And, behold, you shall be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because you believe not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And behold thou shall be dumb, &c. Theophylact and S. Ambrose translated, "thou shalt be deaf," and so make a distinction from what follows, "and not able to speak." For although the Greek word σιωπω̃ν properly signifies one who is dumb, yet one who is deaf may be understood by the same word; for dumbness and deafness are naturally connected, for those who are born dumb are also deaf, and vice versa. Wherefore the Greeks alike call a dumb and a deaf man κω̃φν. Zacharias therefore was made deaf as well as dumb. Whence in verse22he is called κω̃φος. Hence at verse62his friends and neighbours do not speak to Zacharias as being deaf, but signify to him by signs that he should write the name by which he wished his son to be called. "He rightly," says Theophylact, "suffered these two things, the loss of hearing and the loss of speech; for because he had been disobedient, he incurs the punishment of deafness; and because he had objected, of silence."
Until the day that thes...
On account of the many signs the angel had given, that what he said was true, the unbelief of Zacharias seemed inexcusable; for the angel appeared in a holy place, in the temple, and during divine service: he, moreover, foretold what related to the redemption of all the people, and to the glory of God; from all which circumstances, Zacharias ought to have concluded, that it was a good angel, and that what he said would eventually come to pass. (Nicholas of Lyra)
Shalt be dumb He seems to have been both dumb and deaf by the Greek text, and by what we may learn from ver. 62; where we find, that those who were present did not speak, but rather made signs to him. (Witham)
