The Prophet Zacharias and Righteous Elisabeth, Parents of John the Baptist (I)

The holy Prophet Zacharias and Righteous Elisabeth, the parents of John, the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, were of the line of Aaron: Saint Zacharias, the son of Barachias, served as a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. The righteous couple were “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:6), but they suffered from childlessness, which at that time was considered a great punishment from the Lord. Once, during the service in the temple, an angel told Saint Zacharias that Elisabeth, who had already reached old age, would bear him a son, who would be “great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:15) and would “go before him in the spirit and power of Elias” (Luke 1:17). Zacharias doubted that this prophecy could be fulfilled, and for his little faith he was punished with dumbness. When Righteous Elisabeth bore a son, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit she named him John, although no one in their family had borne this name. When they asked the newborn’s father, he asked for a writing tablet and wrote the same name on it. After this “his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God” (Luke 1:64). Filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, he prophesied of his son as the Forerunner of the Lord.

When the lawless Herod learned from the Magi of the birth of the Messiah, he decided to slaughter all the children in Bethlehem and its surroundings “from two years old and under” (Matt. 2:16). Herod knew well of the wondrous birth of the Prophet John and wished to kill him too. Righteous Elisabeth fled with the infant into the mountains. The murderers searched for them everywhere. When Elisabeth noticed the pursuers, she besought the Lord with tears to help her. Suddenly the mountain opened and sheltered the mother and child. In that ill-fated hour Zacharias did not leave the temple in Jerusalem. The soldiers sent by Herod tried for a long time in vain to learn from him where John was, after which by Herod’s order he was slain “between the temple and the altar” (Matt. 23:35). Righteous Elisabeth departed this world forty days after her husband’s repose, while Saint John, under the Lord’s protection, lived in the desert until the time came for his appearance before the Hebrew people.