Discovery BoxLuke 1:15-17 
Context1:15 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. 1:17 And he will go as forerunner before the Lord 7 in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, 8 to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”
1 tn Grk “before.”
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.
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.
sn He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. This is the language of the birth of a prophet (Judg 13:5, 7; Isa 49:1; Jer 1:5; Sir 49:7); see 1:41 for the first fulfillment.
4 tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
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).
6 tn Grk “sons”; but clearly this is a generic reference to people of both genders.
7 tn Grk “before him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 sn These two lines cover all relationships: Turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children points to horizontal relationships, while (turn) the disobedient to the wisdom of the just shows what God gives from above in a vertical manner.
