Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 1:15
15. Neither wine nor strong drink This is in accordance with the vow of the Nazarite, Numbers 6:3-4. Similar announcements were made concerning Samson, Judges 13:4-5, and Samuel, 1 Samuel 1:11. The Nazarite thus consecrates himself to an over self-severity, in order to raise the people to the idea of self-control and temperance. They were eminent in abstinence, in order by example to raise the popular standard of mastery over bodily appetites. They abstained from what was innocent, either... read more
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 1:13
13. Thy prayer is heard The angel attests his reality as a true supernatural being by showing that he knew what Zacharias’s prayer had long been, as well as by the splendour of his person. His prayer had, doubtless, once been for a posterity that his name might not die in Israel. But that hope declining as his age advanced, his later desire had been for the “consolation of Israel.” And at the present moment the prayers of Israel are ascending “for the people of God,” as Grotius says; “and,... read more