How Did Elizabeth's Baby React to Mary's Arrival?

Who was Elizabeth? What was her story?

Elizabeth's story has three parts:

one Elizabeth becomes pregnant, Luke ane:five-25
Elizabeth was a respectable woman married to Zechariah, a fellow member of the Jerusalem priesthood. She was by menopause, her husband was elderly, and she had given up hoping for a child. Only her life took an unexpected turn. She became pregnant, to the amazement of all.

2 Mary visits Elizabeth, Luke i:57-66
While she was significant with the time to come John the Baptist, she gave shelter to her young cousin Mary of Nazareth.  Mary, pregnant with Jesus and single, may have been fleeing from the anger of her family unit. When the women met, each knew that they and their children would be an extraordinary function of God'southward program.

three Elizabeth has a son John, Luke 1:67-80
A few months after Elizabeth bore the son she had e'er hoped for. She named him 'John'. He was circumcised, and Zechariah regained his speech and hearing.

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Elizabeth becomes pregnant, Luke 1:v-25

Commencement, Luke outlined Elizabeth's family background (see Elizabeth in Luke'southward gospel). She was descended from a long line of priests – Luke fabricated this clear right at the beginning of his gospel, because he wanted to say, loud and clear, that John and Jesus both came from a respectable, well-connected family.

Reconstruction of the regalia worn by the Jewish high priest

He began past pointing out that not ane but both John's parents came from a priestly family unit, and that Elizabeth'due south male parent was a priest – this is what is meant by 'daughter of Aaron'.

What was her problem?

Despite her impeccable family background, Elizabeth was barren. In those days childlessness was not simply a misfortune, it was a disgrace (meet Genesis 16:iv, 11; 29:32; 30:1, one Samuel ane:5-6, 11, 2:5, 7-viii).

Simply in Elizabeth'due south example this could hardly be then, since her reputation was blameless. Instead, there had to be some other reason.

Could it be that, similar the great fore-mother Sarah (Genesis xviii:11) and the childless Hannah (ane Samuel 1-2) she remained barren because God had a greater plan for her?

Luke now prepare the scene for the outset dramatic event.

Why was Zechariah at the Temple?

Zechariah had been chosen past lot to enter the sanctuary of the Temple of Jerusalem and offering incense every bit office of the daily worship at the Temple – only the priest who had been chosen past random lot, and therefore by God'due south hand, could enter the sanctuary.

It was a pivotal moment for Zechariah. There were about 8,000 priests at that fourth dimension, so whatever priest could only expect to offer sacrifice one time or twice in his lifetime.

At present information technology was Zechariah'south plough.

A model of Herod's Temple. Zechariah offered cede inside the doors of the main edifice, though not in the inner room called the Holy of Holies. Below: floor plan of the Temple enclosure

At nearly 3pm on this item day he stepped forward into the sanctuary to offer incense. The people waited exterior, every bit did the other priests.

At that moment,an angel (encounter What is an angel?) appeared at the right side of the altar in front end of Zechariah.

Why the right-hand side? Because a favored courtier or royal family member always took this position in a majestic throne room.

Zechariah and the Angel, James Tissot

But an angel? What exactly does that mean?

It'south hard to tell, but biblical writers seemed to use this word to bear witness that a man beingness had received a bulletin from God.

Our skeptical, must-accept-proof globe finds it difficult to sympathize, but we would probably say the aforementioned thing in a dissimilar way:

• that a deep conviction of purpose settled on the person involved, guiding them towards a item course of action.

The angel's message

The angel spoke. It reassured the terrified Zechariah, telling him non to be afraid.

Then it gave him momentous news: his wife Elizabeth would conceive and have a son. Since the hand of God is conspicuously evident in what is happening, the listener/reader knows that this volition be no ordinary child.

The angel was specific. The kid would take four characteristics:

• he would be peachy in the sight of God
• he would drink no wine and thus alive the austere life of a Nazarene, setting him apart from ordinary people
• he would be filled with the Spirit from his conception
• he would fix for the Messiah and thus exist a catalyst between State of israel and God.

