Division 1:5–4:13
God sent Jesus to save people
In this second division, Luke told how God sent Jesus to save people. Before God sent Jesus to the world, God sent John the Baptizer to prepare people to receive Jesus. This division gives details about the birth of John and the birth of Jesus. It also tells about John’s preaching and about other events that happened before Jesus started his ministry.
Section 1:5–25
An angel said that John the Baptizer would be born
An angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah while he was working in the temple as a priest. The angel told him that his wife Elizabeth would become pregnant and have a baby, and that he must name him John. Zechariah and Elizabeth were old, and Elizabeth was not able to have children. So Zechariah did not believe the angel. Because he did not believe that what the angel said would happen, the angel made him unable to speak. But later, Elizabeth became pregnant.
It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it. Some other possible headings for this section are:
The Birth of John the Baptist is Announced (Good News Translation)
-or-
The angel Gabriel predicts the birth of John the Baptizer
-or-
The angel Gabriel announces/prophesies to Zechariah that his wife will have a son
Paragraph 1:5–7
In these verses, Luke told about Zechariah and Elizabeth, who are the main people in chapter 1. Luke did not mention them in the rest of the book except in 3:2. Use a natural way in your language to introduce them.
1:5a
In the time of Herod king of Judea: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as time is literally “days” (as in the Revised Standard Version). The phrase the time of Herod refers to the time when Herod ruled Judea. Some other ways to translate this are:
In the reign of Herod king of Judea (Revised English Bible)
-or-
When Herod was king of Judea (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
During the time when Herod was king of Judea (Good News Translation)
Herod: The name Herod here refers to Herod the Great. Luke mentioned Herod here in order to indicate the time period during which the events of this chapter happened. It was common in Bible times to indicate when events happened by telling the name of the king who was ruling at the time.
Judea: Judea was the name of a region or province that King Herod ruled. In some languages, it may helpful to indicate this. For example:
⌊the region/land of⌋ Judea
1:5b
there was a priest named Zechariah: Zechariah is the main person in this first section of Luke. Introduce him in a natural way in your language.
Luke implied here that Zechariah lived in Judea, where Herod was king. In some languages, it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:
a priest named Zechariah lived ⌊there⌋
priest: In this context the word priest refers specifically to a priest for the people of Israel. An Israelite priest was a man who offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. He also performed other rituals for them. All Israelite priests, including Zechariah, were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses.
Some ways to translate priest are:
• Use a descriptive term that focuses on the function of a priest. For example:
sacrificer
-or-
man/person who offers sacrifices to God
-or-
one who represents people to God
• Use a local word for priest. This option may be acceptable if the duties of a local priest are similar to those of an Israelite/Jewish priest. You may need to indicate that the word refers to a Jewish priest. For example:
Jewish people’s priest
-or-
sacrificer for the Jewish people
If possible, you should choose a term that can be used in both Old Testament and New Testament contexts. Remember that in the book of Hebrews believers are called priests and Christ is called our high priest.
See priest in the Glossary.
Zechariah: A few English versions spell Zechariah as “Zecharias” (New American Standard Bible, King James Version). In English, either spelling is acceptable. You may want to check the spelling of this name in the national language version.
General Comment on 1:5a–b
In some languages it may be necessary to reverse the order of 1:5a and 1:5b in order to keep the focus on Zechariah:
5bThere was a priest named Zechariah who lived 5aduring the time that Herod ruled over ⌊the province of⌋ Judea.
1:5c
the priestly division of Abijah: The phrase priestly division refers here to a group of priests who performed duties during a certain time period. Some other ways to translate this are:
priestly group (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
class of priests
-or-
section of the priesthood (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
The group of priests that Zechariah belonged to was named after the priest Abijah, who had died long before Zechariah was born. There were twenty-four groups of priests in Zechariah’s time. Each group worked in the temple for one week at a time, and they did this twice in a year.
The priests served in the temple in the city of Jerusalem. Many priests, including Zechariah, did not live in Jerusalem. During their time of service, they left their families, traveled to Jerusalem, and stayed there for the week.
1:5d
and whose wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron: The word and indicates here that just like Zechariah, Elizabeth, too, was one of Aaron’s descendants. Before this the text has not explicitly stated that Zechariah was a descendant of Aaron, so you may need to make this explicit here. For example:
…Elizabeth was, like him, a descendant of Aaron (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
a daughter of Aaron: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible has translated as a daughter of Aaron is literally “of the daughters of Aaron.” This is a figurative way to say that she was among Aaron’s female descendants. Use a natural term in your language. You may be able to use the same term for both Zechariah and Elizabeth. For example:
his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron (New International Version)
Aaron: Aaron was the brother of Moses and was the first high priest of Israel. All the Jewish priests were descended from him. So Elizabeth, like Zechariah, was from a family of priests. In some languages it may be necessary to make this clear by saying:
Aaron ⌊the ancestor of the priestly clan⌋
© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.