57 When Elizabeth’s nine months were up, she gave birth and produced a son 58 and her neighbours and relatives heard that Yahweh had shown great mercy to her, and so they celebrated along with her.

59 When the baby boy was eight days old, it was the time to circumcise him, and the relatives at the ceremony started calling him Zacharias after the name of his father,[ref] 60 but the baby’s mother spoke up and said, “No, he’s going to be named Yohan.”

61 “None of your relatives have that name,” they said 62 and they signalled to the father to tell them what name he wanted for the baby.

63 So Zacharias requested a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is Yohan.” Everyone was amazed 64 and then suddenly his mouth and tongue were freed and he was able to speak again and started praising God. 65 Everyone who lived nearby was a bit unnerved by all this, and the story about what happened was discussed in all the homes around the hills 66 and those who heard about it were thinking to themselves, “Who’s this young child going to turn out to be?”