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John the Baptist Preaches

Now in the fifteenth year of [Emperor] [a]Tiberius Caesar’s reign—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod [Antipas] was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene— in the high [b]priesthood of Annas and [c]Caiaphas [his son-in-law], the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin; as it is written and forever remains written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

The voice of one shouting in the wilderness,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
[d]Make His paths straight.

Every ravine shall be filled up,
And every mountain and hill shall be leveled;
And the crooked [places] shall be made straight,
And the rough roads smooth;

and [e]all mankind shall see the salvation of God.’”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. Luke 3:1 See note Matt 22:17.
  2. Luke 3:2 Annas served from a.d. 6-15, before being deposed by Roman authorities; however, the Jews continued to recognize him as high priest de facto even though others, including his sons and son-in-law, held the official title and publicly appeared to serve as high priest.
  3. Luke 3:2 Served as high priest from a.d. 18-36, although Annas kept de facto authority.
  4. Luke 3:4 In spiritual terms, John’s message was clearing the way for the arrival of the Messiah by preparing the hearts of those who were to follow Him.
  5. Luke 3:6 I.e. salvation is available to both Jew and Gentile.

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