Bible Study Luke 1:24-25

[clark thompson]

Luke 1:24-25
King James Version (KJV)
24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
Luke 1:24-25
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
24 After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she [a]kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, 25 “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.”

New American Standard Bible (NASB)
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These are my thoughts, please share yours.

24 She became pregnant as the angel had told her husband. She was herself surprised about being pregnant being so old her husband would have tried to tell her the story but being able to speak would have made this hard, the thing she knew was she was pregnant at an old age. She may have hid because of that fact that people would talk.

25 She knew the lord has blessed her by having her get pregnant. Having children were a part of a women’s responsibility. If she did not have a child or more important an heir her husband could divorce her or marry another woman as well who could bare a child. Samuel’s mother wanted to die because she had no child but went to God with her problem and he answered her prayer after she made a vow and then after she lived up to the vow she had other children. Elizabeth would only have John to our knowledge.

 

[agua.]

24. Elizabeth was careful not to do anything which may cause harm to the baby during the early stages of pregnancy. imo Elderly mums must be very careful. imo.

25. It was considered something of a curse to be childless and a blessing from Yahweh to have a child.

Psa 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

 

[AirDancer]

24. Like @agua stated, it was more likely that Elizabeth was just being very careful during the early months of her pregnancy. The majority of miscarriages occur within the first 4 months of a pregnancy.

25. Women have always had the sole responsibility to provide an heir. If an heir was not presented, it was automatically the woman's fault. It's only been in recent decades that it's become a known fact that a childless marriage could be the result of the man's situation as opposed to the woman's. Still, in the days of Elizabeth, a childless marriage was the woman's fault, and she was the one who suffered the consequences & shame.

 

[About the Son of God]

I think she's showing humility and prudence by not putting God to the test.
In Hebrew society, a woman who has a son has quite a bit of status, so it would have been tempting to show off.

However, I'm not sure of where the rules were spelled out -- but a child is not accounted as offspring for the purpose of genealogies if it does not make it past a certain number of months gestation;

I don't recall exactly where I read about it, whether in the Babylonian and Jerusalem targums or in Dueteronomy -- but it would be a greater shame for Elizabeth if she had boasted or allowed people to know earlier that she was pregnant, and then miscarried. For that's considered punishment from God. There was nothing mentioned in the promise as to "when" the child would be conceived that would be named John... she might have realized that she could have miscarried one child first, and then succeeded in having John. ( God's promise would not be lost either way. )

Recall also that the law of Moses predicted the messiah by Moses, and also recall that the promise had a history even before Moses, for Sarah was forced to wait quite some time before the promise was fulfilled to her. By virtue of the promise, Sarah herself could not have died... but it is possible that she had many failed pregnancies before Isaac that no one mentioned.

Consider: It's not uncommon for women to have teratomas, even without sexual intercourse involved, and for the womb to produce results such as clumps of hair, or even occasionally arms. Today we understand these to be mechanisms of cancer -- but in those times, they had no understanding of what teratomas were -- however they saw them as punishment from God.

Note carefully: There was nothing said to Zechariah about when the child would actually be conceived -- and he was already mute for overlooking that God has already opened "dead" wombs in the past.

Elizabeth waited until solidly into the time of quickening, when a baby is felt to move and kick so that she could also avoid gossip that would naturally arise if she was found bulging, but without evidence that it was a child.