Ecumenical Commemoration
Parents of John the Baptist
November 5
also known as Zacharias and Elizabeth, John the Baptist's parents, The parents of the Forerunner
Elizabeth and Zechariah (also called Zacharias) were the parents of John the Baptist — Zechariah a priest of the division of Abijah, Elizabeth a descendant of Aaron. Their story, preserved entirely in Luke 1, recapitulates the Old Testament pattern of the barren couple blessed with a child in their advanced years: like Abraham and Sarah, like Hannah and Elkanah, they waited in faithful old age until God acted. Zechariah's moment of doubt in the Temple and his subsequent muteness until the child was named provides the narrative frame for Gabriel's announcement of John's birth and connects directly to the annunciation to Mary that follows.
Traditionally, little post-biblical material developed regarding Elizabeth and Zechariah beyond what Luke provides. The Protoevangelium of James (2nd century) notes briefly that Elizabeth fled to the wilderness to protect John from Herod's massacre of the innocents, finding refuge in a mountain cave, but this account is apocryphal and has no independent corroboration. The canonical witness stands essentially complete.
Luke 1:5–25 and 57–80 presents the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah. Luke introduces them as exemplary figures: 'Both were righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years' (Luke 1:6–7). This pairing of righteousness with barrenness establishes the theological theme: their righteousness does not secure them a child; they must wait on God's faithfulness.
While Zechariah was serving his priestly rotation in the Temple, performing the evening incense offering, the angel Gabriel appeared to him. Gabriel announced that his prayer had been heard — his prayer, presumably, for a child — and that Elizabeth would bear a son to be named John. The child would be 'great before the Lord,' would abstain from wine and strong drink (a Nazirite vow, Leviticus 10:9–11 and Numbers 6), and would 'go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord' (Luke 1:17, echoing Malachi 4:5–6, the promise of Elijah's return before the Day of the Lord).
Zechariah's response — 'How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years' (Luke 1:18) — is interpreted by Gabriel not as faithful questioning but as doubt. Gabriel responds: 'I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur' (Luke 1:19–20). Zechariah's muteness becomes a sign of God's judgment on his doubt and, paradoxically, a sign of the certainty of the promise.
Elizabeth conceived, and Luke notes that she 'hid herself for five months,' saying, 'This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on my disgrace among people' (Luke 1:24–25). Barrenness, in the context of the Old Testament, was a form of social shame and reproach; Elizabeth's conception is her vindication.
When Mary, Elizabeth's kinswoman, visited during her own pregnancy (Luke 1:39–45), Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out: 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' This recognition — 'the mother of my Lord' — is theologically pregnant: Elizabeth, filled with the Spirit, speaks a Christological confession before either child is born. The child in Elizabeth's womb 'leaped for joy,' signifying the joy of the Forerunner in the presence of the Coming One.
When Elizabeth's time came to give birth, she delivered a son. At his circumcision on the eighth day, relatives and friends assumed he would be named Zechariah after his father, but Elizabeth insisted: 'No; he is to be called John' (Luke 1:60). The relatives objected — 'None of your relatives has this name' (Luke 1:61) — but they asked Zechariah, who had been mute throughout. He 'asked for a writing tablet and wrote, ''His name is John''' (Luke 1:63). Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and 'he began to speak, praising God' (Luke 1:64). His first words after nine months of silence are the Benedictus — Zechariah's canticle of praise (Luke 1:68–79), which has been sung at Morning Prayer throughout the Christian tradition since at least the sixth century.
Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servants Elizabeth and Zechariah, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last, with him, we attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.