7. The Birth and Circumcision of the Forerunner. Lk. 1:57–80

Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbours and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and would have named him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said: No; he shall be called John. And they said to her: There is no one in your kindred who is called by this name.

And they asked his father by signs what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote: His name is John. And they all marvelled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbours; and all these things were talked about throughout the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying: What then will this child become? And the hand of the Lord was with him.

And Zechariah, his father, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets of old, that He would save us from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give to His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, by which the Sunrise from on high shall visit us, to give light to those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel.