Luke 1:61 Commentary and Bible Study

Those gathered take Elisabeth’s intervention seriously, but they object to it, feeling that they have a right to prevail over her. Clearly it was the common practice for children to be named after their relatives, for their objection is that John is not a name that has been used before in her family and so she should not introduce it now as a new name. They therefore decide to consult Zacharias: what name will he give the child? They regard him as having more authority than his wife in this matter. They made signs to Zacharias, which suggests that he was deaf as well as dumb, otherwise he could have heard their plain question. Maybe this was due to his age. Zacharias calls for a writing tablet, using signs to do so. To their surprise he confirms that the child’s name is John. He has already been named by Gabriel. Though Zacharias might be flattered by the choice of his own name for the child, he is not going to go against the Lord. His period of discipline for nine months has brought him to a better state of mind, and he is now fully in submission to the Lord’s will. He no doubt regretted his unbelief in response ot Gabriel’s words, and he saw that this period of chastisement was necessary for his sanctification.Why did they marvel? Not because Zacharaias had chosen a name not used before in the family – the marvelling is stronger than that. They marvel because he has chosen exactly the same name as Elisabeth. If they judged that he had had the opportunity to communicate with her, then there would be little ground for such marvelling. It seems therefore that Zacharias would not have been able to communicate to her all that Gabriel had said, and therefore that she had received her own private revelation of the child’s name.