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==Life and Ministry==
==Life and Ministry==
Zacharias had been granted the privilege of offering incense in the sanctuary, and it was as he stood before the altar that the angel [[Gabriel]] appeared and announced to him that he would have a son, who was to be called John. This son, the angel told him, would be a lifetime [[nazirite]] and "<small>16</small>...many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God <small>17</small> And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:16-17).
Zacharias had been granted the privilege of offering incense in the sanctuary, and it was as he stood before the altar that the angel [[Gabriel]] appeared and announced to him that he would have a son, who was to be called John. This son, the angel told him, would be a lifetime [[nazirite]] and "<small>16</small>...many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God <small>17</small> And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" ([[Luke]] 1:16-17).
When Zacharias expressed doubts, due to his and his wife's advanced age, the angel struck him dumb "until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season" (Luke 1:20). When Zacharias came out of the temple and was unable to speak with the people waiting outside, they realized he had seen a vision; speechless, he communicated afterwards with signs. When his period of temple service was complete, he returned home, and soon after Elisabeth conceived.
When Zacharias expressed doubts, due to his and his wife's advanced age, the angel struck him dumb "until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season" (Luke 1:20). When Zacharias came out of the temple and was unable to speak with the people waiting outside, they realized he had seen a vision; speechless, he communicated afterwards with signs. When his period of temple service was complete, he returned home, and soon after Elisabeth conceived.
When Elisabeth was six months pregnant she was visited by her relative [[Mary]], who was then pregnant with the Holy Spirit; as soon as she heard her relative's greeting, Elisabeth's unborn child leaped in her womb, and she aknowledged the child to be born to Mary as her "Lord".
On the eighth day after John's birth, at his circumcision, neighbours and relatives wanted to name the child after his father, but Elisabeth refused, and Zacharias, who could still not speak, wrote down that he was to be named John. As soon as he had done this, as Gabriel had said, his power of speech returned.
According to Luke, John began his ministry in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar;<ref>Tiberius began his rule as Roman emperor on August 19, 14 AD; his fifteenth year would run from August 19, 28 AD to August 18, 29 AD. Since Jesus Christ (also about aged thirty) presented Himself for baptism in the autumn, John at six months older must have commenced his ministry in the spring of 29 AD.</ref> John would then be about thirty years old. Though there is no record that John engaged in priestly service at the temple, this would have been the age for priests to commence full duties; his status as a lifetime nazirite would have probably overridden this.
John the Baptist's role, as ordained by God, was to be the precursor to the [[Messiah]]<blockquote>''And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.''<ref>[Luke 1:17]</ref><ref>[Luke 1:75]</ref> </blockquote>
John the Baptist's role, as ordained by God, was to be the precursor to the [[Messiah]]<blockquote>''And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.''<ref>[Luke 1:17]</ref><ref>[Luke 1:75]</ref> </blockquote>