What was Zechariah's response?

It's hard to believe, merely Zechariah quibbled! He expressed doubts that this could happen. He discreetly unsaid that

• he was no longer capable of sexual intercourse, and that
• his married woman had ceased menstruating.

There was genuine confusion on his part here, merely in that location was too the sense that he was objecting, every bit he asked for a sign – just as the great fore-male parent Abraham did (Genesis 15:viii), and Gideon (Judges 6:36-forty) and Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:eight-11).

The affections responded past naming itself – 'I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God'.

Tin an affections be offended?

Only the highest officials in an oriental royal courtroom stood in the presence of the king. Protocol demanded that most people bow or prostrate themselves, so Gabriel was telling Zechariah he had committed an criminal offence in not believing the message.

Every bit punishment for his lèse-majesté Zechariah was reduced to silence, probably becoming both deaf and mute.

• In one way information technology was a reassuring miracle,
• simply in some other it was a penalty, one that would terminal until the birth of the kid ready him free.

Zechariah is struck dumb

When Zechariah came out of the Temple he was unable to speak.

This was puzzling for the people around him. Why couldn't he speak? Clearly something momentous must accept happened.

The priests and people interpreted his silence every bit proof that he had had some profound religious experience, possibly a vision, simply Zechariah could non tell them of his experience.

Frustrated by his inability to speak, he tried to explain by signing. This had limited success. He finished out his allotted service, then headed dwelling house.

Elizabeth pleases God

Zechariah had doubted but Elizabeth had not, and at present she, not her unfortunate husband, moved into the spotlight.

Home at concluding, Zechariah found comfort in the arms of his wife. 1 thing led to another, and she became pregnant – to her surprise and the amazement of her family unit and friends.

When she realized she was pregnant, she went into seclusion. This meant she did non leave her business firm for any reason, nor receive whatsoever visitors. She stayed like this, leading a calm and quiet life, until her pregnancy became physically obvious to all who saw her.

'The Visitation', by Jacopo Pontormo.
Green is the traditional colour of new life.

Mary visits her kinswoman Elizabeth

Luke 1:57-66

Meanwhile, the young Galilean woman Mary had been betrothed to Joseph of Nazareth with

• a formal witnessed agreement, legally binding, between the families of the young people,
• and a bride cost paid to Mary'southward family unit.

It was expected that the formal marriage would take identify most a yr later, when Mary would exist taken to the home to Joseph'due south family to live.

Accustomed every bit we are to benign images of the Annunciation, and of Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus, we tend to blot out the reality of the situation: a young girl was significant, her fiancé knew he was not the father, yet the helpmate price had been paid.

In a Middle Eastern rural community at the time, this sort of situation could hands event in an honor killing of the immature girl past her fiancé'southward family unit.

Mary in danger

What few commentators seem to realize is that Mary's visit to Elizabeth, well-nigh a hundred miles away in Judea, may have been a desperate endeavour by her family to save her from this fate, to become her out of the mode until some solution had been worked out.

Leaving Galilee and traveling southward, Mary duly arrived at Elizabeth'south house in Judea afterwards a journey of about three or four days.

See Galilee to Jerusalem – Bible Mapsto trace the road of this journeying.

At get-go glance, this might seem similar a commonplace upshot as two kinswomen, both pregnant, meet each other.

But Luke was making oblique references to Old Testament precedents, alerting the reader to a deeper meaning in Elizabeth'due south story:

• read Hannah's story, 1 Samuel 1-ii, Judges 13:2, well-nigh a couple similar Elizabeth and Zechariah, unable to have children,
• and Sarah's story, Genesis 18:eleven which describes an elderly couple who thought they would never have a child.

Mary'south visitation to Anne, by Giotto

The songs of Elizabeth & Mary

The two pregnant women met, and at that moment Elizabeth'southward unborn baby responded by of a sudden moving and kicking in her womb.

