Luke 1:1-25 Zachariah and Elizabeth
The first passages in Luke talk about Zechariah and Elizabeth and the miracle given to them from God in the nature of a child, John the Baptist, who would foretell of the coming Messiah to the Jewish people. John would be the last prophet of the Old Testament time, though he is identified in the New Testament books.
There was an inscription found in Absolom's tomb in Jerusalem in 2003 containing these words, "This is the tomb of Zachariah, the martyr, the pious, the father of John."
(http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s900660.htm)
Biblical Archaeology Review has comments on the inscription in their Nov/Dec issue, page 19.
"The angled light of the setting sun, a persistent anthropologist and a learned epigrapher have all helped to discover a nearly invisible Greek inscription in Absalom's pillar.....
"Archaeologists have dated the tomb itself to the time of Jesus...
"Critics and skeptics will point to the inscription and say that there is no way to prove that the inscription relates to Zachariah and John the Baptist, but the history of inscriptions does show that during the early centuries, that supporters of Christianity did inscribe particular areas and artifacts so that their location/identification could be understood throughout the ages. http://www.angelfire.com/trek/billprothero/page9.html
“AP notes that the Jewish historian Josephus writes that a priest named Zachariah was slain by Zealots in the temple, and his body was tossed into the Kidron Valley below. If that is true, it explains why the word "martyr" is in the inscription. Scholars do not believe that Zachariah is buried in this tomb. But the inscription does give a unique insight into the local lore surrounding the early figures of the Christian church--and how the words came to be there.
Byzantine Christians most likely added the inscription to the tomb several hundred years after Zachariah's death and after the tomb's construction. Why? It was common for this group of Christians in the 4th and 5th centuries to mark sites that they believed were linked to the Bible's main characters.”
Luke 1:5, 8-9
5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah's division named Zachariah.
8 When his division was on duty, and he was serving as priest before God,
9 it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.
http://www.stathanasius.org/bible/su..._epiphany.html
“His Parents: Zachariah (or Zacharias) was the Chief Priest of the 8th Lot (Luke 1:5, 1 Chronicles 24:10). This meant he was in charge of the 8th Lot priestly duties for one week, then went home for 23 weeks until his turn came up again. Elizabeth was a cousin of the Virgin Mary. This means John and Jesus were second cousins.”The priestly line was divided into 24 "families", and each served for one week's service, and with about 20,000 descendents serving in the priesthood, there usually was just one time when each member would be given the opportunity to enter the sanctuary and burn incense.
Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;
Just a small note, that the sixth month would still be within the 24-family division of Levitical priest which Zachariah was a member, and wherever Zachariah and Elizabeth lived, in the sixth month, they would be "into a city of Juda" to be a part of the levitical service in the temple.
Quoting from J.D. Crossan (The Historical Jesus)
“It names Nazareth as one of the places in Galilee where the priestly families of Judea migrated after the disastrous Hadrianic war of 135 CE. Such groups would only settle in towns without gentile inhabitants, which ruled out nearby Sepphoris. Apparently, the priests had been divided from ancient times into twenty-four 'courses' that took weekly turns in Temple service. The restored inscription reads:
'The eighteenth priestly course [called] Hapizzez, [resettled at] Nasareth.'”
63 And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.
In ancient times, when a temporary record was needed, then the information would be stored on wax. The wax was melted and poured into a small tray. When the wax was cooled, it would serve as a temporary writing surface. The trays could be tied together to make a book, but again this was a temporary form of retaining records. Usually records were retained in temporary wax until such time as they could be recorded onto a more permanent source such as pottery sherds or papyrus. The University of Michigan has a large collection of such examples of waxed wooden trays that have been preserved with the text intact in the collection of papyrus, ostraca, and inscriptions.
~serapha~
There was an inscription found in Absolom's tomb in Jerusalem in 2003 containing these words, "This is the tomb of Zachariah, the martyr, the pious, the father of John."
(http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s900660.htm)
Biblical Archaeology Review has comments on the inscription in their Nov/Dec issue, page 19.
"The angled light of the setting sun, a persistent anthropologist and a learned epigrapher have all helped to discover a nearly invisible Greek inscription in Absalom's pillar.....
"Archaeologists have dated the tomb itself to the time of Jesus...
"Critics and skeptics will point to the inscription and say that there is no way to prove that the inscription relates to Zachariah and John the Baptist, but the history of inscriptions does show that during the early centuries, that supporters of Christianity did inscribe particular areas and artifacts so that their location/identification could be understood throughout the ages. http://www.angelfire.com/trek/billprothero/page9.html
“AP notes that the Jewish historian Josephus writes that a priest named Zachariah was slain by Zealots in the temple, and his body was tossed into the Kidron Valley below. If that is true, it explains why the word "martyr" is in the inscription. Scholars do not believe that Zachariah is buried in this tomb. But the inscription does give a unique insight into the local lore surrounding the early figures of the Christian church--and how the words came to be there.
Byzantine Christians most likely added the inscription to the tomb several hundred years after Zachariah's death and after the tomb's construction. Why? It was common for this group of Christians in the 4th and 5th centuries to mark sites that they believed were linked to the Bible's main characters.”
Luke 1:5, 8-9
5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah's division named Zachariah.
8 When his division was on duty, and he was serving as priest before God,
9 it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.
http://www.stathanasius.org/bible/su..._epiphany.html
“His Parents: Zachariah (or Zacharias) was the Chief Priest of the 8th Lot (Luke 1:5, 1 Chronicles 24:10). This meant he was in charge of the 8th Lot priestly duties for one week, then went home for 23 weeks until his turn came up again. Elizabeth was a cousin of the Virgin Mary. This means John and Jesus were second cousins.”The priestly line was divided into 24 "families", and each served for one week's service, and with about 20,000 descendents serving in the priesthood, there usually was just one time when each member would be given the opportunity to enter the sanctuary and burn incense.
Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;
Just a small note, that the sixth month would still be within the 24-family division of Levitical priest which Zachariah was a member, and wherever Zachariah and Elizabeth lived, in the sixth month, they would be "into a city of Juda" to be a part of the levitical service in the temple.
Quoting from J.D. Crossan (The Historical Jesus)
“It names Nazareth as one of the places in Galilee where the priestly families of Judea migrated after the disastrous Hadrianic war of 135 CE. Such groups would only settle in towns without gentile inhabitants, which ruled out nearby Sepphoris. Apparently, the priests had been divided from ancient times into twenty-four 'courses' that took weekly turns in Temple service. The restored inscription reads:
'The eighteenth priestly course [called] Hapizzez, [resettled at] Nasareth.'”
63 And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.
In ancient times, when a temporary record was needed, then the information would be stored on wax. The wax was melted and poured into a small tray. When the wax was cooled, it would serve as a temporary writing surface. The trays could be tied together to make a book, but again this was a temporary form of retaining records. Usually records were retained in temporary wax until such time as they could be recorded onto a more permanent source such as pottery sherds or papyrus. The University of Michigan has a large collection of such examples of waxed wooden trays that have been preserved with the text intact in the collection of papyrus, ostraca, and inscriptions.
~serapha~
posted by ~serapha~ at 9:35 PM
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