Zechariah the Priest The second person we come to as we look at the characters of the Christmas story is Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. When he’s introduced into the story he’s not yet a father. The fact that he was going to be a father was a big surprise to him and a key element in his story. He served as a priest in Jerusalem and was married to Elizabeth. Model of ancient Jerusalem, the time of King Herod and the period of the Second Temple at the Israel Museum Here’s how Luke describes them, ...