Luke 3:18-20

4. vers. 18-20. We find here one of those general surveys such as we have in Luke 1:66; Luke 1:80; Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52. For the third time the lot of the forerunner becomes the prelude to that of the Saviour. The expression many other things (Luke 3:18) confirms what was already indicated by the imperf. he used to say (Luke 3:7), that Luke only intends to give a summary of John's preaching. The term he evangelized (a literal translation) refers to the Messianic promises which his discourses contained (Luke 3:16-17), and the true translation of this verse appears to me to be this: “ while addressing these and many other exhortations to the people, he announced to them the glad tidings. ”

Ver. 19. Herod Antipas, the sovereign of Galilee, is the person already mentioned in Luke 3:1. The word Φιλίππου, rejected by important authorities, is probably a gloss derived from Matthew. The first husband of Herodias was called Herod. He has no other name in Josephus. He lived as a private individual at Jerusalem. But perhaps he also bore the surname of Philip, to distinguish him from Herod Antipas. The brother of Antipas, who was properly called Philip, is the tetrarch of Ituraea (Luke 3:1). The ambitious Herodias had abandoned her husband to marry Antipas, who for love of her sent away his first wife, a daughter of Aretas king of Arabia; this act drew him into a disastrous war.

Luke's expression indicates concentrated indignation. In order to express the energy of the ἐπὶ πᾶσιν, we must say: to crown all...The form of the phrase προσέθηκε καὶ κατέκλεισε is based on a well-known Hebraism, and proves that this narrative of Luke's is derived from an Aramaean document. This passage furnishes another proof that Luke draws upon an independent source; he separates himself, in fact, from the two other synoptics, by mentioning the imprisonment of John the Baptist here instead of referring it to a later period, as Matthew and Mark do, synchronizing it with the return of Jesus into Galilee after His baptism (Matthew 4:12; Mark 1:14). He thereby avoids the chronological error committed by the two other Syn., and rectified by John (Luke 3:24). This notice is brought in here by anticipation, as the similar notices, Luke 1:66 b and 80b. It is intended to explain the sudden end of John's ministry, and serves as a steppingstone to the narrative Luke 7:18, where John sends from his prison two of his disciples to Jesus.

The fact of John the Baptist's ministry is authenticated by the narrative of Josephus. This historian speaks of it at some length when describing the marriage of Herod Antipas with Herodias. After relating the defeat of Herod's army by Aretas, the father of his first wife, Josephus (Antiq. 18.5. 1, 2) continues thus: “This disaster was attributed by many of the Jews to the displeasure of God, who smote Herod for the murder of John, surnamed the Baptist; for Herod had put to death this good man, who exhorted the Jews to the practice of virtue, inviting them to come to his baptism, and bidding them act with justice towards each other, and with piety towards God; for their baptism would please God if they did not use it to justify themselves from any sin they had committed, but to obtain purity of body after their souls had been previously purified by righteousness. And when a great multitude of people came to him, and were deeply moved by his discourses, Herod, fearing lest he might use his influence to urge them to revolt, for he well knew that they would do whatever he advised them, thought that the best course for him to take was to put him to death before he attempted anything of the kind. So he put him in chains, and sent him to the castle of Machaerus, and there put him to death. The Jews, therefore, were convinced that his army was destroyed as a punishment for this murder, God being incensed against Herod.” This account, while altogether independent of the evangelist's, confirms it in all the essential points: the extraordinary appearance of this person of such remarkable sanctity; the rite of baptism introduced by him; his surname, the Baptist; John's protest against the use of baptism as a mere opus operatum; his energetic exhortations; the general excitement; the imprisonment and murder of John; and further, the criminal marriage of Herod, related in what precedes. By the side of these essential points, common to the two narratives, there are some secondary differences: 1 st. Josephus makes no mention of the Messianic element in the preaching of John. But in this there is nothing surprising. This silence proceeds from the same cause as that which he observes respecting the person of Jesus. He who could allow himself to apply the Messianic prophecies to Vespasian, would necessarily try to avoid everything in contemporaneous history that had reference either to the forerunner, as such, or to Jesus. Weizsäcker rightly observes that the narrative of Josephus, so far from invalidating that of Luke on this point, confirms it. For it is evident that, apart from its connection with the expectation of the Messiah, the baptism of John would not have produced that general excitement which excited the fears of Herod, and which is proved by the account of Josephus. 2 d. According to Luke, the determining cause of John's imprisonment was the resentment of Herod at the rebukes of the Baptist; while, according to Josephus, the motive for this crime was the fear of a political outbreak. But it is easy to conceive that the cause indicated by Luke would not be openly avowed, and that it was unknown in the political circles where Josephus gathered his information. Herod and his counsellors put forward, as is usual in such cases, the reason of State. The previous revolts those which immediately followed the death of Herod, and that which Judas the Gaulonite provoked only justified too well the fears which they affected to feel.

In any case, if, on account of this general agreement, we were willing to admit that one of the two historians made use of the other, it is not Luke that we should regard as the copyist; for the Aramaean forms of his narrative indicate a source independent of that of Josephus.

The higher origin of this ministry of John is proved by the two following characteristics, which are inexplicable from a purely natural point of view: 1 st. His connection, so emphatically announced, with the immediate appearance of the Messiah; 2 d. The abdication of John, when at the height of his popularity, in favour of the poor Galilean, who was as yet unknown to all. As to the originality of John's baptism, the lustrations used in the oriental religions, in Judaism itself, and particularly among the Essenes, have been alleged against it. But this originality consisted less in the outward form of the rite, than 1. In its application to the whole people, thus pronounced defiled, and placed on a level with the heathen; and 2. In the preparatory relation established by the forerunner between this imperfect baptism and that final baptism which the Messiah was about to confer.

We think it useful to give an example here of the way in which Holtzmann tries to explain the composition of our Gospel:

1. Luke 3:1-6 are borrowed from source A. (the original Mark); only Luke leaves out the details respecting the ascetic life of John the Baptist, because he intends to give his discourses at greater length; he compensates for this omission by adding the chronological data (Luke 3:1-2), and by extending the quotation from the LXX. (Luke 3:5-6)!

2. Luke 3:7-9 are also taken from A., just as are the parallel verses in Matthew; they were left out by the author of our canonical Mark, whose intention was to give only an abridgment of the discourses.

3. Luke 3:10-14 are taken from a private source, peculiar to Luke.

Are we then to suppose that this source contained only these four verses, since Luke has depended on other sources for all the rest of his matter?

4. Luke 3:15-17 are composed (a) of a sketch of Luke's invention (Luke 3:15); (b) of an extract from A., Luke 3:16-17. 5. Luke 3:18-20 have been compiled on the basis of a fragment of A., which is found in Mark 6:17-29, a summary of which Luke thought should be introduced here.

Do we not thus fall into that process of manufacture which Schleiermacher ridiculed so happily in his work on the composition of Luke, à propos of Eichhorn's hypothesis, a method which we thought had disappeared from criticism for ever?