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John the Baptist was born to Elizabeth 6 months before the birth of Jesus. He was born in the city of Hebron. Hebron was inhabited by priests of the family of Aaron, and they were all cousins of Elizabeth and Zechariah. In the surrounding fields and villages lived the people of Judah and they were the "neighbors" spoken of in the text. Notice they acknowledged the miraculous nature of this event.
On the eighth day , as God had appointed, they came together to circumcise the child. Now it was the custom at this time to name the child. Naturally, the friends and neighbors got involved in this. Some wanted to name him Zacharias, after his father, but his mother said he would be called John as God had decreed. But the relatives objected, there was no one in the family named John. If She did not want to call him after his father, perhaps she would use the name of one of the relatives, any one of which would be honored to have his name used for such a miraculous child. They appealed to the boys father but Zachariah could not speak. He motioned that he wanted a piece of paper upon which he wrote, "His name is John." All who saw it marvelled, for they believed that he had lost his senses by reason of a stroke. Immediately, he recovered the use of his speech.
The coming of John caused a great amount of consternation about the country side. That's all they talked about around the "hill country" of Judah. Fear came in the hearts of some and some looked forward with great expectations concerning the child.
Lastly, the hand of the Lord was with John. Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied and the child grew strong in the Spirit and lived much of his life in the deserts.
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