Luke 3:14

10, 12, 14. ποιήσωμεν is better supported than ποιήσομεν. Gr[70] La[71] Ti[72]

[70] Gr. Griesbach.
[71] La. Lachmann.
[72] Ti. Tischendorf.

14. ἐπηρώτων δὲ αὐτόν, ‘asked him.’ The imperfect tense however (as before in Luke 3:10) implies that such questions were put to him by bodies of soldiers in succession.

στρατευόμενοι, ‘soldiers on the march’ or on service. On what expedition these soldiers were engaged it is impossible to say. They cannot have been Roman soldiers, and were certainly not any detachment of the army of Antipas marching against his injured father-in-law Hareth (Aretas), ethnarch of Arabia, for their quarrel was long subsequent to this. The word στρατευόμενοι is less definite than στρατιῶται. Ewald supposes that they were a sort of police (gendarmerie) engaged in custom-house duties.

μηδένα διασείσητε. ‘Extort money by threats from no one.’ Διασείω, like the Latin concutio, is a technical word. It implies robbery and violence, and something of this sense is retained in the French ‘concussion’ (Littré s. v.). See 3Ma 7:21.

συκοφαντήσητε. ‘Cheat by false accusation.’ The Greek word implies pettifogging charges on trivial grounds, and is the word from which sycophant is derived. The temptation of soldiers, strong in their solidarity, was to terrify the poor by violence, and undermine the rich by acting as informers. The best comment on the Baptist’s advice to them is the XVIth Satire of Juvenal, which is aimed at their brutality and threats.

ἀρκεῖσθε τοῖς ὀψωνίοις ὑμῶν. Be content with your pay. This is a late meaning of the word ὀψώνια (Romans 6:23), which means in the first instance ‘boiled fish (ἕψω) eaten as a relish with meat.’ It is remarkable that the Baptist does not bid even soldiers to abandon their profession, but to serve God in it. This is important as shewing that he did not hold up the life of the hermit or the ascetic as a model or ideal for all. He evidently held, like the good St Hugo of Avalon, that “God meant us to be good men, not monks and hermits.” Josephus, when (Antt. XVIII. Luke 3:2) he sums up the teaching of the Baptist by saying that “he commanded the Jews to practise virtue both in righteousness to one another and piety to God,” rightly estimates the practical, but omits the prophetic side of his teaching.