Luke 1:59

On ¹  the eighth day ²  they came to circumcise the child, and they wanted to name ³  him Zechariah after his father.

Ge 17:12; Ge 21:3,4; Le 12:3; Lu 2:21; Ac 7:8; Php 3:5

¹ tn Grk “And it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

² sn They were following OT law (Lev 12:3) which prescribed that a male child was to be circumcised on the eighth day.

³ tn This could be understood as a conative imperfect, expressing an unrealized desire (“they were trying to name him”). It has been given more of a voluntative nuance in the translation.