Elizabeth (biblical figure) Elizabeth (biblical figure) Elizabeth, also spelled Elisabeth (Greek Ἐλισάβετ) or "Elisheba" (from the Hebrew אֱלִישֶׁבַע / אֱלִישָׁבַע "My God has sworn"; Standard Hebrew Elišévaʿ Elišávaʿ, Tiberian Hebrew ʾĔlîšéḇaʿ ʾĔlîšāḇaʿ; Arabic أليصابات, "Alyassabat"), was the mother of John the Baptist and the wife of Zechariah, according to the Gospel of Luke. According to the Gospel of Luke, Elizabeth was "of the daughters of Aaron" (). She and her husband Zachariah were "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless" (), but childless. While he was in the temple of the Lord (), Zacharias was visited
Historical reliability of the Gospels had been added to the original gospel. Both Luke and Matthew date Jesus' birth to within the rule of King Herod the Great, who died in 4BC. However the Gospel of Luke also dates the birth ten years after Herod's death, during the census of Quirinius in 6 AD described by the historian Josephus. Raymond E. Brown notes that "most critical scholars acknowledge a confusion and misdating on Luke's part." Some conservative Christian biblical scholars and commentators still believe the two accounts can be harmonised, arguing that the text in Luke can be read as "registration before Quirinius was governor