Zechariah was a Jewish priest mentioned in the New Testament and as a prophet in Quran, and venerated in Christianity and Islam. In the Bible, he is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:67–79), and the husband of Elizabeth who is a relative of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:36). In the Quran, his story is mentioned in the initial verse of surah Maryam (chapter Mary).