Luke 1:80

Luke 1:80 . And the child grew, &c. — The years of John’s infancy expiring, he grew daily in wisdom and stature; and was in the deserts, &c. — During the whole course of his private life, he continued in the deserts, or hill- country of Judea, Luke 1:39 , till his ministry commenced, about the thirtieth year of his age. It is probable that the deserts here mentioned were those of Ziph and Maon, where Saul pursued David. Though there were several country towns and villages in these deserts, yet, as they were but thinly inhabited, they were in the Jewish idiom called deserts. Now it was wisely ordered, to prevent a personal acquaintance between Jesus and John, that the latter should continue in one of these deserts, at the distance of probably one hundred miles from Nazareth, till the time of his entering upon his ministry. There, in a state of solitude and retirement from the world, he lived an austere and mortified life, that his character might be suited to his office — the preaching of repentance, self-denial, and deadness to the world and sin.

Luke 1:80 . A summary account (comp. Jdg 13:24 ) of the further development of John. More particular accounts were perhaps altogether wanting, but were not essential to the matter here. ηὔξανε ] the bodily growing up, and, connected therewith: ἐκρατ . πνεύμ ., the mental gaining of strength that took place εἰς τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπ . ( Ephesians 3:16 ). Comp. the description of the development of Jesus, Luke 2:40 ; Luke 2:52 . ψυχῇ is not mentioned, for the πνεῦμα is the ἡγεμονικόν , in whose vigour and strength the ψυχή shares. Comp. Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 217. ἦν ἐν τοῖς ἐρήμοις ] in the well-known desert regions. It is the desert of Judah ἐξοχήν that is meant (see on Matthew 3:1 ). In that desert dwelt also the Essenes (Plin. N. H. v. 17). How far their principles and askesis , which at least could not have remained unknown to John, may have indirectly exercised an influence on his peculiar character, cannot be determined; a true Essene this greatest and last phenomenon of Israelitish prophecy certainly was not; he belonged, like some God-sent prophet higher than all partisan attitudes in the people, to the whole nation. ἀναδείξεως αὐτοῦ πρὸς τ . Ἰσρ .] His being publicly made known to Israel , when he was announced to the Israelites as the forerunner of the Messiah. This was done on the command of God by John himself. See Luke 3:2-6 . ἀνάδειξις is the making known ( renuntiatio ) of official nomination; Polyb. xv. 26. 4; Plut. Mark 8 ; see Wetstein. Comp. Luke 10:1 .

Luke 1:80 . Conclusion : being a summary statement on John’s history from childhood to manhood.— πνεύματι : the growing strength of John’s spirit, the development of a remarkable moral individuality, the main point in the view of the evangelist.— ἐν ταῖς ἐρήμοις , in the desert places: not far to go from his home to find them; visits to them frequent in early boyhood; constant abode when youth had passed into manhood; love of solitude grown into a passion. Meet foster-mother for one who is to be the censor of his time. Essenes not far off, but no indication of contact, either outwardly or inwardly, with them.

Luke 1:80 . Ηὔξανε , grew ) in body.— ἐν ταῖς ἐρήμοις , in the deserts ) Here the more inward and remote parts of the desert are denoted; but in Matthew 3:1 [“the wilderness of Judea,” where John began his preaching]: it is the exterior desert that is meant. He remained exempt from contact with [lit. rubbing with ] life in its ordinary and polluted forms. The Forerunner of Christ, and Christ Himself, had experience themselves, and gave a specimen to others, of both kinds of life; and indeed, first, of a solitary mode of life, afterwards also of a public one.— ἓως , even up to ) Ch. Luke 3:2-3 .

(80) And the child grew. —We have no materials for filling up this brief outline of the thirty years that followed in the Baptist’s life. The usual Jewish education, the observance of the Nazarite vow, the death of his parents while he was comparatively young, an early retirement from the world to the deserts that surrounded the western shores of the Dead Sea, study and meditation given to the Law and the Prophets, the steadfast waiting for the consolation of Israel, possible intercourse with the Essenes who lived in that region, or with hermit-teachers, like Banus, the master of Josephus ( Life, c. 1), whose form of life was after the same fashion as his own: this we may surmise as probable, but we cannot say more. Whatever may have been the surroundings of his life, he entered upon his work in a spirit which was intensely personal and original.

Luke ZACHARIAS’S HYMNLuke 1:67 - Luke 1:80 . Zacharias was dumb when he disbelieved. His lips were opened when he believed. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets, [Footnote: In the strictest sense, John the Baptist was a prophet of the Old dispensation, even though he came to usher in the New. {See Matthew 11:9 - Matthew 11:11 .} In the same sense, Zacharias was the last prophet of the Old dispensation, before the coming of his son to link the Old with the New.] and as standing nearest to the Messiah, his song takes up the echoes of all the past, and melts them into a new outpouring of exultant hope. The strain is more impassioned than Mary’s, and throbs with triumph over ‘our enemies,’ but rises above the mere patriotic glow into a more spiritual region. The complete subordination of the personal element is very remarkable, as shown by the slight and almost parenthetical reference to John. The father is forgotten in the devout Israelite. We may take the song as divided into three portions: the first { Luke 1:68 - Luke 1:75 } celebrating the coming of Messiah, with special reference to its effect in freeing Israel from its foes; the second { Luke 1:76 - Luke 1:77 }, the highly dramatic address to his unconscious ‘child’; the third { Luke 1:78 - Luke 1:79 } returns to the absorbing thought of the Messiah, but now touches on higher aspects of His coming as the Light to all who sit in darkness. I.

If we remember that four hundred dreary years, for the most part of which Israel had been groaning under a foreign yoke, had passed since the last of the prophets, and that during all that time devout eyes had looked wearily for the promised Messiah, we shall be able to form some faint conception of the surprise and rapture which filled Zacharias’s spirit, and leaps in his hymn at the thought that now, at last, the hour had struck, and that the child would soon be born who was to fulfil the divine promises and satisfy fainting hopes. No wonder that its first words are a burst of blessing of ‘the God of Israel.’ The best expression of joy, when long-cherished desires are at last on the eve of accomplishment, is thanks to God. How short the time of waiting seems when it is past, and how needless the impatience which marred the waiting! Zacharias speaks of the fact as already realised. He must have known that the Incarnation was accomplished; for we can scarcely suppose that the emphatic tenses ‘hath visited, hath redeemed, hath raised’ are prophetic, and merely imply the certainty of a future event. He must have known, too, Mary’s royal descent; for he speaks of ‘the house of David.’ ‘A horn’ of salvation is an emblem taken from animals, and implies strength. Here it recalls several prophecies, and as a designation of the Messiah, shadows forth His conquering might, all to be used for deliverance to His people.