Luke 1:15-16

1:15 for he will be great in the sight of ¹  the Lord. He ²  must never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. ³  1:16 He ⁴  will turn ⁵  many of the people ⁶  of Israel to the Lord their God.

[1:15]  ¹ tn Grk “before.”

[1:15]  ² tn Grk “and he”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun in the translation.

[1:15]  ³ tn Grk “even from his mother’s womb.” While this idiom may be understood to refer to the point of birth (“even from his birth”), Luke 1:41 suggests that here it should be understood to refer to a time before birth.

[1:16]  ⁴ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:16]  ⁵ sn The word translated will turn is a good summary term for repentance and denotes John’s call to a change of direction (Luke 3:1-14).

[1:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “sons”; but clearly this is a generic reference to people of both genders.