1. Since, indeed, many have attempted to set in order a narrative of the things that have been completed among us,
2. just as they have been handed on to those of us who from the beginning saw the same and were ministers of the word,
3. so it seemed good to me also, having diligently followed everything from the beginning, to write to you, in an orderly manner, most excellent Theophilus,
4. so that you might know the truthfulness of those words by which you have been instructed.
5. There was, in the days of Herod, king of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah, of the section of Abijah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
6. Now they were both just before God, progressing in all of the commandments and the justifications of the Lord without blame.
7. And they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both had become advanced in years.
8. Then it happened that, when he was exercising the priesthood before God, in the order of his section,
9. according to the custom of the priesthood, the lot fell so that he would offer incense, entering into the temple of the Lord.