Luke 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 

Ge 12:2; Ge 48:19; Nu 6:2-4; Jos 3:7; Jos 4:14; Jud 13:4-6; 1Ch 17:8; 1Ch 29:12; Ps 22:9; Jer 1:5; Zec 9:15; Mt 11:9-19; Mt 11:18; Lu 7:28; Lu 7:33; Joh 5:35; Ac 2:4,14-18; Ga 1:15; Eph 5:18

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.