Women of the Bible
Elizabeth in the Bible
A priest's wife, childless and advanced in years, whose son would go before the Lord, and who was the first person recorded calling Mary blessed.
Read the passages first
Loading Luke 1:5-25…
Loading Luke 1:39-45…
Luke opens his gospel not in Nazareth but in , with a and his wife who are both described as before God, Luke 1:6, and who have no child, Luke 1:7.
Those two facts sit side by side without explanation. Luke does not treat her childlessness as evidence of anything about her, and neither should a study of her.
Where Scripture speaks of her
Every passage in view
- Luke 1:5
Introduced as of the daughters of Aaron, wife of Zacharias .
- Luke 1:6-7
Both , walking in the commandments, and she had no child.
- Luke 1:13
The angel tells Zacharias his prayer is heard and she shall bear a son.
- Luke 1:24-25
She conceives, and says the Lord has taken away her reproach among men.
- Luke 1:41
At Mary's greeting the babe leaps and she is filled with the .
- Luke 1:42-45
She blesses Mary and the child, asks why this has come to her, and names Mary's faith.
- Luke 1:57-60
She bears her son and insists his name is John, against the family.
Kept apart on purpose
What the text says, what it allows, what it withholds
What Scripture says outright
- She was of the daughters of Aaron, Luke 1:5, so both parents were of priestly descent.
- Luke 1:6 says both she and Zacharias were before God, blameless in the commandments.
- Luke 1:7 gives the reason there was no child and says both were well advanced in years.
- She said the Lord had looked on her to take away her reproach among men, Luke 1:25.
- She was filled with the when she spoke to Mary, Luke 1:41.
- She called Mary blessed because she , Luke 1:45.
- She named the child John before Zacharias could speak, Luke 1:60.
What we are drawing from it
- Scholarship
Luke 1 deliberately recalls earlier accounts of childless women in Israel, notably Sarah in Genesis 18:11 and Hannah in 1 Samuel 1, using similar language about age and about God remembering.
- History
The course of Abia, Luke 1:5, refers to the priestly rotations described in 1 Chronicles 24, which is how service in was organised.
Where this comes from
- History
In this period childlessness carried social shame, which is the background to her own phrase about reproach in Luke 1:25.
Where this comes from
What Scripture does not tell us
- Scripture does not say how long she and Zacharias had waited.
- It gives no reason for the childlessness beyond the plain statement of Luke 1:7.
- It does not record her death or anything of her later life after Luke 1.
- It does not say what she understood about who Mary's child would be, beyond the words Luke records.
Her place in the biblical story
John will be the one who goes before the Lord, Luke 1:17 and Luke 1:76. Luke sets his birth first, so that when Gabriel comes to Nazareth the reader has already seen God begin to act.
Luke 1:36 uses her pregnancy as the sign given to Mary. Her situation is not a warm subplot; it is evidence handed to another woman who has just been told something impossible.
Righteous and childless in the same sentence
Luke 1:6-7 is one of the most useful pairings in the gospels for pastoral honesty. Two people who walked blamelessly in the commandments had no child.
Scripture refuses the equation that many readers carry, in which unanswered implies fault. Luke states both facts and offers no connection between them.
The first person to call Mary blessed
Luke 1:41-45 is a remarkable scene. The older woman, whose own answered prayer is six months along, does not compare herself to the younger one. She asks why the mother of her Lord should come to her, Luke 1:43.
And her reason for the blessing is exact: blessed is she that , Luke 1:45. Not blessed because she is favoured, or because of the child, but because she took God at his word.
What God does in the story
He hears a prayer, Luke 1:13, and Luke records that the answer came after years and not on request.
He fills her with the so that she speaks the truth about a child no one has yet seen, Luke 1:41-43.
And he confirms his own word about the name John through her, Luke 1:60, before Zacharias' mouth is opened.
Trace the story
The childless women of Scripture
This trail begins with Elizabeth and works back through earlier accounts. The connections are drawn from strong shared language and pattern; Luke 1 does not name these women, so those links are labelled as readings.
Not smoothed over
The hard parts of this account
Was the reproach of Luke 1:25 God's judgment on her?
No. The reproach she names is among men, Luke 1:25, and Luke 1:6 has already said she was before God.
The verse describes how she was regarded by people, not a verdict from God.
How could she know Mary was the mother of her Lord?
Luke 1:41 says she was filled with the , and her words follow from that. The chapter supplies the explanation itself.
Luke does not tell us what she worked out on her own, and there is no need to reconstruct it.
Questions the text can answer
Take these back to Scripture
What two things does Luke say about her in consecutive verses, and what does he not say connects them?
Look at Luke 1:7. Read Luke 1:6 and Luke 1:7 together and notice what explanation is absent.
Why does she call Mary blessed?
Look at Luke 1:45. Read her full words in Luke 1:42-45 and find the reason she gives.
How is her pregnancy used in the conversation at Nazareth?
Look at Luke 1:36. Read Luke 1:36-37 and note what Gabriel offers as evidence.
Pray it back
A prayer from this account
Lord, you counted a childless woman and blameless, and you did not explain her waiting to her.
For those who have prayed a long time without an answer, keep them from concluding that you are displeased with them.
Give us her freedom, to rejoice at what you are doing in someone else without measuring it against our own.
You heard a prayer in and you sent a voice before your Son. Blessed are those who your word. Amen.
Sources consulted
Themes in this account
- Faith. Taking God at his word before the outcome is visible.
- Motherhood. Children, barrenness and household life as Scripture treats them.
- Witness. Telling others what God has done.
- Covenant. God's promises to Abraham and to David, carried forward.
- Prayer. Speaking to God plainly, including out of grief.
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