Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 1:80

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.

80. the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit ] The description resembles that of the childhood of Samuel (1Sa 2:26) and of our Lord (Luk 2:40-52). Nothing however is said of ‘favour with men.’ In the case of the Baptist, as of others, ‘the boy was father to the man,’ and he probably shewed from the first that rugged sternness which is wholly unlike the winning grace of the child Christ. “The Baptist was no Lamb of God. He was a wrestler with life, one to whom peace does not come easily, but only after a long struggle. His restlessness had driven him into the desert, where he had contended for years with thoughts he could not master, and from whence he uttered his startling alarms to the nation. He was among the dogs rather than among the lambs of the Shepherd.” ( Ecce Homo.)

was in the deserts ] Not in sandy deserts like those of Arabia, but in the wild waste region south of Jericho and the fords of Jordan to the shores of the Dead Sea. This was known as Araboth or ha-Arabah, 2Ki 25:4-5 (Heb.); Jer 39:5; Jer 52:8. See on Luk 1:39. This region, especially where it approached the Ghr and the Dead Sea, was lonely and forbidding in its physical features, and would suit the stern spirit on which it also reacted. In 1Sa 23:19 it is called Jeshimon or ‘the Horror.’ John was by no means the only hermit. The political unsettlement, the shamelessness of crime, the sense of secular exhaustion, the wide-spread Messianic expectation, marked ‘the fulness of time.’ Banus the Pharisee also lived a life of ascetic hardness in the Arabah, and Josephus tells us that he lived with him for three years in his mountain-cave on fruits and water. (Jos. Vit. 2.) But there is not in the Gospels the faintest trace of any intercourse between John, or our Lord and His disciples, with the Essenes. The great Italian painters follow a right conception when they paint even the boy John as emaciated with early asceticism. In 2Es 9:24 the seer is directed to go into a field where no house is and to “taste no flesh, drink no wine, and eat only the flowers of the field,” as a preparation for ‘talking with the Most High.’ It is doubtful whether Christian Art is historically correct in representing the infant Jesus and John as constant friends and playmates. Zacharias and Elizabeth, being aged, must have early left John an orphan, and his desert life began with his boyish years. Further, the habits of Orientals are exceedingly stationary, and when once settled it is only on the rarest occasions that they leave their homes. The training of the priestly boy and the ‘Son of the Carpenter’ (Mat 13:55) of Nazareth had been widely different, nor is it certain that they had ever met each other until the Baptism of Jesus (Joh 1:31).

his shewing ] his public ministry, literally, “appointment” or manifestation. The verb ( anedeixen) occurs in Luk 10:1; Act 1:24. Thus St John’s life, like that of our Lord, was spent first in hallowed seclusion, then in public ministry.

At this point ends the first very interesting document of which St Luke made use. The second chapter, though in some respects analogous to it, is less imbued with the Hebraic spirit and phraseology.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Waxed strong in spirit – That is, in courage, understanding, and purposes of good, fitting him for his future work. The word wax means to increase, to grow, from an old Saxon word.

In the deserts – In Hebron, and in the hill country where his father resided. He dwelt in obscurity, and was not known publicly by the people.

Until the day of his showing – Until he entered on his public ministry, as recorded in Matt. 3 – that is, probably, until he was about 30 years of age. See Luke 3.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Luk 1:80

And the child grew

Johns secluded life

Not in sandy deserts like those of Arabia, but in the wild, waste region south of Jericho and the fords of Jordan to the shores of the Dead Sea.

This was known as Araboth or ha.Arabah. This region, especially where it approached the Ghor and the Dead Sea, was lonely and forbidding in its physical features, and would suit the stern spirit on which it also reacted. In 1Sa 23:19, it is called Jeshimon, or the Horror. John was by no means the only hermit. The political unsettlement, the shamelessness of crime, the sense of secular exhaustion, the widespread Messianic expectation, marked the fulness of time. Banus the Pharisee also lived a life of ascetic hardness in the Arabah, and Josephus tells us that he lived with him for three years in his mountain cave on fruits and water. But there is not in the Gospels the faintest trace of any intercourse between John or our Lord and His disciples, with the Essenes. The great Italian painters follow a right conception when they paint even the boy John as emaciated with early asceticism. In 2Es 9:24, the seer is directed to go into a field where no house is, and to taste no flesh, drink no wine, and eat only the flowers of the field, as a preparation for talking with the Most High. (Archdeacon Farter.)

Satisfactions of solitude

Charles the Fifth, after a life spent in military exploits and the active and energetic prosecution of ambitious projects, resigned, as is well known, his crown, sated with its enjoyment. He left these words, as a testimony, behind him:–I have tasted more satisfaction in my solitude in one day than in all the triumphs of my former reign. The sincere study, profession, and practice of the Christian religion have in them such joy as is seldom found in courts and grandeur. (Baxendales Anecdotes.)

Solitude a good teacher

St. Bernard said, in writing to a pious friend, If you are seeking less to satisfy a vain curiosity than to get true wisdom, you will sooner find it in deserts than in books. The silence of the rocks and the pathless forests will teach you better than the eloquence of the most gifted men. (Fenelon.)

Solitude helps to mature thought

Whenever Michael Angelo, that divine madman, as Richardson once wrote on the back of one of his drawings, was meditating on some great design, he closed himself up from the world. Why do you lead such a solitary life? asked a friend. Art, replied the sublime artist, is a jealous god; it requires the whole and entire man. During his mighty labour in the Sistine Chapel he refused to have any communication with any person, even at his own house. (L DIsraeli.)

The youth of John the Baptist

I. INQUIRE INTO THE REASONS WHY THE YOUTH OF JOHN WAS SPENT IN OBSCURITY.

1. Purity of his mind shrank from a society so devoid of true religion

2. Privations fitted him for the self-denial with which he afterwards attracted the people.

3. Arrangements also well adapted to prevent any such intimacy with Christ in His youth, as might have excited suspicion of a collusion betwixt them.

4. In such retirement John enjoyed, undisturbed, that communion with the Deity so delightful to eminent piety like his.

II. CONSIDER THE INSTRUCTIONS WHICH THIS ACCOUNT OF JOHNS YOUTH HOLDS OUT TO THOSE WHOSE VIEWS ARE POINTED TO THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Entire seclusion not required of them, but let them retire as often as they can, and prefer the calm of solitude to the bustle of dissipation.

III. CONSIDER THE LESSONS HELD FORTH BY THE YOUTH OF JOHN TO THE YOUNG IN GENERAL. The wisdom and advantage of frequent retirement.

1. What opportunities of improvement solitude will present to you.

2. From what temptations it will detach you.

3. To what solidity of character it will form you.

4. How it will prepare you for the seclusion of days of darkness. (Dr. Belfrage.)

The retirement of John was

I. A RENUNCIATION OF HIS PRIESTLY RIGHTS.

II. A BREAKING-OFF FROM THE THEN JUDAISM.

III. A UNIQUE REALIZATION OF THE TRUE NATURE OF GOD. He believed that there, in the desert, as really as in the Temple, was the God of the Temple to be found and worshipped.

IV. Observe that GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT MINISTERED TO HIM IN THE DESERTS. (A. B. Grosart, LL. D)

Every life has its desert period

Those grand solemn days when God calls us out of the worlds noises to commune in deep consultation with Him until the souls purposes are shaped, and the characters of our immortal spirits formed. These are the days of destiny, the birth-hours of all that is really great in us, times when we are truly born again, if we will be, or when we rush back and plunge into the troubled sea of unregenerate existence, never to find rest. If we look back down the long line of Gods heroic ones, each had his wilderness. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, dwelt all their lives in the grand deserts of existence, and tabernacled with God. Moses, David, Daniel, Elijah, Jeremiah, yea, all Gods great ones, were caused to turn their backs on a world and face the truths of the living God, until those truths rose up to them to march in triumph, through the opposition of men and devils, to glorious victory. Now, as then, God calls us to the wilderness-school–calls us out to uncover the great purposes of truth before us, and sends us back to stand up for Him, regardless of all the surgings of sin, applause, fear, or death. Here, and here alone, is the safety of any Church, age, or man, in the kingdom of God within, trueness to the ideal of life realized, as the soul in its lone consecration stretches itself on the naked will of God, and feels the strong beatings of His eternal purposes of truth, justice, and love. (Bishop Penriek,)

Waxed strong in spirit

We need strong men–Elijah-like, John-the-Baptist-like men in these perilous times, and spiritual strength is incomparably the strongest, the most celestial, the most Christly of all strength. (A. B. Grosart, LL. D.)

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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 80. The child grew] Increased in stature and bodily vigour. And waxed strong in spirit-had his understanding Divinely illuminated and confirmed in the truths of God. And was in the deserts-the city of Hebron, the circumjacent hill country, and in or near Nazareth. Till the time of his showing, or manifestation – till he was thirty years of age, before which time the law did not permit a man to enter into the public ministry, Nu 4:3. See also Lu 3:23.

So much has already been said, by way of practical improvement of the different subjects in this important chapter, as to preclude the necessity of any addition here.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The evangelist having done with Zachariass prophetical song, now cometh to tell us what became of John. He saith, the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit. He did not only grow in his bodily dimensions, but in the endowments of his mind.

