Luke 1:76

1:76 And you, child, ¹  will be called the prophet ²  of the Most High. ³ 

For you will go before ⁴  the Lord to prepare his ways, ⁵ 

Luke 18:25

18:25 In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle ⁶  than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

[1:76]  ¹ sn Now Zechariah describes his son John (you, child) through v. 77.

[1:76]  ² tn Or “a prophet”; but since Greek nouns can be definite without the article, and since in context this is a reference to the eschatological forerunner of the Messiah (cf. John 1:17), the concept is better conveyed to the English reader by the use of the definite article “the.”

[1:76]  ³ sn In other words, John is a prophet of God; see 1:32 and 7:22-23, 28.

[1:76]  ⁴ tc Most mss, especially the later ones (A C D L Θ Ψ 0130 Ë^1,13 33 Ï sy), have πρὸ προσώπου κυρίου (pro proswpou kuriou, “before the face of the Lord”), but the translation follows the reading ἐνώπιον κυρίου (enwpion kuriou, “before the Lord”), which has earlier and better ms support (Ì⁴ א B W 0177 pc) and is thus more likely to be authentic.

[1:76]  ⁵ tn This term is often translated in the singular, looking specifically to the forerunner role, but the plural suggests the many elements in that salvation.

[18:25]  ⁶ sn The eye of a needle refers to a sewing needle, one of the smallest items one might deal with on a regular basis, in contrast to the biggest animal of the region. (The gate in Jerusalem known as “The Needle’s Eye” was built during the middle ages and was not in existence in Jesus’ day.) Jesus is saying rhetorically that this is impossible, unless God (v. 27) intervenes.