John, the Talking Baby of Luke 1:64

Abstract

The aim of this article is to review the age-old assumption of who may be the object of the miraculous speech in Lk 1:64, without eliminating the traditional interpretation of Zachary as both loosing and receiving back his speech in conjunction with the events surrounding the birth of John. The thesis of the article is that the orator of Lk 1:64 is most probably the newborn baby John. The argument is a cumulative one and builds upon observations of grammatical, contextual and genre-specific nature. The last point is underscored by incorporating 2 (Slavonic) Enoch into the discussion.

Keywords

• birth narrative miracles
• john the baptist
• talking babies
• narrative accounts
• zachary
• melchisedech
• miracles
• book of enoch
• gospel of luke