Luke 1:13 Commentary - Whedon's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

13. Thy prayer is heard The angel attests his reality as a true supernatural being by showing that he knew what Zacharias’s prayer had long been, as well as by the splendour of his person. His prayer had, doubtless, once been for a posterity that his name might not die in Israel. But that hope declining as his age advanced, his later desire had been for the “consolation of Israel.” And at the present moment the prayers of Israel are ascending “for the people of God,” as Grotius says; “and, if Josephus and Philo are to be believed, for the salvation of the world.” Both currents of Zacharias’s prayer are heard. The posterity and the consolation are at hand.

John The God-given. A suitable name for one divinely given in answer to prayer. It is a suitable name, also, for him who, promised by ancient prophecy, was at last bestowed.