Now
in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. He came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for remission of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth. All flesh will see God’s salvation.’”
Luke 3:1-6
Luke 2 [49.] He said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” They didn’t understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Luke 3 [1.] Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. He came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.
Luke 3 [4.] As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord.
Make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled.
Every mountain and hill will be brought low.
The crooked will become straight,
and the rough ways smooth.
All flesh will see God’s salvation.’”
Luke 3 [7.] He said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, and don’t begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father;’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones! Even now the ax also lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.”
Meaning:
Luke 2 closed with the boy Jesus in the temple and the quiet years at Nazareth (Luke 2:46-52). Chapter 3 opens about eighteen years later with a formal date and the sudden appearance of John in the wilderness. Matthew and Mark tell the same beginning (Matthew 3:1-3; Mark 1:3; Mark 1:4-8), but only Luke anchors it so carefully in world history and only Luke quotes Isaiah all the way to the words “All flesh will see God’s salvation.”
- “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar”
Luke dates the event the way ancient historians did, by the rulers in office. Tiberius became emperor in AD 14, so his fifteenth year falls about AD 28-29. Pontius Pilate governed Judea from about AD 26 to 36. After the death of Herod the Great his kingdom had been divided: Herod Antipas ruled Galilee, where Jesus grew up, and his brother Philip ruled the lands north-east of the Sea of Galilee. Lysanias of Abilene, north-west of Damascus, is known from an inscription of the same period. Luke lists six rulers in all, and the list is not decoration. The good news did not happen “once upon a time” but in a real place, under real governments, at a date that could be checked. Luke had promised his reader an orderly and reliable account, and he keeps that promise here.
- “in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas”
There was only one high priest at a time, yet Luke names two. Annas had been high priest from AD 6 until the Romans removed him in AD 15. His son-in-law Caiaphas held the office from about AD 18 to 36, but Annas remained the real power behind it. On the night of his arrest Jesus would be led to Annas first and then to Caiaphas. The list of rulers is sobering. Pilate would sentence Jesus, Herod Antipas would mock him, and Annas and Caiaphas would condemn him. The men who held power when the word of God came to John were the men who would one day stand against the Son of God.
- “the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness”
This is the language of the Old Testament prophets, to whom “the word of Yahweh came.” Luke places John in that line. The word did not come to the palace in Rome, the governor’s residence in Caesarea or the high priest’s house in Jerusalem, but to a priest’s son living in the desert. Before his birth Zacharias had sung over him, “And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways” (Luke 1:76). The child “was in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (Luke 1:80), and now that day had come. John “came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.” Baptism was a public act. It declared that a person had turned from the old way and was ready for the Lord who was coming. The forgiveness it pointed to would be fully opened through Jesus, in whose name “repentance and remission of sins should be preached ... to all the nations” (Luke 24:47).
- “Make ready the way of the Lord”
Luke, like the other Gospels, explains John through Isaiah 40, where a voice calls, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). In Isaiah the picture is of a road being built across the desert for God to lead his people home from exile. Valleys are filled, hills brought low, crooked paths straightened. John’s work was to build that road in people’s hearts: to lift up the humble and discouraged, to bring down the proud and to straighten what was crooked in daily life. The next verses show what that meant for crowds, tax collectors and soldiers (Luke 3:10-11; Luke 3:12-13; Luke 3:14).
- “All flesh will see God’s salvation”
Matthew and Mark stop the quotation after the first lines. Luke continues to its climax because it states the heart of his Gospel. “All flesh” means every kind of person, Jew and Gentile alike. The old man Simeon had already held the baby Jesus and said, “for my eyes have seen your salvation,” calling him “a light for revelation to the nations” (Luke 2:30-32). Isaiah too had promised that “all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). Luke’s second book follows that promise from Jerusalem “to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The Significance of Luke 3:1-6
- God works in real history
Luke’s careful dates remind us that faith rests on events, not myths. The same God who acted in the days of Tiberius and Pilate is at work in the days of today’s rulers, and no government is outside his reach.
- God’s word comes to unexpected places
The word passed by the powerful and came to a man in the desert. God still speaks to those who are humble and listening, wherever they are.
- Preparing the way in our own lives
Every heart has valleys of discouragement, hills of pride and crooked habits. Repentance is the road-building that makes room for Christ, and his salvation is offered to everyone.
Cross-References:
Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!” The prophecy Luke quotes.
Luke 1:76: “for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,” John’s calling announced at his birth.
Luke 2:30: “for my eyes have seen your salvation,” Simeon sees the salvation that all flesh will see.
Luke 24:47: “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations,” John’s message carried to the world.
Conclusion: Luke 3:1-6 places the coming of God’s word to John in a precise moment of world history, under Tiberius, Pilate, Herod and the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. John preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins and fulfilled Isaiah’s call to prepare the way of the Lord. Luke carries the prophecy to its great promise, “All flesh will see God’s salvation,” the hope that runs through his whole Gospel.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible