John the Baptist - Luke 1:21-79

Zacharias is cursed so that he can’t talk “and the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple.” Like I said last time, I believe that it had been several hundred years since there had been a visitation to the temple, so it was pretty unusual for him to be long in the temple. When he finally does come out he can’t talk and the people deduced that “he had seen a vision in the temple.” It seems that even with the speech loss it didn’t get him out of the temple service, he finished up and went home. And “after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived.” Interestingly, I don’t know how often old people have sex usually, but Zacharias apparently believed the angel enough to go home and at least do his part to get his wife pregnant. Elizabeth is ecstatic, but hides “herself five months.”

The Ensign Article from September 1972 entitled “John the Baptist: A Burning and a Shining Light” he says, “In selecting the mortal lineage through which John would come, ancient law and procedure had to be fulfilled. He who should labor in Israel to announce and to identify the great High Priest who was the long-awaited Messiah must be (according to the law) a descendant of Aaron and legally entitled to act in his priestly office in Israel. The Lord chose Zacharias, a priest of the family of Aaron, and Elisabeth, his wife, one of the ‘daughters of Aaron,’ to be the mortal parents to provide the right lineage necessary to complete the inheritance- to bring about the proper combination of body and spirit.” The January 1991 Ensign article entitled “There is Not a Greater Prophet,” further quotes the Prophet Joseph Smith as teaching, “the Levitical Priesthood is forever hereditary- fixed on the head of Aaron and his sons forever, and was in active operation down to Zacharias the father of John.”

Later, when Mary, who was miraculously pregnant with the Savior, came to visit her cousin for the first few months of her pregnancy, Elizabeth had a remarkable experience. Assuming that Elizabeth did not know that her cousin Mary was pregnant before Mary got to her house, I would imagine that Elizabeth was surprised to have her baby respond so much. So imagine that being Elizabeth, an old pregnant lady inside her house, her young cousin walks up and “the babe leapt in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.” Looking back at it, we know that Mary was pregnant with Jesus, but I don’t think that Elisabeth knew at the time, and I know that when a teenager says that they are a virgin but turns up pregnant, I look at them with a “face.” Elisabeth could have turned Mary’s pregnancy into a scandal, or lectured her, or to not believe her. The IM says, “When Mary came to visit Elisabeth after learning that she would be the mother of the Son of God, Elisabeth recognized Mary’s remarkable mission and, filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke words of praise and testimony, as recorded in Luke 1:41-45. When Zacharias’s tongue was loosed at the time his son, John, was circumcised and named, Zacharias, also filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke beautiful words of praise, testifying of the mission of the Savior, as found in Luke 1:67-80. Zacharias’s hymn of praise is known as the Benedictus. Hymns of praise are also recorded in the Old Testament, which acknowledge Heavenly Father’s gracious blessings upon His people. Mary’s song closely resembles the song of Hannah. Hannah was a handmaid of the Lord who, through faith, miraculously conceived Samuel and dedicated him to God’s service. The Song of Mary associates the birth of Jesus Christ with Israel’s sacred part and celebrates the Lord’s mercy in once again reaching out to bless and honor His people- particularly those of ‘low degree.’” 

When Elizabeth delivered John, when he was 8 days old, he was to be circumstances “and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.” And Zacharias “wrote, saying, His name if John. And they marveled all. And he mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country and Judaea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.” I find it interesting that there is such a contrast between the announcement of JTB and the announcement of the Savior. JTB’s birth was pretty inconspicuous, Anna and Simeon recognized him in the temple, but it wasn’t “noised abroad” and common knowledge all throughout the land. JTB being a well-known birth might have been a factor when Herod’s edict came down to kill all the baby boys under two years old, everyone knew about John, that he was in that age range, and it would have been difficult to hide him anywhere close by.

We learn from other sources that at 8 days old, John was baptized and ordained. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Naming of children and circumcision of male members of the house of Israel took place on 9the eighth) day. In the case of John, he ‘was ordained by the angel of God at the time he was eight days old’- not to the Aaronic Priesthood, for such would come later, after his baptism and other preparation, but –‘unto this power, to overthrown the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people, to prepare them for the coming of the lord, in whose hand is given all power.’ That is, at this solemn eighteth day ceremony, and angel… gave the Lord’s Elias (John) the divine commission to serve as the greatest forerunner of all the ages.” Doctrine and Covenants 84:28 says, “For he (John) was baptized while he was yet in his childhood, and was ordained by the angel of God at the time he was eight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people, to prepare them for the coming of the Lord, in whose hand is given all power.” The article from September 1972 points out why an angel had to come to baptize and ordain John or why he had to be ordained to the priesthood by an angel instead of his own father who was a priest. The article says, “Zacharias was a priest after the order of Aaron and held true priesthood… he may not have held the proper keys of authority to ordain his soon to this particular calling. The ordination referred to took place when John was eight days old, which was apparently the same day that he was circumcised and named… President Joseph Fielding Smith has explained the matter of John’s ordination as follows: ‘the reason Zacharias could not ordain John is because of the fact that John received certain keys of authority which his father Zacharias did not possess. Therefore this special authority had to be conferred by this heavenly messenger, who was duly authorized and sent to confer it. John’s ordination was not merely the bestowal of the Aaronic Priesthood, which his father held, but also the conferring of certain essential powers peculiar to the time among which was the authority to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews and ‘to make straight the way of the Lord.’ Moreover, it was to prepare the Jews and other Israelites for the coming of the Son of God. This great authority required a special ordination beyond the delegated power that had been given to Zacharias or any other priest who went before him, so the angel of the Lord was sent to John in his childhood to confer it.’” This explanation helped me to understand the concept of priesthood keys a little bit better.

The time between his circumcision and ordination at eight days old and when he was found baptizing in the Jordan is only covered by Luke’s comment “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert till the day of his shewing unto Israel.” The next we see JTB, he’s preaching and baptizing with “his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.” What happened in between that time is intriguing but confusing. I had heard somewhere that his father Zacharias had been involved in an attempted uprising against Rome and had been executed and John had fled into the wilderness with his mother. A very interesting article from the BYU Religious Studies Center entitled “The Confusing Case of Zacharias” gives us insight into this saying, “The most frequently occurring personal name in the Bible is Zechariah (also spelled Zachariah or in the New Testament as Zacharias)… We should not be surprised to find some confusion about the biblical Zachariahs given that the name over a thousand years and fifty-five separate verses.” It appears that the Zacharias that was involved in the uprising is a different Zacharias then John’s father, so that theory is out. Interestingly, the author points out that Jew, Christian, and Muslim alike have theories on what happened to Zacharias stating, “Clearly, the question of what happened to John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, interested many.” The church manual teaches that during the death sentence for baby boys from Herod, Elisabeth and John fled into the wilderness while Zacharias stayed behind. Because everyone knew about John as a toddler, Zacharias was confronted about the whereabouts of his son by the Romans and when he wouldn’t give up the location of his family, he was killed.