Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 1:5-25, A priest's turn at the incense altar
An elderly village priest, picked by lot to offer incense in the sanctuary, learns from the angel Gabriel that his childless wife will have a son who will prepare Israel for God with an Elijah-like power.
Luke 1:5-25, in every translation this tool compares.
Zechariah and Elizabeth are righteous, old and childless. While his division is on duty, the lot falls to Zechariah to burn incense inside the sanctuary as the people pray outside. Gabriel appears beside the altar, promises a son to be named John, and leaves Zechariah unable to speak when he asks for proof. Elizabeth conceives and says the Lord has taken away her disgrace.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/priestly-courses\/","n":"Priests on duty: the twenty-four courses","s":"Israel's ordinary priests were divided into twenty-four courses that took turns at the temple, a week at a time. Most lived in the country and came up to Jerusalem when their turn came round.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/birth-and-naming\/","n":"Birth, naming and the shame of childlessness","s":"A child, above all a son, was a family's future and its support in old age. A childless couple met suspicion and shame; a birth brought the neighbors in, and a Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/elijah-expected\/","n":"Elijah expected","s":"Malachi promised Elijah would come back before the great day of the Lord. By Jesus' time many were waiting for him, and the Gospels keep raising his name.","r":""}
The incense was burned at the hours of the morning and evening sacrifice, which is why a crowd is praying outside (Keener and his notes). Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, adds that with so many priests the privilege may have come once in a lifetime, and that John's abstinence is probably a Nazirite vow, lifelong here. Whether Zechariah was deaf as well as mute is unclear: the ESV Study Bible thinks he probably was, since people make signs to him in 1:62, while Keener notes that the word can include deafness but need not. Luke names no author. Early tradition and the we passages of Acts point to Luke, the physician of Colossians 4:14, probably a Gentile (Carson, Moo and Morris; Strauss). Where Luke wrote is unknown. Some scholars put the Gospel in AD 75 to 85, after Jerusalem's fall; Carson, Moo and Morris favor the early sixties, since Acts leaves Paul in prison, and Strauss the late fifties or early sixties. Theophilus was probably a real patron of rank (Carson, Moo and Morris; Strauss; the Zondervan Bible dictionary), though his name, lover of God, has led some to read the book as addressed to every godly reader (Strauss).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 1:8-9, 1:10, 1:11, 1:14-15, 1:20-21 and 1:22
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 1:10, 1:11, 1:15 and 1:21
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Luke 1:20
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Introduction (The Author; Date, Recipients, Destination) and on Luke 1:9, 1:11, 1:15 and 1:21
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 4, Luke, sections Author, Provenance, Date and Addressee(s)
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Theophilus
