Zacharias 

The setting was late in the month of June, 8 BCE, at noontime in the city of Judah, four miles from Jerusalem. Zacharias was leading religious services before the altar in Jerusalem, praying for the coming of a deliverer, when a celestial messenger, Gabriel, appeared to his wife.

Gabriel told Elizabeth: "While your husband, Zacharias, stands before the altar in Jerusalem, and while the assembled people pray for the coming of a deliverer, I, Gabriel, have come to announce that you will shortly bear a son who shall be the forerunner of this divine teacher, and you shall call your son John. He will grow up dedicated to the Lord your God, and when he has come to full years, he will gladden your heart because he will turn many souls to God, and he will also proclaim the coming of the soul-healer of your people and the spirit-liberator of all mankind. Your kinswoman Mary shall be the mother of this child of promise, and I will also appear to her."

Elizabeth was frightened by this experience and kept the information from Zacharias for five months. She also kept it a secret from everyone else until she was visited by Mary, soon to be the mother of Jesus, in February of the following year, 7 BCE.

When Elizabeth finally told Zacharias about Gabriel’s visit, he received the news with great skepticism, doubting the entire experience for weeks until he could no longer question that Elizabeth was indeed pregnant. He was perplexed, never doubting Elizabeth’s integrity, accepting that he was to be a father of their child, yet not fully convinced that he would be a father to a child of destiny.

About six weeks before the birth of John, Zacharias had an impressive dream that convinced him that he and Elizabeth were about to become the parents of a son of destiny who was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah that he himself had been praying for on the day of Gabriel’s appearance to Elizabeth.

A son was born to Elizabeth and Zacharias in the city of Judah, March 25, 7 BCE. After his circumcision eight days later, the child was formally named John. Zacharias had already sent a messenger to Nazareth carrying a message from Elizabeth to Mary regarding these events.

From the beginning, Zacharias and Elizabeth raised John to impress him with the idea that he was to grow up to be a spiritual leader and religious teacher. John readily absorbed these promptings, and even as a child, he frequently attended Zacharias’s services at the temple in Jerusalem. He was impressed by the significance of all that he witnessed.

After an illness of several months, Zacharias died in July, 12 CE, when John was just eighteen years old.