Benedictus The hymn of Zechariah, one of three songs found in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:68–79). The Benedictus celebrates the birth of Zechariah’s son, John the Baptist, and the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation for Israel. Benedictus (Latin, “blessed”) is the word in the Vulgate with which Zechariah begins his prayer when his muted tongue is loosed: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel” (Luke 1:68; see also Luke 1:64). It echoes the Old Testament prophecies (Isa 40:3; Jer 23:5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12), but also contains echoes of the Psalms (Pss 106:10, 45; 105:8–9) and the rest of the Old Testament (Exod 3:12; Deut 7:14; Ruth 2:20; 1 Sam 15:13; 25:33).

The origin of the Benedictus is debated—some suggest Luke depends on an oral source, while others assume Luke translates and includes the Benedictus from an Aramaic source (Machen, Virgin Birth, 4). Parallels to Sirach 51:12 have led some scholars to believe the Benedictus was written in Hebrew by a relative of Zechariah; others point out parallels with the Babylonian Shemoneh Esreh (Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 661).

The Benedictus—along with the other two prayers in Luke, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55) and the Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:29–32)—has been used in Christian liturgy from its earliest days and can be found in many contemporary prayer books (Hartford and Stevenson, Prayer Book, 99).