1. Forasmuch as many have attempted to set forth in order the history of those things which among us have been most certain,
2. even as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning taught us and thus were ministers of the word,
3. it seemed good also to me, after having understood all the things from the beginning with great diligence, to write them unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
4. that thou mightest know the security of those things in which thou hast been instructed.
5. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.
7. And they had no child because Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well advanced in years.
8. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,
9. according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense entering into the temple of the Lord.