Twenty-8 weeks, the end of a adult female'south second trimester, is the normal time to await an unborn babe to kick in the womb, and this may well have been the kickoff time Elizabeth's unborn baby moved – an exciting moment for any female parent.

She took this sudden movement, at this particular moment, as a sign.

In a moment of penetrating spiritual clarity, Elizabeth recognized she was being visited by the female parent of the expected Messiah. She pronounced a blessing on the younger adult female:

'Blessed are you among women, and blest is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the female parent of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blest is she who believed that in that location would exist a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.'

Mary responded with the words of the song called the Magnificat.

Scholars at present guardedly say this was a hymn sung past the early Christians in their liturgies, implying that it may take had a composition date later than the moment of coming together between the 2 mothers.

They as well imply that an illiterate peasant girl from Galilee would not have had the ability to compose such a hymn.

Did Mary really compose the Magnificat?

Mary and Elizabeth, by Robert Anning Bong. Notice the affections quietly watching from backside the mantle

But there is no reason to call back that Mary could not have been capable of composing it herself. The Magnificat is closely based on the Song of Hannah in 2 Samuel 2:1-10, and Mary must have known this Vocal well.

• She certainly would have known the Song of Hannah by heart, since women at the time had a rich oral tradition, all of it memorized, and
• she would accept idea the Song of Hannah appropriate, since Elizabeth'southward pregnancy so late in life mirrored the pregnancy of Hannah.

Adapting passages from the Jewish Scriptures to arrange current situations was a familiar part of the oral tradition, and Mary and her female relatives would have been familiar with this technique.

Truthful, there is some evidence it was adapted along the mode before Luke translated it into Greek, simply surely Mary is the source of this glorious song.

Elizabeth gives birth to John

Information technology is not articulate from the text whether Elizabeth had the assistance of her young kinswoman when she gave birth to her babe. Commonsense and the lapse of time would suggest she did. Elizabeth would certainly accept been surrounded past loving, concerned relatives and friends, especially since her advanced historic period must accept made it a difficult nativity.

Note: In ancient times, women hunched themselves over a hole hollowed in the ground, standing on bricks or stones placed at either side. They gave nascency in a squatting position, with relatives and friends taking turns to back up them under the arms. In the Roman world there were special birthing chairs with a U-shaped hole in the seat and supports for the feet and back, but we take no way of knowing whether this latest medical technology had reached Roman-era Jerusalem. Childbirth in aboriginal times

The Visitation, by Domenico Ghirlandaio

Elizabeth has a son John

Luke ane:67-80

Elizabeth had a son, and all her friends and relatives were overjoyed for her. She seems to have recovered well from the birth itself, because eight days after she was upwardly and around, ready to nourish the circumcision of her son.

A baby was usually named on the day of his circumcision, and a mutual practise at this time was to proper name a first son after his grandad.

An elderly woman holding a new baby – as Elizabeth did

In this case however, Elizabeth's extended family seemed to have decided that the baby would be called Zechariah, after his stricken father.

Just Elizabeth stepped frontward and briskly contradicted them. Her son'due south name was to be 'John', she said.

Everyone disagreed with her, pointing out that in that location was no family unit precedent for the name 'John', only Elizabeth stood her ground.

She insisted so fiercely that, exasperated, the family members turned to Zechariah for back up. Since he could not speak, he asked for a writing tablet – a small-scale wooden tile with a wax surface. With a stylus he scratched a single sentence: 'His proper name is John'.

Zechariah speaks

Immediately, to the anaesthesia of the onlookers, he regained the employ of his voice communication and hearing. A skeptic no more, his first words were in praise of God. The audio of his phonation silenced even the most talkative of his neighbors.

A mod take on the meeting between Elizabeth and Mary of Nazareth. The Visitation, by Dennis Creffield

They were awed and not a niggling frightened by what they were witnessing.

Like neighbors everywhere, they could not wait to pass on the story of what had happened, and discuss its meaning. The son of Elizabeth and Zechariah must certainly be destined for greatness – 'the paw of God was with him', and he would be unlike and unique.

At present the name 'John' seemed appropriate, since without whatsoever family precedent, information technology gave him an identity of his own that had nil to practice with the by.

Their assumption was cemented past the words Zechariah at present spoke. This picayune child would one twenty-four hours be a prophet of the Nearly Loftier, he said, preparing the way for the Messiah.

This scene is the terminal we run across of Elizabeth. Past the standards of the time, she was already elderly, and she may non have lived to see her son grow to manhood.

What happened to Elizabeth'south son John?

It has often been suggested that John, described as living in the wilderness (Luke 1:80), may take been a member of the Essenes at Qumran. This group was known to adopt young children and wait later them, hoping they would become permanent members of their community.

If Elizabeth and Zechariah were both elderly and died presently after John's birth, the Essenes may accept washed only this for John.

If so they were disappointed, since John broke abroad to forge his own ministry building in the desert, preparing the way of the Lord.

Elizabeth greets her cousin Mary, painting from the Duc de Berry'south Book of Hours

Names in Elizabeth'due south story

Elizabeth is Eli-sheba. It means 'God's hope', or 'my God is generous'.
Mary means 'wise woman' or 'lady'. It is a Greek class of the Hebrew Miriam or Mariamme, and was the well-nigh popular woman's proper name at the fourth dimension of Jesus.
John ways 'God has been gracious'.
Zechariah ways 'God has remembered'.

The main ideas in Elizabeth's story

• The gospel-writer Luke used Elizabeth'south story to set the stage for the nascence of Jesus. Both stories have an Annunciation past an angel and songs that praise God, eg the Magnificat.
• In the Former Testament, God's power is oft shown through a woman who prays and gives birth afterwards everyone else has given up hope.
• Elizabeth marked her son as unlike when she insisted on a non-family name. This and the sudden illness and recovery of her husband Zechariah perplexed Elizabeth's neighbors, just she stood house against a doubting community.
• Inspired past God, she knew John was a child with a slap-up destiny.

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LEAPING FOR JOY

A Commentary on the Visitation by Fr. Gil Alinsangan

ln his infancy narratives Luke, both physician and artist, uses a style chosen diptych, where ii stories are presented in parallel panels for easier comparison.

In his gospel, ii nascence narratives are being contrasted: that of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. A quick look at the first 2 chapters of the Gospel of Luke reveals parallel stories of annunciation, nascency, circumcision and naming, witnesses of birth, and growth.

The Visitation story in Luke'due south gospel is unique in the sense that information technology is non presented in diptych. Luke breaks the pattern.

After focusing on parallel events as they develop in split scenes, Luke now brings the well-nigh important characters together in i setting

1. we have Mary meeting Elizabeth (and Zechariah)
2. just more than importantly, the main protagonists — Jesus and John – run into even while both are notwithstanding in the womb.

Underlined in today'southward Gospel is the spirit of joy that sweeps through the atmosphere like a longed-for December breeze on a hot day in Australia. The Lord has come. This Lord now comes in the person of the baby yet to be born; thus Elizabeth feels privileged to be visited by Mary, the 'mother of my Lord'.

Fifty-fifty John the Baptist leaps for joy. Luke will use this same image when he writes about the joy of the shushben or "friend of the bridegroom" when he hears the vocalisation of the bridegroom (John three:29).

ln the ancient world, the coming of a not bad ruler brought rejoicing to the populace. Rome grandiosely proclaimed September 23, the birthday of Emperor Augustus "the altogether of the god marked the beginning of the skillful news for the world".

Luke contradicts this propaganda by saying that it is the coming of Jesus that is the real adept news and the cause of true ioy. The Baptist feels it while notwithstanding in the womb. The herald angel will announce it on the dark Jesus is born.

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Bible Study Resource for Women in the Bible:
Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist, Visitation of Mary

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Source: http://womeninthebible.net/women-bible-old-new-testaments/elizabeth/

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