea in 40 B.C., but Herod added the city of Jerusalem to his jurisdiction in 37 B.C. Herod’s reign as king ended when he died in 4 B.C.

Herod was not an ultimate king. Rather, Herod was a subordinate king. Herod did not have absolute political authority in his kingdom. Rome had ultimate political authority. Judea was a Roman province. It was co-opted into the Roman Empire by the Roman General Pompey in 63 B.C. when he was asked to intervene in a Judean civil war.

Pompey did intervene by besieging Jerusalem and entering the Temple. After this, Pompey claimed Judea for Rome. From that point on, Judea was no longer an independent state, but a client state of the Roman Empire.

King Herod was known as “Herod the Great.” He was called “the Great,” not because he was well liked (he was not). But rather because he financed colossal construction projects across Judea. He was “Herod the Great (Builder).” His most notable building project was a massive expansion of the temple complex. This is why the temple of Jesus’s day is sometimes called “Herod’s Temple.”

Herod’s father was Idumean (from the line of Esau) and a pro-Roman advisor to the high priest. His lifestyle was thoroughly Roman. Herod was ethnically non-Jewish. He was despised by the people as a fake Jew-a pagan foreigner who only made a thin pretense concerning Jewish customs.

Nevertheless, Herod was an agile politician. His power grew as he shifted his support from Pompey to Julius Caesar, to Marc Antony, to Octavian throughout his career. But Herod was also bloody and ruthless. He not only ordered the murder of the innocents when he learned that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16), but according to Josephus, he also had two of his favorite sons strangled to death on separate occasions because he suspected they were trying to usurp his power.

Luke’s expression-In the days of Herod, king of Judea-is only a time stamp (which was important to the historically minded Greeks) for when the beginning events of Jesus’s life began.

Proud King Herod did not have the preeminent role in the event of God assuming human form. The first person who did have an active role in this world-changing event was not a king, but an elderly, humble priest, named Zacharias.

This is an example of how God does not recognize the powerful and the proud, but He exalts the lowly and meek to accomplish His mighty works (1 Samuel 16:7, Psalm 138:6, Matthew 5:5, 19:20, Luke 1:52-53, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, James 4:6).

Zacharias, the Priest

Luke tells us that in the days of this ruthless king of Judea, Herod, there was a priest named Zacharias.

The Hebrew name, Zacharias means “the LORD remembers” or “Yahweh has remembered.”

This Zacharias was an ordinary priest. He was not the high priest, and he was not one of the chief priests on the Sanhedrin Council. Instead, Zacharias was a humble, common priest from the division of Abijah.

The division of Abijah refers to one of the 24 divisions of priests established by King David (1 Chronicles 23:24-24:19). Some have estimated that during the days of Herod there were as many as 18,000 common priests serving among these 24 divisions. Zacharias was one of them.

These divisions were formed after King David had the tabernacle permanently relocated to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 23:25-26). The purpose of their formation was to organize and share the priestly responsibilities and duties of maintaining the temple in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 23:32). Typical duties for these divisions of common priests included:

• Assisting higher ranking priests who had permanent residence in Jerusalem
  (1 Chronicles 23:28)
  
  
• Cleaning the courts, chambers, and holy things
  (1 Chronicles 23:29)
• Leading worship and praise
  (1 Chronicles 23:30)

• Preparing, Offering, and Cleaning Up after sacrifices
  (1 Chronicles 23:31)
  
  
• Gatekeepers
  (1 Chronicles 26:12)
  
  
• The Treasury
  (1 Chronicles 26:20)

The 24 orders of priests served in a rotation. Each order served for one week (from Sabbath to Sabbath) twice a year. This rotation is hinted at in 2 Chronicles 23:8 but is explicitly described in the Mishnah-the oral tradition of the Jews. 24 orders serving one week, twice a year meant that 48 weeks of the lunar calendar were covered. The lunar calendar consisted of twelve thirty-day months, or a total of 360 days.

Zacharias’s priestly division-the division of Abijah-was the eighth in line to serve (1 Chronicles 24:10b).

The remaining weeks were holy weeks, when all the orders served in the Temple.

1. Passover-Unleavened Bread-First Fruits
   (See the TBS Article: “The Original Passover”)
   
   
2. Shavuot (also called the “Feast of Weeks” and/or “Pentecost”
   
   
3. Trumpets-Atonement (“Yom Kippur”)-Tabernacles (“Booths”)

The 24 priestly divisions served for almost 400 years from David’s reign until the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of the temple. And upon Judea’s return to their homeland, the orders were reorganized and resumed their temple duties.

Elizabeth

Zacharias had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s name in Hebrew means “God’s oath” or “God’s fulfillment.”

She was a descendant of Aaron, who was Moses’s brother and Israel’s first high priest. Luke’s mentioning that Elizabeth was from the daughters of Aaron not only informs the readers that this was a priestly family, it also alludes and harkens back to the ancient times when God did many wonderful things in the days of Moses and Aaron.

Elizabeth and Zacharias were both faithful and devout.

They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord (v 6).

Luke describes them both as being righteous in the sight of God. This indicates that they both lived by faith in God and His promises.

“Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith.”
(Habakkuk 2:4)

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him…”
(Hebrews 11:6a)

Luke also writes of Zacharias and Elizabeth that they were both walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

Walking blamelessly did not mean that they were without sin. It means they strove to keep God’s commandments and that when they did sin, they were both faithful to offer the required sacrifices unto the Lord so that they would be considered blameless in God’s sight.

But life was hard on humble Zacharias and Elizabeth.

It was difficult because they were old and childless.

But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years (v 7).

Jewish rabbis considered someone advanced in years if they were over 60. So, Zacharias and Elizabeth were probably over 60 years old-long past the normal child-bearing age. Elizabeth was barren-which means she had not given birth to any children. This was more than heartbreak for Zacharias and his wife-it also meant that their lineage would end.

It was considered a reproach and a disgrace for a woman in ancient times to not bear children (Genesis 30:23, 1 Samuel 6-7). Elisabeth also experienced this shame, feeling reproach from the people (Luke 1:25).

The barrenness that this old couple had endured over their marriage was emblematic of the more than 400-year prophetic silence Israel had experienced since the words of Malachi, the prophet.

The couple’s barrenness and the reproach that went with it, alongside the meaning of their names, was prophetic of Israel’s reproach and longing for God to remember His promise to send them a Deliverer. Their names had meanings as follows:

• “the LORD remembers” or “Yahweh has remembered” (Zacharias)
• “God’s oath” or “the promise of God” (Elizabeth)

Altogether, Zacharias, the common priest, along with his wife, Elizabeth, were humble people who devoutly observed the Lord’s commandments and continued to believe God’s promises-including God’s promise to send the Messiah-amidst a lifetime of personal disappointments and oppression during the days of Herod, king of Judea.

But something miraculous was about to happen to Zacharias and Elizabeth that would not only take away their personal reproach, but also the reproach of all who believe.