NOTES for Luk 1:57-80
There is one circumstance in this episode that seems strange if we bear the ethnographic details in mind. Among the Jews, a son could receive his father's name only if the father had died while the mother was pregnant. It is difficult to say when this custom arose, but if it already existed at the time of John's birth, then the position of Zechariah, who was forced to remain silent for a long time, appears tragic: he is disregarded and treated as though he were dead. The neighbors and relatives, rejoicing at the child's birth and proposing to name him Zechariah, are in fact making decisions in someone else's household.
Yet Zechariah, despite the humiliations he endured, remained faithful to God. We hear Zechariah's inspired speech, which contains a prophecy, and the Evangelist notes that Zechariah spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But in order to become capable of being filled with the Holy Spirit, Zechariah had to pass patiently through the trial of rejection.