I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 1.
Perhaps in the original Greek there is more distinction between their answers, but Zechariah’s initial response to Gabriel is not that different from Mary’s. If anything, Mary’s response seems to be more doubtful than Zechariah’s. Zechariah’s answer acknowledges that Gabriel’s message is possible, while Mary’s questions even that. And perhaps that is the difference. If nothing further had happened, Zechariah would have always wondered if maybe his experience in the Temple was an hallucination that coincidentally preceded John’s conception. Mary, on the other hand, could never doubt that something miraculous had happened. However, because of what happened, both not being able to talk and then suddenly being able to after writing that his son’s name was John, Zechariah could never doubt that John’s conception and birth was an out of the ordinary event. More importantly, everyone who knew Zechariah and Elizabeth knew something extraordinary had happened.
As a humorous aside, I wonder if the reason Elizabeth had never conceived before was because Zechariah talked too much. I will allow you to imagine the ways in which his relationship with Elizabeth might have changed while he could not talk that might have led to her getting pregnant.
I want to encourage you to read Mary’s song of praise and Zechariah’s prophecy/a>. They contain thoughts which each of us should meditate on.