Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 1.

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I am not sure why I never put this together, but Mary was with Zechariah and Elizabeth until shortly after Elizabeth gave birth to John.  When Luke says that Gabriel appeared to Mary in the sixth month he was referring the the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy because Gabriel tells Mary that it was the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.  Which tells us that Mary was likely Luke’s source for both her own experiences, and for the things Zechariah and Elizabeth experienced and said, either directly or indirectly.  That is, either Luke spoke with Mary and she told him these things, or she had told them to others who told them to Luke.  I want to note that Mary would have likely been between fifty and fifty-five years of age when Jesus was crucified and then resurrected.  Which means that she would have been no more than seventy-five when Luke wrote this Gospel, and Luke could have gathered the information in today’s passage before Mary reached the age of sixty.

Many people look at this passage and compare Zechariah’s response to Gabriel’s announcement to him with Mary’s response to what Gabriel said to her.  Then some of them say that Zechariah was punished for his disbelief.  I have sometimes questioned whether or not Zechariah’s imposed silence was a punishment or merely the sign in answer to his question.  However, right now I tend to think that it was both a sign and a punishment.  So, what was the difference between Zechariah’s response and Mary’s response?  Zechariah said, “How shall I know this?” while Mary said, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”  The difference being that Mary wanted Gabriel to explain how it would work, while Zechariah wanted confirmation that it was true.  So, Zechariah got his confirmation, but not in a way which he enjoyed.  I was going to say “not in a way which he appreciated”, but I think that he did appreciate it.  Often times when God does things to teach us to trust Him we do not enjoy them while they are happening, but appreciate them after they are over.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.