Article November 28, 2011 Issue

Who were Elizabeth and Mary?

By Virginia Stopfel

Do you have a special relationship with someone who is much older or younger than you are? The Gospel of Luke tells us about two women, Elizabeth and Mary, who had such a relationship. They were cousins. And each of them found out, in a most unusual way, that she was going to have a baby. Let’s see how it happened.

Elizabeth had no children, and she was already considered much too old to have a child. Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah, was a priest. One day, when he was in the temple in Jerusalem, the angel Gabriel appeared to him. The angel told him his wife would have an extraordinary son. Zechariah didn’t believe the angel. Then the angel told him that because he didn’t believe he wouldn’t be able to speak until the child was born. 

Elizabeth did believe and she became pregnant. She was overjoyed and said, “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace” (Luke 1:25). In those days, people thought having no child was a disgrace and only God could take it away.