Baptist, but Luke goes to the moment when the birth of John the Baptist was

made known to Zacharias, the priest, his father.

'There was in the days of Herod' (Luke 1:5).

We do not intend cumbering our present study with comments on every

person that is mentioned in this record, but any reader unacquainted with the

terrible character of this king of Judaea might find help and illumination by

reading the articles Nos. 9 and 10 entitled The Powers That Be in Vol. 29 of

The Berean Expositor, which end with the following words:

'Such was the state of affairs when there was born at Bethlehem the Infant

'In the very year stained by the tragic abominations which we have

narrated, the angels proclaimed above His cradle their Divine song of

"Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, goodwill toward men"'.

In those days 'there was ... a certain priest named Zacharias, of the

course of Abia' (Luke 1:5).  Alford draws attention to the change of style

that takes place with the opening of verse 5.  'The style now totally alters

and becomes Hebraistic' and suggests that Luke had before him a document

translated or compiled from an Aramaic oral narration, which, under the

guidance of the Spirit, forms part of the works of God.  In 1 Chronicles 24,

we learn that in the closing days of David, the sons of Aaron were divided

into twenty-four courses, the eighth being the course of Abijah, which in

Greek is written Abia (1 Chron. 24:10).  These courses were changed every

week, beginning each week with a sabbath.  The Companion Bible in Appendix

179, has three important computations which should be studied carefully.

A chart showing parallel datings of the times of our Lord.

A chart showing dates of the begetting of our Lord and of His

The course of Abia.

In this third section, evidence is provided to show that the miraculous

begetting of the Saviour, and not His birth nine months later, took place on

December 25th, in what we must now call the year 5 b.c., the birth of the

Lord taking place on the fifteenth of Tisri, or September 29th, 4 b.c.  The

wife of Zacharias was one of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was

Elisabeth.  The first one of this name was the wife of Aaron himself, and her

name in the Old Testament  is spelled Elisheba (Exod. 6:23).  They were a

godly couple, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord,

blameless, but even so Elisabeth was barren and had no child, and both were

well stricken in years.  Quite a number of times in the outworking of the

Divine purpose, those through whom the seed should come, or through whom some

prophet like Samuel should come, were childless.  Sarah, Rachel for a long

period, and Hannah come immediately to mind.  The reason appears to be to

draw attention to the Divine side of this process, and to realize that

unassisted human nature was totally insufficient.  John the Baptist's

conception and birth were miraculous in the limited sense that Isaac's was,

but not in the full sense that the virgin birth of Christ must have been.  It

provided however a fitting preparation for that mighty event, as we shall

see.  The work of the priests each week was threefold.  One removed ashes,

one brought coals, one burned incense, and the lot fell to Zacharias for this