And was in the deserts, that is, in places very thinly inhabited, (some will have this to have been the deserts of Ziph and Maon),

till the day of his showing unto Israel; that is, in all probability, till he was about thirty years of age, when he came forth as a public preacher to those parts of Israel where he spent the small remaining part of his life, of which we shall hear more hereafter.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

80. And the child, c.”aconcluding paragraph, indicating, in strokes full of grandeur, thebodily and mental development of the Baptist and bringing his life upto the period of his public appearance” [OLSHAUSEN].

in the desertsprobably”the wilderness of Judea” (Mt3:1), whither he had retired early in life, in the Nazaritespirit, and where, free from rabbinical influences and alone withGod, his spirit would be educated, like Moses in the desert, for hisfuture high vocation.

his showing unto Israelthepresentation of himself before his nation, as Messiah’s forerunner.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,…. That is, John, the son of Zacharias and Elisabeth, grew in stature of body, and increased in wisdom and knowledge, and fortitude in his soul:

and was in the deserts; or “desert”, as the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions read; not in the wilderness of Judea, where he came preaching, but either of Ziph or Maon, which were near to Hebron; see 1Sa 23:14 he was not brought up in the schools of the prophets, nor in the academies of the Jews, or at the feet of any of their Rabbins and doctors; that it might appear he was not taught and sent of men, but of God: nor did he dwell in any of the cities, or larger towns, but in deserts; partly that he might be fitted for that gravity and austerity of life, he was to appear in; and that it might be clear he had no knowledge of, nor correspondence with Jesus, whose forerunner he was, and of whom he was to bear testimony, till such time he did it; and in this solitude he remained,

till the day of his showing unto Israel; either till the time came that he was to appear before, and be examined by the sanhedrim, that judged of persons fitness and qualifications for the priesthood, in order to be admitted to it; which should have been when he was thirty years of age, but that he was designed for other service; or rather therefore till he appeared in his prophetic office, and showed himself to the people of Israel; to whom he came preaching the doctrine of repentance and remission of sins, administering the ordinance of baptism, giving notice of the near approach of the Messiah, and pointing him out unto the people.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Grew (). Imperfect active, was growing.

Waxed strong (). Imperfect again. The child kept growing in strength of body and spirit.

His shewing ( ). Here alone in the N.T. It occurs in Plutarch and Polybius. The verb appears in a sacrificial sense. The boy, as he grew, may have gone up to the passover and may have seen the boy Jesus (Lu 2:42-52), but he would not know that he was to be the Messiah. So these two boys of destiny grew on with the years, the one in the desert hills near Hebron after Zacharias and Elisabeth died, the other, the young Carpenter up in Nazareth, each waiting for “his shewing unto Israel.”

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The deserts [ ] . The article indicating a well known place.

Shewing [] . The word was used of the public announcement of an official nomination; hence of the public inauguration of John’s ministry. p

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And the child grew,” (to de paidion euksanen) “Then the child (John the Baptist) grew,” in stature and strength to manhood, or kept growing and developing.

2) “And waxed strong in spirit,” (kai ekrataiouto pneumati) “And came to be strong in spirit,” or increased in spirit power, yielded to the spirit, Eph 5:17-18. In his mind, purpose, and understanding of his Divine mission.

3) “And was in the deserts,” (kai en tais eremois) “And he has (existed) in the deserts,” in the uninhabited areas in the wild areas of Judaea, near his home, as a Nazarite, Luk 1:15, as a rugged man of the woods and fields, as expressed, Mat 3:1; Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6.

4) “Till the day of his shewing unto Israel.” (eos hemeras anadeikseos autou pros ton Israel) “Until the days of his showing (or his appearance) directly to Israel,” to preach to Israel of the manifestation of Christ, which event was at hand, Luk 1:17; Mal 4:5; Mat 3:1-11.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(80) And the child grew.We have no materials for filling up this brief outline of the thirty years that followed in the Baptists life. The usual Jewish education, the observance of the Nazarite vow, the death of his parents while he was comparatively young, an early retirement from the world to the deserts that surrounded the western shores of the Dead Sea, study and meditation given to the Law and the Prophets, the steadfast waiting for the consolation of Israel, possible intercourse with the Essenes who lived in that region, or with hermit-teachers, like Banus, the master of Josephus (Life, c. 1), whose form of life was after the same fashion as his own: this we may surmise as probable, but we cannot say more. Whatever may have been the surroundings of his life, he entered upon his work in a spirit which was intensely personal and original.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

80. Grew In body, as waxed strong refers to mind. Similar description of the growth of Samson, Jdg 13:2; of Jesus, Luk 2:40.

The deserts Not strictly deserts, but the rural region, little inhabited, of his native hill country. “They are mistaken,” says Grotius, “who think that this only indicates his country home, for his home was a city;” it signifies that resigning home he dwelt in the solitudes. So his severer food comported with his wilderness life to express his Elijah-like mission to preach repentance. This was his preparatory schooling, in which silence, study of God’s word, and prayer, with meditation, nourished his spiritual strength. This concealment stands in contrast to his showing, or manifestation, when the fullness of time arrived.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing to Israel.’

So John began to develop and grow, and became strong in the Spirit (he was full of the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb (Luk 1:15). And he went into the wildernesses (the plural is typical of LXX) there to prepare for the day when he would be revealed to Israel as the prophet and preparer of the way. Even if we translate ‘spirit’ with a small ‘s’, signifying that his own spirit was made strong, Luk 1:15 makes quite clear the source of his strength, as indeed it was intended to do. Compare here Luk 2:52; Jdg 13:24 and 1Sa 2:26.

Some have suggested that John was connected with the Qumran community, but it must be recognised that if so his emphasis was totally different from theirs. Perhaps he tried them and was disillusioned by them. They certainly would not have agreed with his view of himself as the herald preparing the way for the Coming One, nor with his preaching of righteousness instead of asceticism, nor with his going among the people (they kept themselves separate in order to avoid defilement), nor with his baptism as a symbol of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. It is probable therefore that he lived as a solitary, although that is not to deny that he may have had contact with them. They would appreciate his asceticism and separation from society. But his teaching was not like theirs.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Luk 1:80. And was in the deserts Though the mother of Jesus was related to Elisabeth, the mother of John; though she visited her in the hill-country about the time of her own conception, and before the birth of John; it does not appear, nor is it probable, that there was any intimacy, or any correspondence between Jesus and his forerunner: on the contrary, it is expressly said that John was in the deserts till the time of his shewing unto Israel. The desert here mentioned is generally thought to have been that of Ziph, or Maon, where Saul pursued David: though there were several country towns and villages in these deserts, as we have heretofore observed; yet, as they were but thinly peopled, they were in the Jewish idiom called deserts. Now it was wisely ordered, to prevent a personal acquaintance between them, that John should continue in one of these deserts, at the distance of at least a hundred miles from Nazareth, till the time of his entering upon his ministry. See Joh 1:31. He went not into any of the great cities, but when he left the place where his father lived, withdrew from mankind, retired into the wilderness, and lived an austere life, that his character might be suited to his office,the preaching of repentance. The Levites could not serve nor be numbered, according to the law of Moses, and the example of David, till they were thirty years old. The Jews therefore would not perhaps have received any doctrines from John, if he had entered sooner than he did upon his ministry. From what has been said, it is evident that there could be no collusion, no contrivance, no familiarity between the first and second messenger;the messenger who was to prepare the way, and the great messenger of the covenant. Elsner has shewn that the word ‘, rendered shewing, often signifies the inauguration of a public officer. See his Observations, Guyse, Sharpe, and Be

Inferences drawn from the angel’s appearance to Zacharias.The state of the Jewish church was extremely corrupt immediately before the news of the Gospel; yet, bad as it was, not only the priesthood, but the courses of attendance continued, even from David to Christ. Judea passed through many troubles and alterations; yet this oeconomy lasted about eleven hundred years. A settled good will not easily be defeated, but in the change of persons will remain unchanged; and if it be forced to give way, leave memorable footsteps behind it.

The successive turns of the legal ministration held on in an uninterrupted line; but how little were the Jews better for this, when they had lost the urim and thummim,sincerity of doctrine and manners! It is a succession of truth and holiness, that makes or institutes a church, whatever may become of the persons: never times were so barren, as not to yield some good; the greatest dearth affords some few good ears to the gleaners. Christ would not come into the world without having some faithful to entertain him; there would have been no equality, if all had either preceded or followed, and none had attended him.

Zacharias and Elisabeth are just, both of Aaron’s blood, and John the Baptist of their’s. It is not in the power of parents to transmit holiness to their children; but though there is no certainty, there is a likelihood of a holy generation, when the parents are such. If the stock and the graft be not both good, there is much danger of the fruit. It is observable, that the New Testament affords greater store of good women than the Old; Elisabeth leads the number, whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit, both of the body, and of her time. Among the Jews, barrenness was not a defect only, but a reproach: (Luk 1:25.) yet while this good woman was fruitful in obedience, she was barren of children: a just soul and a barren womb may well agree together.

As Zacharias had a course in God’s house, so he carefully observed it; the favour of these respites doubled his diligence. The more high and sacred our calling is, the more dangerous is neglect. Woe be to us, if we slacken those duties, wherein God honours us more than we can honour him!

