1. Seeing that many did take in hand to set in order a narration of the matters that have been fully assured among us,
2. as they did deliver to us, who from the beginning became eye-witnesses, and officers of the Word, --
3. it seemed good also to me, having followed from the first after all things exactly, to write to thee in order, most noble Theophilus,
4. that thou mayest know the certainty of the things wherein thou wast instructed.
5. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest, by name Zacharias, of the course of Abijah, and his wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elisabeth;
6. and they were both righteous before God, going on in all the commands and righteousnesses of the Lord blameless,
7. and they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and both were advanced in their days.
8. And it came to pass, in his acting as priest, in the order of his course before God,
9. according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot was to make perfume, having gone into the sanctuary of the Lord,