Zachariah was an old priest serving his rotation in the temple at Jerusalem when his lottery ticket came up, once in his lifetime he would offer the incense at the altar inside the Holy Place. He walked in alone. The angel Gabriel was standing beside the altar.

'Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You will call him John. He will go before the Lord in the spirit of Elijah.' Zachariah, who had stopped expecting anything, asked for proof. Gabriel said: 'Because you doubted, you will be unable to speak until the day this is fulfilled.' Zachariah walked out muted.

Nine months later he held his newborn son. People asked the family what to name him, 'Surely after his father?' Elizabeth said, 'No. His name is John.' They didn't believe her so they asked Zachariah, gesturing for clarity. He took a writing tablet and wrote: 'His name is John.' His tongue loosened in that instant and the first words out of his mouth in nine months were prophecy. His son grew up to be John the Baptist, the wild prophet who pointed at Jesus and said 'Behold the Lamb of God.' The son was the brave kid in the camel-hair tunic, climbing red-rock outcrops in the wilderness with a hawk on his shoulder. The book is named for the son. Both lives count.