The lot of this day called Zacharias to offer incense in the outer temple. We do not find any prescription which the sons of Aaron had from God for this particular manner of designation; whence we learn that matters of good order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men, according to reason and expedience. It fell out happily that Zacharias was chosen by lot to this ministration, that God’s immediate hand might be seen in all the passages which concerned his great prophet; and that as the person, so the occasion might be of God’s own choosing.
Every morning and evening their law called the Jews to offer incense to God, that both parts of the day might be consecrated to the author of time. Nothing can better resemble our faithful prayers than sweet perfumes, and these God expects his whole church should send up to him morning and evening. The elevations of our hearts should be perpetual; but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn invocations, we make the Gospel less dutiful than the law.
While the minister of God sends up his incense within the temple, the people must send up their prayers without. Their vows, and that incense, though remote in their first rising, met ere they went up to heaven. The people might no more go into the holy place to offer up the incense of prayer to God, than Zacharias might go into the holy of holies. But now every man is a priest unto God;every believer, since the veil was rent, prays within the temple. What are we the better for our greater freedom of access to God under the Gospel, if we do not make use of our privilege?

While they were praying to God, he sees an angel of God. As Gideon’s angel went up in the smoke of the sacrifice, so did Zacharias’s descend, as it were, in the fragrant smoke of his incense. The presence of angels is no novelty, but their appearance is; they are always with us, but rarely seen, that we may awefully respect their messages when they are seen. In the mean time, our faith may see them, though our senses do not; their assumed shapes do not make them more present, but visible only.
There is an order in that heavenly hierarchy, though we know it not. This angel that appeared to Zacharias, was not with him in the ordinary course of his attendances, but was purposely sent from God with this message. When could it be more fit for the angel to appear to Zacharias, than when prayers and incense were offered by him? and in the temple,and at the altar of incense,and on the right side of the altar? Those glorious spirits, as they are always with us, so most in our devotions; and as in all places, so most of all in God’s house. They rejoice to be with us, while we are with God; as, on the contrary, they turn their faces from us, when we go about to commit sin.

He who was accustomed to live and serve in the presence of the Master, was now astonished at the presence of the servant; so much difference is there between our faith and our senses, that the apprehension of the presence of the God of spirits by faith, goes down sweetly with us; whereas the sensible apprehension of an angel dismays.
The good angel was both apprehensive and compassionate of the good old man’s weakness, and presently encourages him with a cheerful excitation,fear not Zacharias; thy prayer is heard.

There was not more fear in the human face, than comfort in the angelic speech. Many good suits had Zacharias made, and, among the rest, for a son. Doubtless it was now some years since he had urged that request; for he was now stricken in age, and had ceased to hope;and yet had the All-wise laid it up all the while in remembrance, and, when no longer thought of, brought it forth into effect: Thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son. Thus does the mercy of God deal with his patient and faithful suppliants; and, it may be, he has long granted our suit, ere we shall know of his grant.

Many a father repents him of his fruitfulness, and has such sons as he wishes unborn; but to have so gracious and happy a son as the angel foretold, could not be a less comfort than honour to the age of Zacharias. To hear he should have such a son;a son whose birth should concern the joy of many;a son who should be great in the sight of the Lord;a son who should be sacred to God, filled with God, beneficial to man,was news enough to anticipate the angel’s sentence to take away that tongue with amazement, which was soon after lost by incredulity.

The speech was so good that it found not a sudden belief: he mistrusts the message, and asks, How shall I know? Luk 1:18. Nature was at his side, and alleged the impossibility of the event; and reason, with mis-timed hesitation, joined in to mislead him.I am old,and my wife also is of a great age. Faith and reason have their limits; but if reason will be encroaching upon the bounds of faith, no wonder if she is soon taken captive by infidelity. The authority of the reporter makes way for belief in things otherwise hard to credit. The angel condescendingly tells his name, place, office, unasked, that Zacharias might not think any news impossible which was brought him by so heavenly a messenger; but lest he should no less doubt of the style of the messenger than of the errand itself, he is at once confirmed and punished with dumbness. He shall ask no more questions for forty weeks, who has adventured to ask this one distrustfully.

Neither did Zacharias lose his tongue only for the time, but his ears also; for otherwise, when they came to ask his allowance for his son’s name, they needed not to have demanded it by signs, Luk 1:62. How striking the reflection!It is not our previous holy union with God which can bear us out in the least sin; yea, rather, the more acquaintance we have with his Majesty, the more sure we are of correction when we offend.

Zacharias stayed, the people waited, (Luk 1:21.) The multitude thought him long; yet they would not depart, till he returned to bless them. How does their patient attendance without, shame many of us, who are hardly persuaded to attend within the holy place.

At last Zacharias comes out, speechless; (Luk 1:22.) and more amazes them with his presence, than with his delay. The eyes of the multitude, which were not worthy to behold his vision, yet see the signs of the vision, that the world might be put in expectation of some extraordinary sequel. Zacharias’s speech could not have said so much as this dumbness. He would fain have spoken, and could not:with us how many are dumb, and need not be so! how many mouths are stopped by negligence, fear, partiality, which shall one day say, “woe is me, because I held my peace!” Zacharias’s hand speaks that, which he cannot utter with his tongue; and he makes them by signs understand: those powers which we have, we ought to use.

But though he had ceased to speak, yet he ceases not to minister: he takes not this dumbness for a dismission, but stays out the eight days of his course, (Luk 1:23.) as one who knew that the eyes, the hands, the heart, would be accepted of that God, who had bereaved him of his tongue: we are not hastily to take occasions of withdrawing ourselves from the public services of God,especially under the Gospel. The law, which stood much upon bodily perfection, dispensed with age for attendance: the Gospel, which is all for the soul, regards those inward powers, which, while they are vigorous, exclude all excuses of absence from our ministration.

REFLECTIONS.1st, Dedications are usually but the feather with which flattery tickles the pride of the great; but here is one, whose simplicity bespeaks the Christian spirit of the author, and recommends the book not to the patronage of his noble friend, as needing his countenance, but to the consideration of his pupil, in order to instruct his conscience, and direct his practice.

The evangelist opens his divine history with his reason for writing. Because many had undertaken to publish narratives of the birth, life, doctrines, miracles, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who, though probably well-meaning disciples, wrote under no infallible guidance of the Spirit; it appeared therefore to be the will of God, and highly proper, that he should compose a connected history and particular account of all things from the beginning, to prevent the errors and mistakes which might arise from uninspired writings.
1. He professes to confine himself to the things most surely believed among the faithful,not matters of doubtful disputation, but facts established by the most indubitable evidence of those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses, and ministers of the word; heard the doctrines, and saw the miracles of Jesus, and were divinely commissioned by him to go forth and preach the Gospel which he had delivered to them.

2. He was fully qualified for the work that he undertook, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first; and this not merely received by tradition from the best attested reports, but as the words ( ) may be rendered, having attained to the exact understanding of all things from above; which inspiration he had diligently sought, and sacredly followed.

3. The end which he proposed was, that Theophilus, whom he addressed with the respectable title of most excellent, being, it seems, a man of rank, might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed, or catechised. Probably St. Luke had been the means of his conversion, and had taught him by word of mouth the great principles of the Christian religion; and therefore, that his memory might be afflicted, his knowledge increased, and his faith more firmly established in the truths of the Gospel, he drew up the following history: though the holy Spirit of God, and St. Luke also, had much higher things in view,more extensive advantages in contemplation, in the composition of this history. Note; (l.) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a cunningly-devised fable, but contains facts supported by the most incontestable evidence, and truths the most sure and certain, whereon our faith may stand unshaken. (2.) Catechising was the ancient method of communicating to the youth, and newly-converted persons, the knowledge of the great doctrines of religion; and perhaps our present deplorable ignorance is owing to no one cause more than to the perfunctory discharge or total neglect of this most useful method of instruction. (3.) Christianity, though it forbids to give flattering titles, enjoins us to pay honour to whom honour is due; it teaches us politeness without falsehood; simplicity without rudeness; respect without servility; and courtesy without cringing.

2nd, The other evangelists commenced their history from the conception and birth of Jesus; St. Luke begins farther back, with that of John the Baptist, his forerunner, which was attended with extraordinary circumstances well deserving our regard.

1. We have an account of his parents. They lived in the reign of Herod, an Idumean, who held his kingdom under the Roman emperor. Both Zacharias and Elisabeth were of the sacerdotal family: he was of the course of Abia, the eighth of those four-and-twenty into which the priests were divided, (1Ch 24:7-19.) To the honour of this aged pair it is recorded, that their piety was most exemplary; they approved themselves to God in a holy blameless conversation, living by faith in the expected Messiah, whom they regarded in the use of all the divine institutions, and were sincerely observant of all the ordinances of worship, and duties of morality. But notwithstanding the distinguished excellence of their characters, it was their infelicity to be destitute of children, Elisabeth being barren, and both of them now so advanced in years, as in the common course of nature to be deprived of the hope of issue. Note; Our mercies are often long deferred, to make them at last the more welcome.

