Luke 1:59
And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
Luke 1:59 belongs to the birth of the promised son to Zacharias and Elizabeth, a faithful couple in Israel, whose son was to go before the Lord and prepare His ways as the forerunner of Christ. It comes as the fulfillment of Zacharias's many years of prayer for the coming Redeemer. The answer was announced by heaven's messenger while Zacharias stood before the golden altar in the holy place of the sanctuary as the cloud of incense with the prayers of Israel ascended before God, with the angel standing on the right side of the altar as an indication of favor that Zacharias did not notice. The mercy of God seemed too great for Zacharias to credit, filling him with fear and self-condemnation.
The surrounding events show that John's birth and mission were attested by miracle and prophecy, and news of them spread abroad. An angel appeared to Zacharias in the temple, Zacharias lost the power of speech because he did not believe the angel's words, and his speech was restored at John's birth. Those miraculous circumstances surrounding John's birth were recalled when he appeared as a prophet. Those events had largely been forgotten over the following thirty years.