Where and when was Saint Elizabeth mother of John the Baptist born?

Answer 1

Only the author of Luke's Gospel seems to have been aware of a family relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist, if such a relationship existed. Luke 1:36 says that John's Mother, Elisabeth, was the cousin of Mary, mother of Jesus.

Uta Ranke-Heinemann (Putting Away Childish Things) says, "That Elisabeth was legendary is proved by the historically more credible report in John that Jesus and John the Baptist did not know each other."

John Shelby Spong (Born of a Woman) says he is suspicious because Elisabeth in Hebrew would be Elisheba', a name that appears only once in the Old Testament, as the wife of Aaron, brother of Moses. Luke 1:5 describes Elisabeth as the daughter of Aaron, so the author must have had Aaron and Moses in mind when he wrote his gospel.
These are three of the grounds for believing that Elisabeth was not a real, historical person, based on which we can not say when she was born.

Answer 2

Elizabeth was a descendant in the priestly line of Aaron. She and her husband, Zachary (Zachariah), a Temple priest, lived an upright and blameless life in one of the hill-towns of Judea. The great disappointment in their lives was that although they had prayed fervently for a child, Elizabeth had reached an advanced age without ever having conceived. This would have been a devastating situation for a Jewish woman such as Elizabeth at that time.

What a miracle it was, then, when the Archangel Gabriel appeared separately to Elizabeth and Zachary informing them that she would bear a son. This boy, to be called John, would be the forerunner of the messiah. When told by the angel that his aging wife would give birth to a child destined to become a great prophet, Zachary did not believe this could be true. For this lack of faith, Zachary was struck dumb.

we do not know their exact relationship between Mary and elizabeth , apocryphal writings suggest their mothers were sisters and consequently that they were first cousins. When Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her she had been chosen to be mother of the messiah, he also told her that Elizabeth was expecting a child. He further stated that with God, nothing is impossible.

Mary, eager to share in Elizabeth's happiness and to relate her own good news, traveled from Galilee to visit her. Upon arriving, Mary greeted her kinswoman who was now six months pregnant. The moment she spoke Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost, responded to Mary with the words, "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. . ."

Mary remained with Elizabeth for approximately three months-possibly until the birth of John. The contrast is striking: Elizabeth, seemingly too old for child-bearing, but destined to give birth to John, last prophet of the old Covenant; and the Virgin Mary, seemingly not ready to have a child but destined to bear the messiah, the beginning of the New Covenant. The gospel story tells us that when John was born, friends and neighbors rejoiced with Elizabeth. On the eighth day when the infant was to be circumcised, officials expected him to be called "Zachary" after his father, or possibly named after a dead relative, as was the custom. However, Elizabeth said, "He shall be called John .zarchary agreed with Elizabeth by writing down the name "John." Thereafter, Zachary's voice was restored.

King Herod, who was trying to kill Jesus, also heard about the special circumstances surrounding John's birth and decided to hunt him down as well.

The story further relates that Elizabeth took John into the wilderness to hide. When they came to a mountain, Elizabeth spoke to it, and a cave opened up. A fresh stream appeared and a fruitful date palm sprang up at its mouth. Thus they were able to avoid Herod's soldiers by hiding in the cave. Elizabeth died forty days later in the wilderness and an angel took care of John until he grew up.
There is no record of the birth of Elizabeth in The Bible; however, the Bible says that both Elizabeth and her husband were 'well stricken in years', in other words, very old before John the Baptist was born. So she could have been between 70 and 90 years old when their first son, John was born; which means that she could have been born between the years 90 to 70 BC

Answer 3

St. Elizabeth is sometimes represented by:

•elderly woman holding the infant John the Baptist

•pregnant woman with the Virgin Mary

•in company of Saint Zachary

Answer 4

November 5 is the feast day of Elizabeth.