File:Nativity of Saint John the Baptist based on Jacopo Pontormo 031.jpg

Summary
Luke 1:57-1:79

1:57. Now when Elizabeth's time to give birth came, she bore a son,

1:58. and her neighbors and kinfolk heard that the Lord had shown His great mercy towards her, and they rejoiced with her.

1:59. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him by his father's name Zechariah.

'''1:60. His mother said, “Not so. He shall be called John.”'''

1:61. They said to her, “There is none among your kindred that is called by this name.”

1:62. They made signs to his father about how he would have the child named.

1:63. He demanded a writing tablet, then wrote, “John is his name,” and they all wondered.

1:64. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.

1:65. Fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these things were publicized abroad over all the hill country of Judea.

'''1:66. All that had heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What a one, do you think, shall this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.”'''

1:67. Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied, saying,

1:68. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel because He has visited and wrought the redemption of His people,

1:69. “and has raised up a horn of salvation to us, in the house of David His servant,

Horn of salvation. . .That is, a powerful salvation, as Dr. Witham translates it, or also as a mighty Savior. For in the Scripture, a horn is generally understood as strength and power, just as it is with the animal equipped with it.

1:70. “as he spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who are from the beginning.

1:71. “Salvation from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us;

1:72. “to show mercy towards our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,

1:73. “the oath, which He swore to Abraham our father, that He would grant to us,

1:74. “that being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve Him without fear

1:75. “in holiness and justice before Him all our days.

1:76. “You, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest, for you shall go before the Lord to prepare His ways,

1:77. “to give knowledge of salvation to His people for the remission of their sins,

1:78. “through the tender mercy of our God, in which the Rising Sun from on high has visited us;

1:79. “to enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; to direct our feet into the way of peace.”

Artist: Jacopo Pontormo (1494–1557) Title: Deutsch: Geburt Johannes des Täufers, Tondo Date: 1526 Medium: Oil on wood Dimensions: Deutsch: Durchmesser 54 cm Current location: Deutsch: Galleria degli Uffizi Deutsch: Florenz Notes: Deutsch: Toskanische Schule Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project The work of art depicted in this image was first published in 1526 and has since been enhanced for teaching purposes. The reproduction, which differs from the original is, therefor, in the public domain worldwide.