2. An angel appeared to Zacharias as he was discharging his ministry in the temple. The services to be performed by the course in waiting were determined by lot: his office was to burn incense in the sanctuary; and while this was performing, the holy worshippers without in silent aspirations lifted up their prayers to God, expecting acceptance through the intercession of the Messiah, which the smoke of the incense offered by the priest represented, see Rev 8:1-4. And while Zacharias was thus employed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him on the right side of the altar of incense. Struck with the glorious sight and unusual appearance, Zacharias trembled, and feared greatly what such a vision might portend. Note; (1.) Prayer is the service which the truly pious never neglect; and herein their care is to lift up their hearts to God, not so solicitous about the choice of words, as that internal fervent desires may speak the language of their souls. (2.) All our services and prayers must be offered through the mediation of Jesus, for then only can they be acceptable unto God.

3. The angel delivers to him the message with which he was sent. Having first kindly quieted his fears, he assures him of gracious acceptance with God, and an answer to his prayers. Probably at that time he had particularly been crying for the coming of the promised Messiah, as he had formerly often asked for a son, and both are now granted him; the latter first, in order to introduce the former. Thy wife Elisabeth, so long barren, and now aged, shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John, which signifies The grace of God, and was most admirably suited for him who should be so great in spiritual gifts and graces, and the harbinger of the Messiah and his kingdom. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; not only in him, as a welcome child given after so long waiting, but in the view of the high character and office which he is ordained to bear: and many shall rejoice at his birth; congratulating his parents on such an unexpected blessing. And it will afford yet farther cause of joy to multitudes, who afterwards shall be blessed with his ministry and labours; for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord; highly honoured of God, and blessed with singular endowments from him: and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; a Nazarite from his birth: it becomes those designed for eminent services, to live a life of eminent self-denial, and deadness to sensual delights. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb; sanctified, set apart, and qualified fully for the ministry to which he was appointed: and many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God, the Messiah, their incarnate God, then ready to appear: and he shall go before him, as his messenger and harbinger, the morning-star that ushers in the rising sun; in the spirit and power of Elias; endued with the zeal of that eminent reformer, and in austerity of manners nearly resembling him: to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children; either the Jews to the Gentiles, removing their prejudices and enmity against them; or with the children, converting young and old by his preaching; (see the Annotations;) and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, convincing the most rebellious sinners, and leading them to Christ for justification, even to the Wisdom that maketh wise unto salvation; and thus to make ready a people prepared for the Lord; raising their expectations of him, removing their prejudices, and pointing him personally out to them as their Lord and Saviour. Note; (1.) Though our requests be long delayed, they are not therefore denied; and the mercy at last comes perhaps enhanced in value, as the answer of many prayers. (2.) True greatness is not to be estimated by outward grandeur or wealth; God’s favour, and the possession of the gifts and graces of his Spirit, these alone make a man great in his eyes who is the fountain of honour. (3.) The great end of the zealous ministers of God’s word is to convert the souls of men, and turn them to the Lord Jesus; nor must they despair of the most disobedient sinners.

4. Zacharias, looking at human probabilities, staggered at the promise through unbelief, and wanted some further sign to remove his doubts. He and his wife being now grown old, the age as well as barrenness of Elisabeth made him regard the event as incredible.Very unlike a son of Abraham? Rom 4:19-20.

5. The angel gives him the sign that he asked, and therewith the just punishment of his unbelief. I am Gabriel; my very appearance to you should have been sufficient to beget confidence in my word; because that I stand in the presence of God, attentive to his orders, and employed in his service; and am sent expressly to thee with this message, and to shew thee these glad tidings, which should have been received with thankfulness and joy: but since thou askest a sign, behold thou shalt be dumb, and no more able to object to the truth of what I say, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, as a punishment upon thee, because thou hast not believed my words, which, notwithstanding all the obstacles that unbelief suggests, shall be fulfilled in their season. Note; Our unbelief is very dishonourable and displeasing to God.

6. Zacharias returns to the people, who wondered at the length of his stay in the temple, and were waiting for the usual benediction before they retired. And their wonder increased, when coming forth he was unable to speak a word; and by his signs they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. The Aaronical priesthood was now about to be silenced, and the dumb signs of typical institutions to be set aside, by the clear voice of gospel grace.
7. The angelic message quickly received its accomplishment. Zacharias, having stayed out the days of his ministration in the temple, returned home with his wife, who immediately conceived by him; and thereupon, perhaps because she was to bring forth a Nazarite, kept herself for five months close retired from all company, that she might contract no ceremonial uncleanness; spending the time in thankfulness, praise, and devotion; blessing God for this singular mercy, in removing the reproach of barrenness from her, under which she had so long laboured, and at last bestowing on her, in so extraordinary a way, that son who should be the harbinger of the Messiah. Note; In all our mercies God is ever to be acknowledged; and particularly we are assured, that children and the fruit of the womb are a heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord.

3rdly, Six months after the former miraculous conception of Elisabeth, the same angel Gabriel is sent on a more important message, to foretel the conception and birth of the Lord’s Christ. We have,

1. The person from whom the human nature of the Son of God was to be taken. Her name was Mary; of the royal race of David, but now reduced to very mean circumstances; a virgin unspotted, espoused to Joseph of the same royal line; dwelling in a remote corner of the land, and in a place despicable almost to a proverb. See Joh 1:46.

2. The angel’s address and salutation. Hail, thou that art highly favoured, &c. He wishes her all peace, prosperity, and joy; assures her of the favour of the Most High; that his gracious presence was with her; and that she of all others was singled out to be distinguished with peculiar honour, and to be called blessed in all generations, as the mother of the adored Messiah. The popish plea for the adoration of the Virgin Mary, drawn from this passage, is absurd, and utterly unsupported; these words in no wise implying prayer or worship, but merely a friendly salutation.

3. Mary’s surprise on the angel’s appearance and address. She was greatly astonished at such an unexpected visit, and the respect paid to her, a woman so unknown and unnoticed; and, much perplexed, reasoned with herself what this blessedness should mean, which was pronounced with such solemnity.
4. The angel, to remove the perplexity and confusion under which she appeared, proceeds with his message. Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God; and when this is the case, all disquieting fears are groundless: and behold, astonishing as the tidings are, yet true, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, though a virgin immaculate, (Isa 7:14.) and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus, the same as Joshua, or Saviour, of whom the former deliverers of Israel were types and figures. He shall be great, in dignity, person, offices, and works; and shall be called the Son of the Highest; shall really be so, partaking of the same Divine Nature: and the Lord God shall give unto him, as the Messiah, the throne of his father David, from whom, as man, he descended, and whose kingdom was typical of that spiritual dominion which Jesus should erect in the hearts of believers, sitting as a king upon his holy hill of Sion, the church of the faithful: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob, the true Israel of God, whether Jews or Gentiles brought to the obedience of the faith, and his throne shall be established for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end; enduring as the days of time, and subject to none of the vicissitudes and changes which attend earthly sovereignty; and, when time shall end, this kingdom shall be continued in a more glorious form, coeval with the ages of eternity.

5. The Virgin, not distrusting the truth, or questioning the possibility of what he said, humbly desires to be informed by what means this should be brought to pass, seeing that she was conscious of her own virginity.
6. He accordingly informs her of as much as she need wish to know. The Holy Ghost, the power of the Highest, exerting his almighty influence, will by his immediate agency, as he moved upon the face of the waters in the first creation, enable her to conceive; and therefore, because in this miraculous manner the body of the child Jesus should be formed, he shall be a holy thing, from his conception not partaking of the taint of human corruption, as all flesh do in the ordinary course of generation; and shall be called the Son of God, being, as such, now manifested in the human nature; and that which she conceived, henceforward indissolubly subsisting in personal union with the Second Person of the sacred Trinity, should henceforth bear his name. And he adds, as an encouragement to strengthen her faith in his word, that her cousin Elizabeth, who was by one of her parents allied it seems to the house of David, as by the other descended from Aaron, was now with child, though so stricken in years, and in the sixth month of her pregnancy, who had before been barren. The same power therefore which had wrought this miracle, would work the greater one of which he assured her; for with God nothing is impossible; however it exceed human power or comprehension, what he promises he can and will surely perform.

7. Mary, with deep humility and submission, yields herself up to the Lord, as his handmaid, desiring him to do with her whatever he pleased; utterly unworthy of so great an honour, yet, since such was his promise, begging it might be fulfilled, and faithfully depending upon the Lord’s almighty power and grace. Hereupon the angel departed, having finished the work the Lord had given him to do. Note; (1.) However wonderful and surpassing great God’s promises are, it becomes us to credit his word, and rest our everlasting hopes thereon; then we glorify him. (2.) Angelic visions here below were always transient; shortly these blessed spirits will be our companions to eternity.

4thly, Quickly after the angel’s departure we are informed,
1. Of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth in haste, to confer with her on these strange events, that they may confirm each other’s faith, and rejoice in these singular mercies. The journey was long from Galilee to the hill-country of Judea, probably to Hebron, a city of the priests; but the converse of such a friend as Elizabeth, would repay all her pains. Note; Nothing is more encouraging, comforting, and quickening, than when believers communicate their mutual experiences.

