Luke 1:18 (DBY)

Passage

And Zacharias said to the angel, How shall I know this, for *I* am an old man, and my wife advanced in years?

Nearby Context

Luke 1:16 And many of the sons of Israel shall he turn to [the] Lord their God.

Luke 1:17 And *he* shall go before him in [the] spirit and power of Elias, to turn hearts of fathers to children, and disobedient ones to [the] thoughts of just [men], to make ready for [the] Lord a prepared people.

Luke 1:18 And Zacharias said to the angel, How shall I know this, for *I* am an old man, and my wife advanced in years?

Luke 1:19 And the angel answering, said to him, *I* am Gabriel, who stand before God, and I have been sent to speak to thee, and to bring these glad tidings to thee;

Luke 1:20 and behold, thou shalt be silent and not able to speak, till the day in which these things shall take place, because thou hast not believed my words, the which shall be fulfilled in their time.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "zacharias", "said", "angel", "shall", "wife", "advanced", and "years". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "zacharias" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 17's "And he shall go before him in..." into verse 19's "And the angel answering said to him...", so "zacharias" and "said" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "zacharias" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.