Again, the dating of John’s birth as mid-March of 2 B.C., rests on the belief that Jesus was born on Tabernacles and the fact that John was six months Jesus’s senior. 

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On John’s eighth day, the men of his family would have gathered for his circumcision. It would have been a male gathering rather than all the relatives. Elizabeth would have just finished her seven-day total isolation, being unclean after the birth of a boy. She could have then moved about within the family but public involvement would require an additional thirty-three days of quarantine. (Most quarantine periods of the unclean were to prevent the infection of others. A mother’s uncleanness and its resulting restrictions was to prevent her infection at a vulnerable period.) 

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At circumcision, a boy’s identity shifted from being a son of man to becoming identified as a son of Abraham. Thus, the common practice was to name him after this father or some other noted family member. In this case, naming him Zechariah would have been an obvious expectation. At that point, Elizabeth interrupted their party and insisted that it was to be Jehochanan, or in English, John. They disregarded her and tried to check with Zechariah, who affirmed what she had said. 

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Upon regaining his voice, Zechariah joyfully recounted the promises of redemption given the prophets and then foretold John’s coming ministry. He ends describing John’s ministry as the one preparing the way for the Messiah, who will reach the gentiles—those in darkness—and bring Israel back as well. 

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Luke ends with the fact that John grew closer to God in the desert and then burst on the scene with his time came.

 

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