2. Their meeting was accompanied with circumstances very remarkable. No sooner had Mary entered the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth, than the babe, as under a divine impulse, leaped in her womb, seeming to congratulate the blessed Virgin’s arrival: and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost; with the extraordinary afflatus of the divine Spirit, revealing to her mind the Messiah’s conception, the message of the angel to Mary, her faith therein, and the sure performance of what was then promised: and addressing her welcome and highly honoured guest, she spake aloud, with a transport of holy joy, as the Spirit gave her utterance, saying, Blessed art thou among women; distinguished above all others with peculiar marks of divine favour; and, far from envying, Elizabeth warmly congratulated her on the honour: and blessed is the fruit of thy womb; that divine Messiah being there conceived, in whom all nations of the world should be blessed, and who is in himself, in the glory of the divine nature, God over all, blessed for ever. And whence is this to me? how great the condescension, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? that she should honour me with her company, from whom a body is preparing for the great Lord of all, to appear in the human nature. For lo! with wonder hear what with wonder I relate; as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy, as if conscious of the nearness of his Lord, and welcoming her who should bring forth that Messiah, whose harbinger he is appointed to be. And blessed is she that believed; not staggering at the promise, but acquiescing in the divine word, which shall infallibly be accomplished; for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. Note; (1.) True grace makes us thankful for our own mercies, and rejoice without envy in other’s greater attainments. (2.) When the gospel’s joyful sound reaches our ears, and the sweet name of Jesus is proclaimed; then should our hearts leap as this babe, and bless the God of our salvation. (3.) Believing souls are truly blessed, for Christ is formed in their hearts the hope of glory.

3. Mary, deeply affected with the words of Elizabeth, and moved with the same divine inspiration, echoes back her praises, and foresees and foretels the great salvation of the Messiah now in her womb.
[1.] She rejoices in God for the distinguished honour conferred upon her. My soul doth magnify the Lord, exalting his great and glorious name, and admiring and adoring the wonders of his goodness; and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour: and justly was it a greater cause of joy to her, that the knew herself interested in his salvation, than that after the flesh she should be honoured as his mother; for without the former, the latter could have profited her nothing. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden; though in outward circumstances contemptible and mean, he has been pleased to honour me so highly: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; as distinguished with this singular mark of his favour; as interested through faith in the salvation of Jesus; and as the happy instrument chosen to bring forth that Redeemer, who should be the great blessing of mankind. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, displaying his power beyond all conception, in the incarnation of his Son, and in his grace to me, appointed to bring him forth; and holy is his name, as all his works and ways declare; therefore from men and angels to him all praise is due; and may it be for ever ascribed to him by all the hosts of earth and heaven! Note; (1.) When Christ is known as our God and Saviour, then shall we rejoice in him, and magnify his name. (2.) The lower we are in our own eyes, the more admiring thoughts shall we have of the grace and goodness of our Lord.

[2.] She praises him for the wonders he doth for his people in the ways of his providence and grace. His mercy is on them that fear him, from generation to generation; not to me only, but to all who with filial reverence and godly fear worship and serve him. His mercy to such is rich and gracious; and now more eminently displayed than ever in the incarnation of his Son; in whom, from generation to generation, whoever trusts, will find mercy. He hath shewed strength with his arm; choosing the weak things of the world to confound the mighty; raising up so glorious a Redeemer from a birth so obscure: he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts; disappointing their schemes, and humbling them in the dust. Both in the dispensations of his providence and grace, he hath put down the mighty from their seats; the proud oppressors of his people of old, as Pharaoh, Sennacherib, &c. and the spiritually proud, the lofty Pharisees, and all self-righteous sinners; these he hurls from their fancied dignity, destroys their vain confidences, and casts them down as contemptible and vile: and exalted them of low degree; he hath done so, and continues so to do, raising up by his providence the oppressed, as Joseph from the prison, to sit among the princes; and by his grace reviving the hearts of poor and contrite sinners, exalting them to his favour, and delighting to honour them. He hath filled the hungry, those that hunger after righteousness, and feel their utter need of Jesus, with good things, satisfying their souls out of his fulness; and the rich, rich in their own opinion, self-confident, and satisfied with themselves without a Saviour; those he hath sent empty away, destitute of all true grace, without the least mark of his favour, and given up to their own delusions. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in all past ages, by extraordinary interpositions on their behalf; and now more eminently, in raising them up a Saviour from their most dangerous spiritual enemies; in remembrance of his mercy, which at sundry times he revealed to them; as he spake to our fathers, Abraham and his seed for ever; to whom he had promised, that in his seed all nations of the world should be blessed, which promise God was now about to fulfil. Note; (1.) Pride will surely have a fall. No height of station or self-confidence can protect those whom God abhors. (2.) There is help laid on One mighty to save; and all the poor, the weak, and helpless, may come to him, and be holpen. (3.) All God’s promises to his faithful people, will, sooner or later, receive their accomplishment; and blessed are they who wait for him.

4. Mary, after a visit of three months, returned to Nazareth, satisfied now of her own conception, and thereby perfectly assured of the truth of the angel’s and Elizabeth’s predictions.
5thly, Elizabeth’s full time being come, we have,
1. The birth of her son, and the great joy attending it. Tidings of so extraordinary an event were soon spread among her relations and neighbours, and they could not but magnify the Lord for so signal a mercy vouchsafed to her, who was both barren and aged; and they came to congratulate her on the occasion, and rejoice with her. Note; A gracious heart takes pleasure in the comforts which others enjoy, and rejoices with those that rejoice.

2. On the eighth day, when the child was to be circumcised, as it was usual at that time to give him a name after some of his ancestors, the friends and relations, who met on that occasion, would have called him Zacharias, after his father; but Elizabeth, informed by writing from her husband, or by revelation, objected, insisting that the child should be called John. They who were present expressed their surprise at this, and objected against what was so unusual, none of her relations bearing that name: the matter therefore was referred to the father for his decision; who being deaf and dumb, they made signs to him that he would fix the child’s name; and he making signs for a writing-table, to the astonishment of the company, wrote, His name is John. Note; (1.) The first concern that we owe our children is, early to dedicate them to God. (2.) Every John should remember the import of his name, and shew himself truly gracious.

3. Zacharias immediately thereupon recovered his speech, and, as the first and best use of his tongue, offered up his praises and thanksgivings to the God of his mercies.
4. These extraordinary events, which now were spread, and in every body’s mouth, filled the people with astonishment and reverential fear, in awful expectation of what would be the issue, treasuring up in their memories, and often pondering in their minds, the wonderful circumstances attending the birth of this extraordinary child: and from his earliest infancy something amazingly great, and gracious was seen in him, which farther engaged their attention; it evidently appearing that the hand of the Lord was with him, and that he was taken under the care and guidance of his peculiar providence and grace. Note; God has ways that we know not of, to communicate his grace to the souls of infants, and make them partakers of the Holy Ghost, even before they are partakers of reason: who then can say, why such should not be baptized?

6thly, Zacharias, filled with the Holy Ghost, among his other ascriptions of praise to the Lord, when his tongue was loosed, uttered the following prophetic song, relative to the Messiah’s incarnation and redemption, and the fulfilment of the covenant of grace.
1. He blesses, adores, and praises the God of Israel for the salvation to be obtained by the Messiah; who hath visited and redeemed his people; has often done it before, but now more signally than ever, by that redemption which his incarnate Son was about to obtain for all the faithful: and both raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; one able to save to the uttermost and before whom all his foes must fall; sprung from the royal race of David, according to his faithful promises, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began; from the promise made to fallen man in Paradise, had this Saviour been the constant subject of the prophetic word, as the seed of the woman, the descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, and the family of David; and lo! the event verifies all the predictions. The expected Saviour is now incarnate, and ready to appear, that we should be saved from our enemies, the worst of enemies, sin, Satan, death, and hell; and from the hand of all that hate us; from this present evil world, and all the wicked who inhabit it; not a temporal, but, what is infinitely better, a spiritual salvation from all the powers of darkness and corruption: to perform the mercy promised to our fathers; that mercy of all mercies, the sending of the Messiah; and to remember his holy covenant, which is now about to be fulfilled by the obedience of Jesus to the death of the cross; whereby all our forfeited mercies may be restored, and our title to glory be recovered, according to the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, the father of all the faithful, both Jews and Gentiles; that he would grant unto us, in virtue of our divine Redeemer’s undertaking, that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies; (those spiritual enemies by whom we were enslaved, and to whom we must for ever continue under bondage, unless the Son make us free;) might serve him without fear; no longer in the spirit of a slave, but under the influence of that free Spirit of adoption, where love casteth out servile fear, and enables us to walk willingly and cheerfully, in holiness and righteousness before him; in the universal discharge of the duties of piety towards God, and justice towards men; with ceaseless prayer for divine assistance, all the days of our life, faithful and persevering until death in his blessed service. Blessed are they who are in such a state! But such is the state of all the faithful, and none else.

