GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 1:58-63
58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they rejoiced with her.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were about to name him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother said, “No! He will be called John.”
61 They said to her, “None of your relatives are called by that name.”
62 They made signs to his father, to learn what he would name the child. 63 So he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John.” They were all amazed by this.
The joy of the neighbors and relatives shows their love and compassion for Zechariah and Elizabeth. There was no mocking because of her age as Hagar had mocked Sarah (Gen. 21:9), but the people rejoiced, and if they laughed, they laughed with Elizabeth and not at her. A week after the baby was born (the eighth day, counting the day of his birth as the first day), they assembled to join in the naming. The consensus of the group was to name the baby after his father—a traditional choice in their village. But both Elizabeth and Zechariah had another idea. Zechariah even asked for a pinakidion.
The pinakidion (πινακίδιον) is the diminutive of the more common pinax or pinakion, a wooden writing tablet that was whitewashed. There are many examples of a pinax being painted and then hung as art in a home, but it’s most common use was as a writing tablet. A student would take notes on it, and this was easily rubbed out for re-use. After it was darkened into an unusable state it would simply be whitewashed again. The form of the word used here by Luke became popular with medical students after the famous Hippocrates (the one for whom the doctors’ Hippocratic Oath is named) said that he made medical observations on his “small tablet” (pinakidion). Galen the physician also made references to his pinakidion. Therefore, although this is a strange place to find such a thing, this seems to be a word that reflects Luke’s medical background since the form of the word is almost unknown except among doctors.
Both parents understood that the baby was to be named John. The neighbors and relations thought he should be named after his father (or some other relative) according to custom (cp. Mary’s sons James and Joseph, after their grandfather and father, Matthew 1:16 and Mark 6:3). But Elizabeth and her husband had been communicating all throughout Zechariah’s silence. This wasn’t the first time he asked for the writing tablet. They knew his name was to be John. There’s no reason to ask why. It’s what the Lord wanted. “John” (Yohanan) means “the Lord is gracious.” Does that fit with John’s preaching of repentance? Absolutely. God’s grace is for all who repent and trust in his merciful love through Christ. Remember God’s grace, his love and faithfulness, always. “Bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Proverbs 3:3).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota