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NASB | Luke 1:5 ¶ In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 1:5 ¶ In the days of Herod [the Great], king of Judea, there was a certain priest whose name was Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron [the first high priest of Israel], and her name was Elizabeth. |
Bible Question:
What were John the Baptist's legal Jewish credentials to baptize the Savior? We know that he was the son of the High Priest Zacharias. Shouldn't John have been ministering as High Priest, in the Holy Place of the temple, as opposed to baptizing the Savior in the wilderness? John the Baptist apparently trashed his fine religious robes to wear a poor man's garb of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. Shouldn't Jesus have been baptized by John at the temple? |
Bible Answer: Zacharias was not a high priest. He was, however, a priest of the lineage of Levi. David had divided the priests into twenty-four courses, of which only four returned from captivity. To my knowledge, Jewish baptisms were never carried out in the temple. Jewish baptism was one of the steps that a proselyte took when becoming a Jew. What John was stating to all of Israel was that they had abandoned the covenant. They needed to come to the Lord as proselyte did. This is why it was so offensive to the Pharisees, although they participated in order to keep up their appearance of piety. Jesus was the one who insisted on being baptized by a reluctant John. If this all suited Christ, I should think that we are hard pressed to denigrate it. |