Zacharias

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron.

¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear.

¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

“How can I be sure of this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he took so long in the temple.

³⁹ In those days Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah,

⁴⁰ where she entered the home of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father Zechariah.

⁶⁷ Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people.

¹ In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

² during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.