Benedictus (canticle)

For other uses, see Benedictus (disambiguation).

The Benedictus (also Song of Zechariah or Canticle of Zachary), given in Gospel of Luke 1:68–79, is one of the three canticles in the first two chapters of this Gospel, the other two being the "Magnificat" and the "Nunc dimittis". The Benedictus was the song of thanksgiving uttered by Zechariah on the occasion of the circumcision of his son, John the Baptist.

The canticle received its name from its first words in Latin ("Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel", “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel”). Along with the Magnificat, as well as several Old Testament canticles, the Benedictus is included in the Book of Odes, an ancient liturgical collection found in some manuscripts of the Septuagint.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.