John the Baptist Prepares the Way^(A)

1 The ^(B)beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ^(C)the Son of God.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way^(A)

3 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, ^(B)Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ^2 [a]while ^(C)Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to ^(D)John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. ^3 (E)And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance ^(F)for the remission of sins,

² and saying, “Repent, for ^(A)the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

² As it is written in ^[a]the Prophets:

⁴ Now ^(A)John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was ^(B)locusts and ^(C)wild honey. ^5 (D)Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him ^6 (E)and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ^(F)“Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from ^(G)the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, ⁹ and do not think to say to yourselves, ^(H)‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ¹⁰ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. ^(I)Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹⁰ So the people asked him, saying, ^(A)“What shall we do then?”

¹¹ He answered and said to them, ^(B)“He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, ^(C)let him do likewise.”

¹² Then ^(D)tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”

¹³ And he said to them, ^(E)“Collect no more than what is appointed for you.”

¹⁴ Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?”

So he said to them, “Do not ^[a]intimidate anyone ^(F)or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”