Study Desk

On the eighth day, they came to do the child's b'rit-milah. They were about to name him Z'kharyah, after his father,

when his mother spoke up and said, "No, he is to be called Yochanan."

and they made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called.

He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone's surprise he wrote, "His name is Yochanan."

At that moment, his power of speech returned, and his first words were a b'rakhah to God.

His father Z'kharyah was filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and spoke this prophecy:

" Praised be Adonai , the God of Isra'el , because he has visited and made a ransom to liberate his people

by raising up for us a mighty Deliverer who is a descendant of his servant David.

"This has happened so that he might show the mercy promised to our fathers — that he would remember his holy covenant,

You, child, will be called a prophet of Ha‘Elyon; you will go before the Lord to prepare his way

by spreading the knowledge among his people that deliverance comes by having sins forgiven

Everyone went to be registered, each to his own town.

On the eighth day, when it was time for his b'rit-milah, he was given the name Yeshua, which is what the angel had called him before his conception.

Shim‘on took him in his arms, made a b'rakhah to God, and said,

But after the festival was over, when his parents returned, Yeshua remained in Yerushalayim. They didn't realize this;

and everyone who heard him was astonished at his insight and his responses.

When his parents saw him, they were shocked; and his mother said to him, "Son! Why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been terribly worried looking for you!"

So he went with them to Natzeret and was obedient to them. But his mother stored up all these things in her heart.

In the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius' rule; when Pontius Pilate was governor of Y'hudah, Herod ruler of the Galil, his brother Philip ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,

so Yochanan answered them all, "I am immersing you in water, but he who is coming is more powerful than I — I'm not worthy to untie his sandals! He will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh and in fire.