Ṭāb-Yōmīn took the letter and in haste made off to Jerusalem. He came and found all the priests sitting in sorrow. He took the letter and laid it in the hand of Elizar. He (E.) opens it and reads it and finds in it wondrous discourses. He opens it and reads it and sees what stands therein written. He reads it in silence and gives them no decision about it. Elizar then took it and laid it in the hand of Old Father Zakhriā. He (Z.) opens it and reads it and sees what stands therein written. He reads it in silence and gives no decision about it. Elizar now opened his mouth and spake to Old Father Zakhriā: "Old Father, get thee gone from Judæa, lest thou stir up strife in Jerusalem." Old Father then raised his right hand and smote on the head Elizar: "Elizar, thou great house, thou head of all the priests! If thou in thy inner [part] knewest thy mother, thou wouldst not dare come into our synagogue. If thou in thy inner [part] knewest, thou wouldst not dare read the Torah. For thy mother was a wanton. A wanton was she, who did not match with the house of her husband's father. As thy father had not the hundred gold staters for writing her the bill of divorcement, he abandoned her straightway and enquired not for her. Is there a day when I come and look forth, and see not Mīshā bar Amrā? Yea, is there a day when I come without praying in your synagogue, that you should be false and dishonest and say a word which you have ne'er heard about me? Where is there a dead man who becomes living again, that Enishbai should bear a child? Where is there a blind man who becomes seeing, where is there a lame man for whom his feet [walk again], and where is there a mute who learns [to read in] a book, that Enishbai should bear a child? It is two and twenty years to-day that I have seen no wife. Nay, neither through me nor through you will Enishbai bear a child." (Book of the Gnostic John the Baptizer, Chapter 18)

Rather than the Angel of the Lord of Luke's gospel, we have a blasphemous child, a naked interpreter of dreams, and poor Ṭāb-Yōmīn, probably a junior priest, who runs hither and yon in the middle of night.

The Chief Priest receives the interpretation as credible. Zakhriā utterly rejects it. Moreover he does so with a string of insults delivered against the Chief Priest, which might well be evidence of what the dream portends.

Presumably Zakhriā would welcome having a son. We might reasonably assume that years before he had prayed for the birth of an heir. But it has been twenty-two years since he and his wife have had sex.

Zakhriā had given up on God. He had given up on his own dreams, his own prayers. I have also given up - or more accurately, kept hidden - my best hopes. They are usually packed away with the dusty, moldy souvenirs of the past.

Yesterday on a long-drive I listened to an evangelical radio broadcast. In a lilting Dutch accent, the elderly speaker told a wonderful story of being saved years before. At one point, talking of her own experience with prayer, she explained, "I've learned that God is seldom early, but he's never late. God is always just on time."