Exegesis:

eipen de pros auton ho aggelos ‘but the angel said to him.’ de serves here to bring out the contrast between this clause and the preceding. Luke prefers pros auton ‘to him’ to the simple dative autō after verbs meaning ‘to say’ but this has no bearing upon the meaning.

mē phobou ‘do not fear (any longer)’; as in 1.30; 2.10; Mt. 28.10; Mk. 6.50; Rev. 1.17, he whose appearance caused people to fear reassures them so that they will stop fearing. The imperative of the present tense with the negation mē indicates that an existing condition should come to an end.

phobeomai ‘to fear,’ ‘to be afraid,’ ‘to have respect for.’

dioti eisēkousthē hē deēsis sou ‘because your prayer has been heard.’

dioti ‘because,’ here equivalent to causal hoti. The subordination of the clause introduced by dioti or hoti is often rather loose and the conjunction should be rendered ‘for’ (cf. Revised Standard Version). Several translators do not translate it at all, taking the causal force to be implied in the sentence as a whole (cf. e.g. Translator’s New Testament, New English Bible, Phillips). This is justified because the relationship between the two clauses is not directly causal: Zechariah’s prayer has been heard and the angel is there to tell him so; this explains his presence in the temple and implies that Zechariah has nothing to be afraid of.

eisakouō ‘to hear.’ When referring to a prayer being heard it implies that the request is, or, will be granted.

deēsis ‘prayer,’ ‘supplication,’ more specific than proseuchē. As to what Zechariah had been praying for, opinions of commentators vary considerably: (1) for the redemption of Israel and the coming of the Messiah (Plummer, Lagrange, Grundmann who compares Dan. 9.20), because it would not be fitting to pray for the fulfilment of private wishes when in actual priestly service; (2) for a son (Zahn, Weiss, Klostermann, Manson, Creed). There is no need to suppose that the reference is to the prayer he offered when in actual priestly service. It may well be that both interpretations supplement each other: Zechariah had prayed for a son in private and now he offered a prayer for the redemption of Israel. The angel tells him that his prayers have been heard and that he will have a son. But this son will have the task of preparing Israel for the coming redeemer. There is, therefore, no reason to press the question, but if a choice between the alternatives is necessary, (2) is preferable.

kai hē gunē sou … gennēsei huion soi ‘and your wife will bear you a son.’ kai is used here in an explicative sense, because the clause it introduces is best understood as explaining the preceding one, see above. soi is dative of advantage. Several translations express the relationship between these clauses by placing a colon (New English Bible) or semicolon (Phillips) after ‘heard’ without translating kai.

gennaō ‘to beget’ (1.35), ‘to bear’ (here).

kai kaleseis to onoma autou Iōannēn ‘and you shall call his name John.’ The future tense is not a continuation of the preceding clause referring to a future event but has the force of an imperative as often in Hebrew.

kaleō ‘to call’ in several meanings. The normal Greek construction with kaleō when meaning ‘to name’ is with both the noun referring to the person to be named and the name in the accusative, cf. 1.59 ekaloun auto … Zacharian ‘they were going to name him Zechariah.’ Here and in 1.31, under the influence of Old Testament usage the noun referring to the person to be named is replaced by to onoma autou ‘his name,’ cf. Gen. 17.19; 1 Sam. 1.20; Hosea 1.9 in the Septuagint.

Iōannēs Greek transliteration in abbreviated form of the Hebrew name Iehochanan, ‘Yahweh is gracious.’

Translation:

Said to him. Since Javanese and Balinese use an honorific verb, the roles of the participants are sufficiently clear, so that it becomes superfluous, and unidiomatic, to add ‘to him.’

Be afraid, see on “fear” in v. 12.

Your prayer is heard. In many languages ‘to hear a prayer, or supplication’ does not imply its being granted, which concept has to be expressed by such renderings as, ‘allowed’ (Bahasa Indonesia), ‘accepted’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘received favourable hearing’ (Lü Zhenzhong); cf. also, ‘God has accepted/granted the things you have asked-for’ (Kituba).

Your wife Elizabeth. The appositional construction has explicative meaning here (not distinctive meaning: ‘that one of your wives called Elizabeth’). To prevent its being taken in the latter meaning it may be better to make ‘your wife’ appositional to ‘Elizabeth.’ Some languages (e.g. Shipibo-Conibo, Batak Toba, Kituba) have to omit the proper name, because according to receptor language usage the mentioning of names is avoided generally, or a wife’s name is not used when one speaks to her husband, or strangers should not know, or mention, the name of a person’s wife, or for a combination of these reasons.

Will bear you a son. The dative of advantage you sounds unduly redundant in several languages; hence it is omitted e.g. in Hindi, Tboli, Thai, Sundanese. Where ‘child/son’ is obligatorily possessed it may be possible to say, ‘give birth to your child/son.’ The expression to bear a son is variously rendered, e.g. ‘to get a child’ (Sinhala, where the more specific term would sound indecent), ‘to give-birth-to a male/a boy’ (Tboli, Navajo), ‘to have-as-child a male (child)’ (Tae’), ‘to cause-to-come-forth a male child’ (Javanese). In some languages (such as Shipibo-Conibo, which uses ‘to child’) it is better idiom not to specify the child’s sex; this is acceptable, if the name in the next clause is a sufficient indicator of male sex. Son is used in the sense of offspring in the first degree (here and passim), or offspring in further degrees (see on 1.16); or in a figurative sense (10.6; 11.19; 16.8; 20.34 and 36, second occurrence).

You shall call his name may have to be rendered by an optative verbal form, or equivalent phrase, because a wish often can express a kindly worded command, e.g. in Toraja-Sa’dan, Hindi. Call his name, or, ‘name him,’ ‘call him,’ ‘give him the name,’ ‘keep his name’ (Hindi), ‘make his name’ (Batak Toba), ‘set-up/establish (the) name (of) that son’ (Thai), ‘make that baby’s name … for him’ (Apache).

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.