CHAPTER 3. THE MINISTRY OF THE NEW ERA OPENS. Having related the beginnings of the lives of the two prophets of the new time (Chapter s 1 and 2), the evangelist now introduces us to the beginnings of their prophetic ministries, or rather to the ministry of John as the prelude to the evangelic dram... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ἔτει, etc., in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius as Caesar. This seems a very definite date, rendering all the other particulars, so far as fixing time is concerned, comparatively superfluous. But uncertainty comes in in connection with the question: is the fifteenth year to be reckoned... [ Continue Reading ]
_General historic setting of the beginnings_. For Mt.'s vague “in those days” (Luke 3:1), which leaves us entirely in the dark at what date and age Jesus entered on His prophetic career, Lk. gives a group of dates connecting his theme with the general history of the world and of Palestine; the unive... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπὶ ἀρχιερέως Ἄννα καὶ Καιάφα, under the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. The use of the singular ἀρχιερέως in connection with two names is peculiar, whence doubtless the correction into the easier ἀρχιερέων (T. R.); and the combination of two men as holding the office at the same time, is lik... [ Continue Reading ]
ἦλθεν. In Mt. and Mk. the people come from all quarters to John. Here John goes to the people in an itinerant ministry. The latter may apply to the early stage of his ministry. He might move about till he had attracted attention, then settle at a place convenient for baptism, and trust to the impres... [ Continue Reading ]
_John's ministry_.... [ Continue Reading ]
βίβλῳ λόγων : Lk. has his own way of introducing the prophetic citation (“in the book of the words”), as he also follows his own course as to the words quoted. Whereas Mt. and Mk. are content to cite just so much as suffices to set forth the general idea of preparing the way of the Lord, Lk. quotes... [ Continue Reading ]
φάραγξ, a ravine, here only in N. T. εἰς εὐθείας, the crooked places shall be (become) straight (ways, ὁδοὺς, understood) αἱ τραχεῖαι (ὁδοὶ), the rough ways shall become smooth.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκπορευομένοις ὄχλοις : what Mt. represents as addressed specially to the Pharisees and Sadducees, Lk. less appropriately gives as spoken to the general crowd. Note that here, as in the other synoptists, the crowd comes to John, though in Luke 3:3 John goes to them. γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν : on this figur... [ Continue Reading ]
_John's preaching_ (_cf._ Matthew 3:7-10). Lk. gives no account of John's aspect and mode of life, leaving that to be inferred from Luke 1:80. On the other hand he enters into more detail in regard to the drift of his preaching. These verses contain Lk.'s version of the Baptist's censure of his time... [ Continue Reading ]
καρποὺς : instead of καρπὸν, perhaps to answer to the various types of reform specified in the sequel. ἄρξησθε instead of δόξητε (_vide_ on Mt.), on which Bengel's comment is: “omnem excusationis etiam conatum praecidit”. While the words they are forbidden to say are the same in both accounts, perha... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπηρώτων, imperfect. Such questions would be frequent, naturally suggested by the general exhortations to repentance. The preacher would probably give special illustrative counsels without being asked. Those here reported are meant to be characteristic. ποιήσωμεν : subj. delib.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Class counsels_, peculiar to Lk. Two samples of John's counsels to classes are here given, prefaced by a counsel applicable to all classes. The classes selected to illustrate the Baptist's social preaching are the much tempted ones: publicans and soldiers.... [ Continue Reading ]
δύο χ.: two, one to spare, not necessarily two on the person, one enough; severely simple ideas of life. The χιτὼν was the under garment, _vide_ on Matthew 5:40. βρώματα : the plural should perhaps not be emphasised as if implying variety and abundance (τὰ περισσεύοντα, Grotius). The counsel is: let... [ Continue Reading ]
μηδὲν πλέον παρὰ : this mode of expressing comparison (usual in mod. Grk.) is common to Lk. and the Ep. to Heb. (Luke 1:4, etc.), and has been used in support of the view that Lk. wrote Heb. “Non improbabilis videtur mihi eorum opinio qui Lucae eam Ep. adjudicant,” Pricaeus. πράσσετε, make, in a sin... [ Continue Reading ]
στρατευόμενοι, “soldiers on service”. R. V [40] margin. So also Farrar. But Field disputes this rendering. “The advice seems rather to point to soldiers at home, mixing among their fellow-citizens, than to those who were on the march in an enemy's country” (_Ot. Nor._). Schürer, whom J. Weiss follow... [ Continue Reading ]
προσδοκῶντος : in Mt. and Mk. John introduces the subject of the Messiah of his own accord: in Lk. in answer to popular expectation and conjecture; an intrinsically probable account, _vide_ on Mt. μήποτε, etc., whether perhaps he might not himself be the Christ; expresses very happily the popular st... [ Continue Reading ]
_Art thou the Christ?_ (Matthew 3:11-12; Mark 1:7-8).... [ Continue Reading ]
ἅπασι : might suggest frequent replies to various parties, uniform in tenor; but against this is the aorist ἀπεκρίνατο, which suggests a single answer given once for all, to a full assembly, a formal solemn public declaration. On the Baptist's statement in this and the following verse, _vide_ on Mt.... [ Continue Reading ]
πολλὰ μὲν οὖν καὶ ἕτερα, “many things, too, different from these” (Farrar, who refers to John 1:29; John 1:34; John 3:27-36, as illustrating the kind of utterances meant). The εὐηγγελίζετο following seems to justify emphasising ἕτερα, as pointing to a more evangelic type of utterance than those abou... [ Continue Reading ]
_Close of the Baptist's ministry and life_. Lk. gives here all he means to say about John, condensing into a single sentence the full narratives of Mt. and Mk. as to his end.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἡρώδης : the tetrarch named in Luke 3:1. περὶ πάντων, implying that John's rebuke was not confined to the sin with Herodias. Probably not, but it was what John said on that score that cost him his head.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπὶ πᾶσι, added this also _to all_ his misdeeds, and above all the crowning iniquity, and yet Lk. forbears to mention the damning sin of Herod, the beheading of the Baptist, contenting himself with noting the imprisonment. He either assumes knowledge of the horrid tale, or shrinks from it as too gru... [ Continue Reading ]
_The baptism of Jesus_ (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11). ἐν τῷ βαπτισθῆναι : the aorist ought to imply that the bulk of the people had already been baptised before Jesus appeared on the scene, _i.e._, that John's ministry was drawing to its close (so De Wette; but _vide_ Burton, _M. and T._, p. 51, §... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ αὐτὸς, etc., and He, Jesus, was about thirty years of age when He _began_. The evangelist's aim obviously is to state the age at which Jesus commenced His public career. ἀρχόμενος is used in a pregnant sense, _beginning_ = making His beginning in that which is to be the theme of the history. The... [ Continue Reading ]
_The age of Jesus when He began His ministry, and His genealogy_.... [ Continue Reading ]
ὢν, _being_, introducing the genealogical list, which ascends from son to father, instead of, as in Mt., descending from father to son, therefore beginning at the end and going backwards. ὡς ἐνομίζετο : presumably an editorial note to guard the virgin birth. Some regard this expression with Ἰωσήφ fo... [ Continue Reading ]
_From Joseph back to David_. Compared with the corresponding section of Mt.'s genealogy these differences are apparent: (1) in both sub-divisions of the section (David to captivity, captivity to Christ) there are considerably more names (Luke 3:20; Luke 3:14), a fact intelligible enough in genealogi... [ Continue Reading ]
_The genealogy_. One is surprised to find in Lk. a genealogy at all, until we reflect on his preface with its professed desire for accuracy and thoroughness, and observe the careful manner in which he dates the beginning of John's ministry. One is further surprised to find here a genealogy so utterl... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 3:32-34 a. _From David back to Abraham_. The lists of Mt. and Lk. in this part correspond, both being taken, as far as Pharez, from Ruth 4:18-22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_From Abraham to Adam_. Peculiar to Lk., taken from Genesis 11:12-26; Genesis 5:7-32, as given in the Sept [41], whence Canaan in Luke 3:36 (instead of חלַשָׁ in Genesis 11:12, in Heb.). It is probable that this part of the genealogy has been added by Lk., and that his interest in it is twofold: (1)... [ Continue Reading ]