2. He blesses God for the particular mercy shewn to himself in giving him such a son, whose office and dignity he in spirit foresees. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; of that divine Immanuel, who is God over all, blessed for ever: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, as the harbinger of the King of Glory, to prepare his ways, by preaching repentance, and directing sinners to him, as the only Saviour of lost souls; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people, of a spiritual salvation; a salvation not obtained as a matter of desert, but freely bestowed on them by the remission their sins through the tender mercy of our God, the original fountain whence all the great salvation flows; whereby the day-spring, or rising Sun of righteousness, from on high hath visited us, with his reviving and refreshing beams of grace, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; to those who before through a vail darkly in types and figures caught the glimmering day; to diffuse his bright influences amid the heathen world, covered with thickest darkness of idolatry and ignorance; and to shine into the minds of blind, stupid, and hardened sinners, dispelling the mists of error, and chasing the clouds of sin away, enlightening the conscience, and softening the heart, in order to guide our feet into the way of peace; to peace with God through the atoning Blood; to peace within, through the application of it to our souls; and to peace with men, through the spirit of universal love.

3. The younger years of the Baptist strongly corroborated this prediction concerning him. He grew, and waxed strong in spirit; his parts and capacity increased wonderfully with his stature, and his soul was filled with uncommon wisdom, fortitude, and grace; and he was in the desarts till the day of his shewing unto Israel; living in solitude, retirement, and devotion, till the time appointed for his entering upon his prophetic office. Note; They who most carefully improve their younger days in the school of true wisdom, will in general be best qualified to appear, and most likely to be successful, when they are called forth to minister in public.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Luk 1:80 . A summary account (comp. Jdg 13:24 ) of the further development of John. More particular accounts were perhaps altogether wanting, but were not essential to the matter here.

] the bodily growing up, and, connected therewith: . ., the mental gaining of strength that took place . (Eph 3:16 ). Comp. the description of the development of Jesus, Luk 2:40 ; Luk 2:52 . is not mentioned, for the is the , in whose vigour and strength the shares. Comp. Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 217.

] in the well-known desert regions. It is the desert of Judah that is meant (see on Mat 3:1 ). In that desert dwelt also the Essenes (Plin. N. H. v. 17). How far their principles and askesis , which at least could not have remained unknown to John, may have indirectly exercised an influence on his peculiar character, cannot be determined; a true Essene this greatest and last phenomenon of Israelitish prophecy certainly was not; he belonged, like some God-sent prophet higher than all partisan attitudes in the people, to the whole nation.

. .] His being publicly made known to Israel , when he was announced to the Israelites as the forerunner of the Messiah. This was done on the command of God by John himself. See Luk 3:2-6 . is the making known ( renuntiatio ) of official nomination; Polyb. xv. 26. 4; Plut. Mar 8 ; see Wetstein. Comp. Luk 10:1 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

(80) And the child grew, and waxed strong in

spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his

shewing unto Israel.

It is a blessed account of John, in the close of the chapter. He grew, and was in the deserts, until he entered upon his ministry. Untaught of men, unacquainted even with the person of his Lord, until taught of the Holy Ghost, how to know him; but then giving the highest attestation to the greatness of Christ’s character, while declaring the littleness of his own. See Joh 1:19-34 .

REFLECTIONS

Reaper! let, you, and I, at the very portal of this precious Gospel, stand and pause, before we hastily enter into the perusal of its blessed contents, and look up, and praise the Almighty Author, of His holy word, for such a profusion of mercies, as are here made known unto us; while we entreat the same glorious Lord to be our teacher, into a right understanding of those mysteries of godliness, to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Was it not enough to have given the Church the inspired records, concerning our Lord, in the precious relation by Matthew and Mark; but would our bountiful Lord add the Gospel, according to Luke, and John also? Oh then! do thou, blessed Lord the Holy Ghost, accompany the whole with thy divine teaching, that we may know the things, which are so freely given us of God; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Behold, Reader, in this chapter, the unbelief of Zacharias. Behold the faith of Mary and Elizabeth! To what, or to whom, shall we ascribe these things, but to distinguishing grace? Oh! may it be our happiness, to believe the record, which God hath given of his dear Son. And while we have faith, to this testimony of God; may we never lose sight of what the Holy Ghost hath taught by his servant, the Apostle; when he saith, Unto you it is given to believe in his name.

Reader! let us ponder over, again and again, the wonderous subject here recorded, of the miraculous conception. Let us view the distant prophecies, so many ages before, declaring the unheard of, unthought of, event: and then behold, as related in this Chapter, the accomplishment; until our souls are warmed with the contemplation, and we feel constrained to cry out with the Apostle, Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in our flesh! And oh! for grace to join in those hymns, both of Mary and Zacharias, from a personal interest in the same subject. Surely our souls may well rejoice in God our Savior, when through the mercy of our God the day-spring from on high hath visited us.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

Ver. 80. And the child grew ] Though his meat was but coarse, and not so nourishing. The blessing of God is the staff of bread: bread would no more nourish without it, than a piece of earth.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

80. ] A very similar conclusion to those in ch. Luk 2:40 ; Luk 2:52 , and denoting probably the termination of that record or document of the birth of the Baptist, which the Evangelist has hitherto been translating, or perhaps transcribing already translated.

That this first chapter is such a separate document, appears from its very distinct style. Whether it had been preserved in the holy family, or how otherwise obtained by Luke, no trace now appears. It has a certain relation to, and at the same time is distinguished from, the narration of the next chapter. The Old Testament spirit is stronger here, and the very phraseology more in unison with Hebrew usage.

. ] The of Juda was very near this wilderness, and from the character of John’s official life afterwards, it is probable that in youth he would be given to solitude and abstemiousness. It cannot be supposed that the Essenes , dwelling in those parts, had any, or only the most general kind of influence over him, as their views were wholly different from his.

., opening of his official life: see note on ch. Luk 10:1 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 1:80 . Conclusion : being a summary statement on John’s history from childhood to manhood. : the growing strength of John’s spirit, the development of a remarkable moral individuality, the main point in the view of the evangelist. , in the desert places: not far to go from his home to find them; visits to them frequent in early boyhood; constant abode when youth had passed into manhood; love of solitude grown into a passion. Meet foster-mother for one who is to be the censor of his time. Essenes not far off, but no indication of contact, either outwardly or inwardly, with them.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luke

ZACHARIAS’S HYMN

Luk 1:67 – Luk 1:80 .

Zacharias was dumb when he disbelieved. His lips were opened when he believed. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets, [Footnote: In the strictest sense, John the Baptist was a prophet of the Old dispensation, even though he came to usher in the New. See Mat 11:9 – Mat 11:11 . In the same sense, Zacharias was the last prophet of the Old dispensation, before the coming of his son to link the Old with the New.] and as standing nearest to the Messiah, his song takes up the echoes of all the past, and melts them into a new outpouring of exultant hope. The strain is more impassioned than Mary’s, and throbs with triumph over ‘our enemies,’ but rises above the mere patriotic glow into a more spiritual region. The complete subordination of the personal element is very remarkable, as shown by the slight and almost parenthetical reference to John. The father is forgotten in the devout Israelite. We may take the song as divided into three portions: the first Luk 1:68 – Luk 1:75 celebrating the coming of Messiah, with special reference to its effect in freeing Israel from its foes; the second Luk 1:76 – Luk 1:77, the highly dramatic address to his unconscious ‘child’; the third Luk 1:78 – Luk 1:79 returns to the absorbing thought of the Messiah, but now touches on higher aspects of His coming as the Light to all who sit in darkness.

I. If we remember that four hundred dreary years, for the most part of which Israel had been groaning under a foreign yoke, had passed since the last of the prophets, and that during all that time devout eyes had looked wearily for the promised Messiah, we shall be able to form some faint conception of the surprise and rapture which filled Zacharias’s spirit, and leaps in his hymn at the thought that now, at last, the hour had struck, and that the child would soon be born who was to fulfil the divine promises and satisfy fainting hopes. No wonder that its first words are a burst of blessing of ‘the God of Israel.’ The best expression of joy, when long-cherished desires are at last on the eve of accomplishment, is thanks to God. How short the time of waiting seems when it is past, and how needless the impatience which marred the waiting! Zacharias speaks of the fact as already realised. He must have known that the Incarnation was accomplished; for we can scarcely suppose that the emphatic tenses ‘hath visited, hath redeemed, hath raised’ are prophetic, and merely imply the certainty of a future event. He must have known, too, Mary’s royal descent; for he speaks of ‘the house of David.’

‘A horn’ of salvation is an emblem taken from animals, and implies strength. Here it recalls several prophecies, and as a designation of the Messiah, shadows forth His conquering might, all to be used for deliverance to His people. The vision before Zacharias is that of a victor king of Davidic race, long foretold by prophets, who will set Israel free from its foreign oppressors, whether Roman or Idumean, and in whom God Himself ‘visits and redeems His people.’ There are two kinds of divine visitations-one for mercy and one for judgment. What an unconscious witness it is of men’s evil consciences that the use of the phrase has almost exclusively settled down upon the latter meaning! In Luk 1:71 – Luk 1:75 , the idea of the Messianic salvation is expanded and raised. The word ‘salvation’ is best construed, as in the Revised Version, as in apposition with and explanatory of ‘horn of salvation.’ This salvation has issues, which may also be regarded as God’s purposes in sending it. These are threefold: first, to show mercy to the dead fathers of the race. That is a striking idea, and pictures the departed as, in their solemn rest, sharing in the joy of Messiah’s coming, and perhaps in the blessings which He brings. We may not too closely press the phrase, but it is more than poetry or imagination. The next issue is God’s remembrance of His promises, or in other words, His fulfilment of these. The last is that the nation, being set free, should serve God. The external deliverance was in the eyes of devout men like Zacharias precious as a means to an end. Political freedom was needful for God’s service, and was valuable mainly as leading to that. The hymn rises far above the mere impatience of a foreign yoke. ‘Freedom to worship God,’ and God worshipped by a ransomed nation, are Zacharias’s ideal of the Messianic times.

