gospel · -6 · Jerusalem
There were far more priests than turns, so the lot to burn incense in the sanctuary fell to a man perhaps once in a lifetime, and for Zechariah it fell that day. Gabriel stood at the right side of the altar and told him his barren wife would bear a son who would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah. He asked how he could be sure — I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years — and was struck silent until it happened. The comparison Luke invites is uncomfortable and deliberate: Mary asks a question of almost the same shape a few verses later and is answered rather than punished. What she is told, and what dates half the infancy narrative, is that Elizabeth is in her sixth month.
To burn incense in the temple, on the one day of his life the lot fell to him.
A priest struck dumb for nine months, and the pregnancy the whole infancy narrative is dated from.