Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
On the eighth day they came to circumcise - See an account of this institution in the note on Genesis 17:10-14 (note). Had circumcision been essential to an infant' s salvation, God would not have ordered it to be delayed to the eighth day, because, in all countries, multitudes die before they arrive at that age. Baptism, which is generally allowed to have been substituted for circumcision, is no more necessary to the salvation of an infant than circumcision was. Both are signs of the covenant - circumcision, of the putting away the impurity of the flesh; and baptism, of the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, producing the answer of a good conscience towards God. Confer I Peter 3:21, with Titus 3:5. This should never be neglected: it is a sign and token of the spiritual grace.
They called him Zacharias - Among the Jews, the child was named when it was circumcised, and ordinarily the name of the father was given to the first-born son.
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