Social Status in Luke’s Infancy Narrative: Zechariah the Priest

Abstract

This article investigates the social status of Zechariah in Luke's Gospel using Lenski's social stratification model. Beyond macro-sociological setting, we will conduct a multidimensional analysis of Zechariah's social status. We investigate Zechariah's place in the Judean priestly hierarchy using Luke's narrative presentation and Josephus' testimonies about social conflicts among various priestly groups within first-century Judea. The narrative clue about the "priestly order of Abijah" has been ignored by most scholars, but it will be argued that this is an important detail in the placement of Zechariah in the social stratification system. We will also argue that placing Zechariah in the retainer class is not viable. Rather, Zechariah is depicted in Luke's narrative as a humble, lowly priest, who nevertheless maintained rather high social status due to his priestly pedigree.

Zechariah the model priest: Luke and the characterisation of ordinary priests in Luke-Acts

“…However, no significant and sustained attention has been paid to Luke's characterisation of Zechariah and other ordinary priests (Lk 1:5-23, 57-80; Ac 6:7) and the striking contrast it creates when compared to the negative stereotypical priestly representation in the gospel tradition. Studies on Zechariah have either concentrated on his unbelief (Brown 1988;Carter 1988:239-247;Harmon 2001;Wilson 2015:79-111) and his priestly status (Autero 2011). Even the importance of Acts 6:7 to the representation of Jewish priesthood has hardly been recognised.…”