---
title: Luke 1:18
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-1-18/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-1-18.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 1:18
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 1:18

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “How can I be sure of this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Zechariah said to the angel: 'How can I be sure of this? For I am old, and my wife is well along in years.'"

## JW Usage

Luke 1:18 is rarely cited in Watchtower publications. Zechariah's question to Gabriel ("How can I be sure of this?") is read as honest puzzlement rather than as unbelief, and Gabriel's response in v. 20 (striking him mute) is treated as a corrective rather than a punishment. The verse does not interact directly with the birthday-ban argument; it appears here as a counter-example to the rs hermeneutic.

## Protestant Usage

Use Luke 1:18 to expose the inconsistency in the Watchtower's reasoning about narrative-as-prescription. The rs book's birthday ban derives a universal prohibition from two pagan-tyrant birthday narratives (Pharaoh, Herod). Apply the same hermeneutic consistently: Zechariah asked God a question, was struck mute as a consequence, so therefore asking God questions is forbidden; Jesus cursed the only fig tree named in detail, so therefore fig trees are evil; David wrote a letter to have Uriah killed, so therefore writing letters is evil. The reductio ad absurdum is the point — the rs hermeneutic, applied consistently, produces results that no JW would defend. The hermeneutic itself is the problem, not the application of it to birthdays specifically.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Birthday Ban — A Rule Generalised From Two Pagan Tyrants](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/birthday-ban-extrabiblical-canon.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Jeremiah 20:14 / Job 3:1 [Practice]