Genesis 17:17-19

17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ¹  as he said to himself, ²  “Can ³  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ⁴  Can Sarah ⁵  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ⁶  17:18 Abraham said to God, “O that ⁷  Ishmael might live before you!” ⁸ 

17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. ⁹  I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual ¹⁰  covenant for his descendants after him.

Genesis 18:11-14

18:11 Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; ¹¹  Sarah had long since passed menopause.) ¹²  18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ¹³  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ¹⁴  especially when my husband is old too?” ¹⁵ 

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ¹⁶  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ¹⁷  have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible ¹⁸  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁹ 

Genesis 21:1-2

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ²⁰  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ²¹  for Sarah what he had promised. ²²  21:2 So Sarah became pregnant ²³  and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.

Luke 1:36

1:36 “And look, ²⁴  your relative ²⁵  Elizabeth has also become pregnant with ²⁶  a son in her old age – although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month! ²⁷ 

Luke 1:1

Explanatory Preface

1:1 Now ²⁸  many have undertaken to compile an account ²⁹  of the things ³⁰  that have been fulfilled ³¹  among us,

Luke 3:5-6

3:5 Every valley will be filled, ³² 

and every mountain and hill will be brought low,

and the crooked will be made straight,

and the rough ways will be made smooth,

3:6 and all humanity ³³  will see the salvation of God.’” ³⁴ 

[17:17]  ¹ sn Laughed. The Hebrew verb used here provides the basis for the naming of Isaac: “And he laughed” is וַיִּצְחָק (vayyitskhaq); the name “Isaac” is יִצְחָק (yitskhaq), “he laughs.” Abraham’s (and Sarah’s, see 18:12) laughter signals disbelief, but when the boy is born, the laughter signals surprise and joy.

[17:17]  ² tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”

[17:17]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.

[17:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”

[17:17]  ⁵ sn It is important to note that even though Abraham staggers at the announcement of the birth of a son, finding it almost too incredible, he nonetheless calls his wife Sarah, the new name given to remind him of the promise of God (v. 15).

[17:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”

[17:18]  ⁷ tn The wish is introduced with the Hebrew particle לוּ (lu), “O that.”

[17:18]  ⁸ tn Or “live with your blessing.”

[17:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “will call his name Isaac.” The name means “he laughs,” or perhaps “may he laugh” (see the note on the word “laughed” in v. 17).

[17:19]  ¹⁰ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[18:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “days.”

[18:11]  ¹² tn Heb “it had ceased to be for Sarah [after] a way like women.”

[18:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “saying.”

[18:12]  ¹⁴ tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.

[18:12]  ¹⁵ tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the Lord’s amazement: “Why on earth did Sarah laugh?”

[18:13]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”

[18:14]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ¹⁹ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

[21:1]  ²⁰ sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the Lord “visits.” For a more detailed study of the term, see G. André, Determining the Destiny (ConBOT).

[21:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ²² tn Heb “spoken.”

[21:2]  ²³ tn Or “she conceived.”

[1:36]  ²⁴ tn Grk “behold.”

[1:36]  ²⁵ tn Some translations render the word συγγενίς (sungeni") as “cousin” (so Phillips) but the term is not necessarily this specific.

[1:36]  ²⁶ tn Or “has conceived.”

[1:36]  ²⁷ tn Grk “and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren.” Yet another note on Elizabeth’s loss of reproach also becomes a sign of the truth of the angel’s declaration.

[1:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Since” or “Because.” This begins a long sentence that extends through v. 4. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, the Greek sentence has been divided up into shorter English sentences in the translation.

[1:1]  ²⁹ tn This is sometimes translated “narrative,” but the term itself can refer to an oral or written account. It is the verb “undertaken” which suggests a written account, since it literally is “to set one’s hand” to something (BDAG 386 s.v. ἐπιχειρέω). “Narrative” is too specific, denoting a particular genre of work for the accounts that existed in the earlier tradition. Not all of that material would have been narrative.

[1:1]  ³⁰ tn Or “events.”

[1:1]  ³¹ tn Or “have been accomplished.” Given Luke’s emphasis on divine design (e.g., Luke 24:43-47) a stronger sense (“fulfilled”) is better than a mere reference to something having taken place (“accomplished”).

[3:5]  ³² sn The figurative language of this verse speaks of the whole creation preparing for the arrival of a major figure, so all obstacles to his approach are removed.

[3:6]  ³³ tn Grk “all flesh.”

[3:6]  ³⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 40:3-5. Though all the synoptic gospels use this citation from Isaiah, only Luke cites the material of vv. 5-6. His goal may well be to get to the declaration of v. 6, where all humanity (i.e., all nations) see God’s salvation (see also Luke 24:47).