The name of the father of John the Baptist that is transliterated as “Zechariah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “beard (the sign for a patriarch)” + “mute.” (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )
The following is a stained glass window depicting Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth. It was created by Ateliers Maréchal de Metz between 1848 and 1860 for the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Luxembourg. Zechariah is shown on the right:
Photo by Marcin Szala, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
Apali: “God’s one with talk from the head” (“basically God’s messenger since head refers to any leader’s talk”) (source: Martha Wade)
Michoacán Nahuatl: “clean helper of God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Noongar: Hdjin-djin-kwabba or “spirit good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Wè Northern (Wɛɛ): Kea ‘a “sooa or “the Lord’s soldier” (also: “God’s soldier” or “his soldier”) (source: Drew Maust)
Iwaidja: “a man sent with a message” (Sam Freney explains the genesis of this term [in this article ): “For example, in Darwin last year, as we were working on a new translation of Luke 2:6–12 in Iwaidja, a Northern Territory language, the translators had written ‘angel’ as ‘a man with eagle wings’. Even before getting to the question of whether this was an accurate term (or one that imported some other information in), the word for ‘eagle’ started getting discussed. One of the translators had her teenage granddaughter with her, and this word didn’t mean anything to her at all. She’d never heard of it, as it was an archaic term that younger people didn’t use anymore. They ended up changing the translation of ‘angel’ to something like ‘a man sent with a message’, which is both more accurate and clear.”)
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used as in mi-tsukai (御使い) or “messenger (of God).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Bender / Belt (2025, p. 2f.) report about the translation of “angel” in Cherokee: “In John, the concept of angel is translated using a descriptive neologism rather than a semantic extension, suggesting the lack of a ready parallel. The plural is dmikahnawadidohi, ‘the law-givers’ or ‘those who go around looking after the medicine.’ Cherokee speakers argue that the Cherokee word for ‘law,’ dikahnawadvsdi, expresses the intent to maintain social, physical, and spiritual health and has at its core the word for ‘medicine,’ mwoli, which encompasses all aspects of social and spiritual well-being, including balance and order (Altman and Belt 2009), much more than the English word. Thus, the Cherokee word for ‘angel’ represents a new perspective on this category of spiritual beings named in the Bible. It does not derive from the concept of messenger present in both its Greek (angelos) and Hebrew (malak) antecedents perhaps because the Cherokee word for ‘messenger,’ atsinvsidasdi, is widely used to translate the foreign lexeme ‘servant.'”
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 1:18:
Noongar: “Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How will I know when your talking will come true? I am an old man and my wife is also an old woman.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “Zakharia said saying to the angel: ‘But, how do I know the truth of that which you (sing.) said? Because I am already old, and my wife is also old.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Jakariya said to the angel, ‘How shall I be sure of it? I am old and my wife is also old?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Zechariah answered. He said, ‘What is th sign so that I might know that truly will come to pass these things you have been talking about? Because I and my wife, we are now very old.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then Zekarias said to the angel, ‘Yes, but how will I know that these-things will be fulfilled? Because here I am already an old-man and my wife is an old-lady.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Zacarias spoke questioning the angel. He said, ‘What is the proof of that since we married-couple are now bent with old-age?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
kata ti gnōsomai touto lit. ‘in accordance with what,’ i.e. ‘by what sign shall I know this?.’
ginōskō ‘to come to know,’ ‘to know.’ Here it means ‘to be sure of,’ cf. New English Bible, Phillips, Bible de Jérusalem.
egō gar eimi presbutēs ‘for I am an old man.’ The connexion with the preceding clause is as follows: Zechariah requested a sign because he could not believe what the angel had told him, and he could not believe it because he and his wife were old.
presbutēs † ‘old man,’ substantive.
probebēkuia en tais hēmerais autēs ‘advanced in her days,’ cf. on v. 7.
Translation:
Said, often better, ‘asked,’ because the verb introduces a question. A similar shift must often be considered before direct questions, e.g. in 1.34; 7.19 (“sent saying”, i.e. ‘sent to ask him’); 7.40 (“answering, said”, i.e. ‘in his turn asked’); and, though less common, also before rhetorical questions, or exclamations having the form of a question, such as 2.48; 4.22, 36, etc.
How shall I know this?, or, ‘how (or, by what means, or, by what sign) shall I know this is true,’ ‘how (etc.) can I be sure of this (or, that this will happen),’ ‘how shall the certainty of this be’ (Tboli), ‘relying on what can I know this thing’ (Chinese).
Advanced in years, see on v. 7. If there ‘old/aged’ has been used, as being the closest natural equivalent, this rendering will sound repetitive in the present verse. Tagalog solves the problem by saying, ‘I am very old already, and like that also is my wife.’
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.
“How can I be sure of this?”: The Greek question that the Berean Standard Bible translates as How can I be sure of this? is literally, “By what will I know this?” Zechariah wanted the angel to say or do something to prove that what he said was true. The question showed that Zechariah did not really believe the angel’s promise that he would have a son (1:13). Some other ways to ask this question are:
How can I know that this is true? -or-
What will prove to me that this ⌊will really happen⌋? -or-
What proof is there for this?
1:18b
This part of the verse gives Zechariah’s reasons for doubting what the angel said. The Greek text introduces these reasons with a conjunction. Introduce them in a way that is natural in your language. In some languages, a conjunction may not be needed.
I am an old man: The clause I am an old man implies that Zechariah was past the age by which men usually father a child.
and my wife is well along in years: The phrase well along in years is an idiom that means “old.” Zechariah was implying that his wife was too old to give birth to a child. Some versions make this explicit. For example:
my wife is beyond her childbearing years (God’s Word)
Use an acceptable way in your culture for a man to say this.
General Comment on 1:18a–b
In some languages, it may be more natural to reverse the order of 1:18a and 1:18b. For example:
18bI am an old man, and my wife is well along in years. 18a⌊So⌋ how can I be sure of this?
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