Note his use of the word for priestly ‘service.’ He, a priest, has not forgotten that by original constitution all Israel was a nation of priests; and he looks forward to the fulfilment at last of the ideal which so soon became impracticable, and possibly to the abrogation of his own order in the universal priesthood. He knew not what deep truths he sang. The end of Christ’s coming, and of the deliverance which He works for us from the hand of our enemies, cannot be better stated than in these words. We are redeemed that we may be priests unto God. Our priestly service must be rendered in ‘holiness and righteousness,’ in consecration to God and discharge of all obligations; and it is to be no interrupted or occasional service, like Zacharias’s, which occupied but two short weeks in the year, and might never again lead him within the sanctuary, but is to fill with reverent activity and thankful sacrifice all our days. However this hymn may have begun with the mere external conception of Messianic deliverance, it rises high above that here, and will still further soar beyond it. We may learn from this priest-prophet, who anticipated the wise men and brought his offerings to the unborn Christ, what Christian salvation is, and for what it is given us.

II. There is something very vivid and striking in the abrupt address to the infant, who lay, all unknowing, in his mother’s arms. The contrast between him as he was then and the work which waited him, the paternal wonder and joy which yet can scarcely pause on the child, and hurries on to fancy him in the years to come, going herald-like before the face of the Lord, the profound prophetic insight into John’s work, are all noteworthy. The Baptist did ‘prepare the way’ by teaching that the true ‘salvation’ was not to be found in mere deliverance from the Roman yoke, but in ‘remission of sin.’ He thus not only gave ‘knowledge of salvation,’ in the sense that he announced the fact that it would be given, but also in the sense that he clearly taught in what it consisted. John was no preacher of revolt, as the turbulent and impure patriots of the day would have liked him to be, but of repentance. His work was to awake the consciousness of sin, and so to kindle desires for a salvation which was deliverance from sin, the only yoke which really enslaves. Zacharias the ‘blameless’ saw what the true bondage of the nation was, and what the work both of the Deliverer and of His herald must be. We need to be perpetually reminded of the truth that the only salvation and deliverance which can do us any good consist in getting rid, by pardon and by holiness, of the cords of our sins.

III. The thoughts of the Forerunner and his office melt into that of the Messianic blessings from which the singer cannot long turn away. In these closing words, we have the source, the essential nature, and the blessed results of the gift of Christ set forth in a noble figure, and freed from the national limitations of the earlier part of the hymn. All comes from the ‘bowels of mercy of our God,’ as Zacharias, in accordance with Old Testament metaphor, speaks, allocating the seat of the emotions which we attribute to the heart. Conventional notions of delicacy think the Hebrew idea coarse, but the one allocation is just as delicate as the other. We can get no deeper down or farther back into the secret springs of things than this-that the root cause of all, and most especially of the mission of Christ, is the pitying love of God’s heart. If we hold fast by that, the pain of the riddle of the world is past, and the riddle itself more than half solved. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of that love, in which all its tenderness and all its power are gathered up for our blessing.

The modern civilised world owes most of its activity to the quickening influence of Christianity. The dayspring visits us that it may shine on us, and it shines that it may guide us into ‘the way of peace.’ There can be no wider and more accurate description of the end of Christ’s mission than this-that all His visitation and enlightenment are meant to lead us into the path where we shall find peace with God, and therefore with ourselves and with all mankind. The word ‘peace,’ in the Old Testament, is used to include the sum of all that men require for their conscious well-being. We are at rest only when all our relations with God and the outer world are right, and when our inner being is harmonised with itself, and supplied with appropriate objects. To know God for our friend, to have our being fixed on and satisfied in Him, and so to be reconciled to all circumstances, and a friend of all men-this is peace; and the path to such a blessed condition is shown us only by that Sun of Righteousness whom the loving heart of God has sent into the darkness and torpor of the benighted wanderers in the desert. The national reference has faded from the song, and though it still speaks of ‘us’ and ‘our,’ we cannot doubt that Zacharias both saw more deeply into the salvation which Christ would bring than to limit it to breaking an earthly yoke, and deemed more worthily and widely of its sweep, than to confine it within narrower bounds than the whole extent of the dreary darkness which it came to banish from all the world.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 1:80

80And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Luk 1:80 “the child continued to grow and to become strong” This is very similar to the description of Jesus’ development, both physically and spiritually (cf. Luk 2:40).

SPECIAL TOPIC: BE MADE STRONG

“in spirit” As is often the case, the interpretive issue is, does this refer to the Holy Spirit or to John’s human spirit? Possibly to both, based on an allusion to Isa 11:1-2.

SPECIAL TOPIC: SPIRIT (PNEUMA) IN THE NT

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

waxed strong = grew and was strengthened. spirit. Greek. pneuma. See App-101.

the deserts. The article. indicating a well-known part.

shewing = public or official inauguration. Greek. anadeixis. Only occurs here. The verb anadeiknumi occurs Luk 10:1. See note there.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

80.] A very similar conclusion to those in ch. Luk 2:40; Luk 2:52, and denoting probably the termination of that record or document of the birth of the Baptist, which the Evangelist has hitherto been translating, or perhaps transcribing already translated.

That this first chapter is such a separate document, appears from its very distinct style. Whether it had been preserved in the holy family, or how otherwise obtained by Luke, no trace now appears. It has a certain relation to, and at the same time is distinguished from, the narration of the next chapter. The Old Testament spirit is stronger here, and the very phraseology more in unison with Hebrew usage.

.] The of Juda was very near this wilderness, and from the character of Johns official life afterwards, it is probable that in youth he would be given to solitude and abstemiousness. It cannot be supposed that the Essenes, dwelling in those parts, had any, or only the most general kind of influence over him, as their views were wholly different from his.

., opening of his official life: see note on ch. Luk 10:1.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 1:80. , grew) in body.- , in the deserts) Here the more inward and remote parts of the desert are denoted; but in Mat 3:1 [the wilderness of Judea, where John began his preaching]: it is the exterior desert that is meant. He remained exempt from contact with [lit. rubbing with] life in its ordinary and polluted forms. The Forerunner of Christ, and Christ Himself, had experience themselves, and gave a specimen to others, of both kinds of life; and indeed, first, of a solitary mode of life, afterwards also of a public one.-, even up to) Ch. Luk 3:2-3.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

the child: Luk 1:15, Luk 2:40, Luk 2:52, Jdg 13:24, Jdg 13:25, 1Sa 3:19, 1Sa 3:20

and was: Mat 3:1, Mat 11:7, Mar 1:3, Mar 1:4

his: Joh 1:31

Reciprocal: Gen 21:20 – God 1Sa 2:21 – grew 1Sa 2:26 – was in 2Sa 15:23 – the wilderness Luk 1:66 – And the Luk 3:2 – in Luk 7:24 – wilderness

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE VIRTUES OF ASCETICISM

And the child grew, and wared strong in spirit.

Luk 1:80

The words refer to the Baptist, who is set before us as an example of the ascetic, self-sacrificing, self-subduing life, and of the virtues that belong to it. The first, and perhaps the chief of these, is spiritual strength. He waxed strong in spirit.

I. For want of this power of self-control and self-mastery great numbers of persons lead

(a) Vague and almost useless lives. They may have good intentions and even great powers, but the good intentions come to nothing, and the great powers are not applied perseveringly to any good end, because they have no rule over themselves. Their will is not supreme over their actions. They act from impulse, not from reason.

(b) Sinful lives. They see the better course and follow the worse. They sin and repent, and sin again in the very same way, and so on, making no progress in spiritual things, getting no higher, nor rising above the same round of temptation and fall. They see a perfectiona saintliness of characterwhose glory and beauty they willingly acknowledge, but which they hardly even try to reach. They willingly take the lower road, because it is broad and easy and pleasant, whilst the Saviour beckons them to the higher. Why is it this moral paralysis has affected them? Where is the root of the evil? It is because of the want of hardness and self-mastery in their religion.

II. Divine power.Sin arose from the idea instilled into the soul by a tempter from without that man should be self-centredhis own standard of right and wrongthat ye shall be as gods said the tempter to Eve. Now in the degree in which we take back again the Divine Will instead of our own wills as the standard and rule of our actions, we really destroy sin in our souls. And without strength of spirit, that is, without self-mastery and ascetic strictness over ourselves, we are powerless to do this. A soul without asceticism is as an army without discipline, which is more formidable to itself than to the enemy.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

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This child refers to the babe John, whose birth had occasioned this interesting speech of Zacharias. As the child grew he lived in the deserts. That was appropriate since he was to do his work there, when the time came for him to appear among the people of Israel as the forerunner of Christ.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.

[In the deserts.] Whether John was an eremite in the sense as it is now commonly taken, we may inquire and judge by these two things: I. Whether there was ever any eremite in this sense among the Jews. II. Whether he absented himself from the synagogues; and whether he did not present himself at Jerusalem in the feasts: and to this may be added, whether he retired and withdrew himself from the society of mankind. If he absented from the synagogues, he must have been accounted a wicked neighbour. If from the feasts, he transgressed the command, Exo 23:17. If from the society of mankind, what agreeableness was there in this? It seems very incongruous, that he that was born for this end, “to turn the disobedient,” etc. Should withdraw himself from all society and converse with them. Nothing would persuade me sooner that John was indeed an anchoret, than that which he himself saith, that he did not know Jesus, Joh 1:31; whereas he was so very near akin to him. One might think, surely he must have lain hid in some den or cave of the earth, when, for the space of almost thirty years wherein he had lived, he had had no society with Jesus, so near a kinsman of his, nay, not so much as in the least to know him. But if this were so, how came he to know and so humbly refuse him, when he offered himself to be baptized by him? Mat 3:14; and this before he was instructed who he was, by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him? Joh 1:33.

[eremite – hermit; esp.: a religious recluse. — Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.]

From this question may arise two more: —

I. Whether John appeared or acted under the notion of a prophet before his entrance into the thirtieth year of his age. I am apt to think he did not: and hence I suppose it is said concerning him, “that he was in the deserts”; that is, he was amongst the rustics, and common rank of men, as a man of no note or quality himself, till he made himself public under the notion and authority of a prophet.

II. Whether he might not well know his kinsman Jesus in all this time, and admire his incomparable sanctity, and yet be ignorant that he was the Messiah. Yea, and when he modestly repulsed him from his baptism, was it that he acknowledged him for the Messiah? (which agrees not with Joh 1:33) or not rather that, by reason of his admirable holiness, he saw that he was above him?

[Till the day of his shewing unto Israel.] John was unquestionably a priest by birth; and being arrived at the thirtieth year of his age, according to the custom of that nation, he was, after examination of the great council, to have been admitted into the priestly office, but that God had commissioned him another way.

“In the room Gazith the great council of Israel sat, and judged concerning the priesthood. The priest in whom any blemish was found, being clothed and veiled in black, went out and was dismissed: but if he had no blemish, he was clothed and veiled in white, and going in ministered, and gave his attendance with the rest of the priests his brethren. And they made a gaudy day; when there was no blemish found in the seed of Aaron the priest.”

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Luk 1:80. And the child grew, etc. A summing up of Johns development in body and spirit, during his youth.

In the deserts, i.e., the wilderness of Judah (see Mat 3:1),which was not far from his home in the hill-country (Luk 1:39; Luk 1:65). The Essenes,a mystic and ascetic Jewish sect, dwelt in the same region, but there is not the slightest evidence that John came in contact with them. This retirement was combined with abstemiousness (Mat 3:4).

Till the day of his manifestation unto Israel. The opening of his official life, when he announced himself as the forerunner of the Messiah. In the case of John, temporary retirement was followed by public usefulness, the one as the preparation for the other. The mistake of monastic life consists in making the retirement permanent, leading to idleness or selfish piety; but Protestants often overlook the need of such temporary withdrawal, to gain time for calm reflection, rest from conflicts and cares, as well as strength for future work, in communing with God.This conclusion, together with the peculiar style of the narrative (from Luk 1:5 to the close of the chapter), has led to the theory that the whole was taken from some trustworthy document found by Luke. The Old Testament spirit and phraseology has led to the further conjecture, that it was originally written in Hebrew.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here we have a short account of John’s private life before he entered upon his public ministry, which was at thirty years of age; “He grew,” that is, in bodily stature, “and waxed strong in spirit;” that is, in the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which increased with his age, and shewed themselves in him every day more and more. “And he was in the deserts; “that is, in the mountainous country of Judea, where he was born, till the time of his preaching to and amongst the Jews; not that he lived like a hermit, recluse from all society with men, but contented himself to continue in an obscure privacy, till called forth to promulge and preach the gospel: and when that time was come, John leaves the hill country, and enters with resolution and unwearied diligence upon his public ministry; teaching us, by his example, that when we are fit and ripe for public service, we should no less willingly leave our obscurity, than we took the benefit of it for our preparation. John abode in the deserts till his shewing unto Israel; that is, till the time of his setting forth to execute his office among the Jews.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Luk 1:80. And the child grew, &c. The years of Johns infancy expiring, he grew daily in wisdom and stature; and was in the deserts, &c. During the whole course of his private life, he continued in the deserts, or hill- country of Judea, Luk 1:39, till his ministry commenced, about the thirtieth year of his age. It is probable that the deserts here mentioned were those of Ziph and Maon, where Saul pursued David. Though there were several country towns and villages in these deserts, yet, as they were but thinly inhabited, they were in the Jewish idiom called deserts. Now it was wisely ordered, to prevent a personal acquaintance between Jesus and John, that the latter should continue in one of these deserts, at the distance of probably one hundred miles from Nazareth, till the time of his entering upon his ministry. There, in a state of solitude and retirement from the world, he lived an austere and mortified life, that his character might be suited to his office the preaching of repentance, self-denial, and deadness to the world and sin.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ver. 80. The historical conclusion, Luk 1:80, corresponds with that in Luk 1:66. As the latter sketches with a stroke of the pen the childhood of John, so this gives a picture of his youth, and carries us forward to the time when he began his ministry. The term he grew refers to his physical development, and the expression following, waxed strong in spirit, to his spiritual development, that is to say, religious, moral, and intellectual. The predominant feature of this development was force, energy (he grew strong in spirit). Luke, doubtless, means by this the power of the will over the instincts and inclinations of the body. The spirit is here certainly that of John himself; but when a man developes in a right way, it is only by communion with the Divine Spirit that his spirit unfolds, as the flower only blows when in contact with the light.

This spiritual development of John was due to no human influence. For the child lived in the deserts. Probably the desert of Judea is meant here, an inhabited country, whose deeply creviced soil affords an outlet to several streams that empty themselves into the Dead Sea. This country, abounding in caves, has always been the refuge of anchorites. In the time of John the Baptist there were probably Essenran monasteries there; for history says positively that these cenobites dwelt upon both shores of the Dead Sea. It has been inferred from this passage that John, during his sojourn in the desert, visited these sages, and profited by their teaching. This opinion is altogether opposed to the design of the text, which is to attribute to God alone the direction of the development of the forerunner. But more than this. If John was taught by the Essenes, it must be admitted that the only thing their instructions did for him was to lead him to take entirely opposite views on all points. The Essenes had renounced every Messianic expectation; the soul of John’s life and ministry was the expectation of the Messiah and the preparation for His work. The Essenes made matter the seat of sin; John, by his energetic calls to conversion, shows plainly enough that he found it in the will. The Essenes withdrew from society, and gave themselves up to mystic contemplation; John, at the signal from on high, threw himself boldly into the midst of the people, and to the very last took a most active and courageous part in the affairs of his country. If, after all, any similarities are found between him and them, John’s originality is too well established to attribute them to imitation; such similarities arise from the attempt they both made to effect a reform in degenerate Judaism. The relation of John to the Essenes is very similar to that of Luther to the mystics of the middle ages. On the part of the Essenes, as of the mystics, there is the human effort which attests the need; on the part of John, as well as of Luther, the divine work which satisfies it.

The abstract plural in the deserts proves that this observation is made with a moral and not a geographical aim.

The word , showing, denotes the installation of a servant into his office, his official institution into his charge. The author of this act, unnamed but understood, is evidently God. It follows from Luk 3:2, and from Joh 1:31-33, that a direct communication from on high, perhaps a theophany, such as called Moses from the desert, was the signal for John to enter upon his work. But we have no account of this scene which took place between God and His messenger. Our evangelists only relate what they know.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Verse 80

Waxed strong in spirit; increased in intellectual energy.–In the deserts; that is, probably, he lived in retirement with his father and mother in a part of Judea called the desert, until he commenced his public preaching by the Jordan, as recorded by Matthew 4:12-25 and by John 1:35-51.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

3. The preparation of John 1:80

Luke’s comment on John’s personal development shows his interest in human beings, which characterizes this Gospel (cf. Luk 2:40; Luk 2:52). John’s spirit here corresponds roughly to his character and personality (cf. 1Sa 2:21).

There has been considerable speculation about whether John became a member of the ascetic Essene community at Qumran because he lived in the deserts. [Note: See A. S. Geyser, "The Youth of John the Baptist," Novum Testamentum 1 (1956):70-75; and J. A. T. Robinson, Twelve New Testament Studies, pp. 11-27.] There is no way to prove or to disprove this theory presently. The factors in its favor are their common eschatological expectations, their use of Isa 40:3, and their use of ritual washings. Against it is John’s connection with the Jerusalem temple through his father, which the Essenes repudiated. [Note: Marshall, The Gospel . . ., p. 96.] Probably John was not an Essene but simply a prophet who went into the deserts to commune with God to be free of the distractions of ordinary life. [Note: John C. Hutchinson, "Was John the Baptist an Essene from Qumran?" Bibliotheca Sacra 159:634 (April-June 2002):187-200.]

Thus John gives way to Jesus in the text.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)