Luke 3:3-6

2. vers. 3-6.

The country about Jordan, in Luke, doubtless denotes the arid plains near the mouth of this river. The name wilderness of Judea, by which Matthew and Mark designate the scene of John's ministry, applies properly to the mountainous and broken country which forms the western boundary of the plain of the Jordan (towards the mouth of this river), and of the northern part of the basin of the Dead Sea. But as, according to them also, John was baptizing in Jordan, the wilderness of Judea must necessarily have included in their view the lower course of the river. As to the rest, the expression he came into supposes, especially if with the Alex. we erase the τήν, that John did not remain stationary, but went too and fro in the country. This hint of the Syn., especially in the form in which it occurs in Luke, agrees perfectly with John 10:40, where the Peraea is pointed out as the principal theatre of John's ministry.

The rite of baptism, which consisted in the plunging of the body more or less completely into water, was not at this period in use amongst the Jews, neither for the Jews themselves, for whom the law only prescribed lustrations, nor for proselytes from paganism, to whom, according to the testimony of history, baptism was not applied until after the fall of Jerusalem. The very title Baptist, given to John, sufficiently proves that it was he who introduced this rite. This follows also from John 1:25, where the deputation from the Sanhedrin asks him by what right he baptizes, if he is neither the Messiah nor one of the prophets, which implies that this rite was introduced by him; and further, from John 3:26, where the disciples of John make it a charge against Jesus, that He adopted a ceremony of which the institution, and consequently, according to them, the monopoly, belonged to their master. Baptism was a humiliating rite for the Jews. It represented a complete purification; it was, as it were, a lustration carried to the second power, which implied in him who accepted it not a few isolated faults so much as a radical defilement. So Jesus calls it (John 3:5) a birth of water. Already the promise of clean water, and of a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, in Ezekiel (Eze 36:25) and Zechariah (Zec 13:1), had the same meaning.

The complement μετανοίας, of repentance, indicates the moral act which was to accompany the outward rite, and which gave it its value. This term indicates a complete change of mind. The object of this new institution is sin, which appears to the baptized in a new light. According to Matthew and Mark, this change was expressed by a positive act which accompanied the baptism, the confession of their sins (ἐξομολόγησις). Baptism, like every divinely instituted ceremony, contained also a grace for him who observed it with the desired disposition. As Strauss puts it: if, on the part of man, it was a declaration of the renunciation of sin, on the part of God it was a declaration of the pardon of sins.

The words for the pardon depend grammatically on the collective notion, baptism of repentance.

According to Luke 3:4, the forerunner of the Messiah had a place in the prophetic picture by the side of the Messiah Himself. It is very generally taken for granted by modern interpreters, that the prophecy Isaiah 40:1-11, applied by the three synoptics to the times of the Messiah and to John the Baptist, refer properly to the return from the exile, and picture the entrance of Jehovah into the Holy Land at the head of His people. But is this interpretation really in accordance with the text of the prophet? Throughout this entire passage of Isaiah the people are nowhere represented as returning to their own country; they are settled in their cities; it is God who comes to them: “ O Zion, get thee up into a high mountain...Lift up thy voice with strength! Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! ” (Luke 3:9). So far are the people from following in Jehovah's train, that, on the contrary, they are invited by the divine messenger to prepare, in the country where they dwell, the way by which Jehovah is to come to them: “ Prepare the way of the Lord..., and His glory shall be revealed ” (Luke 3:3; Luke 3:5). The desert to which the prophet compares the moral condition of the people is not that of Syria, which had to be crossed in returning from Babylon, a vast plain in which there are neither mountains to level nor valleys to fill up. It is rather the uncultivated and rocky hill-country which surrounds the very city of Jerusalem, into which Jehovah is to make His entry as the Messiah. If, therefore, it is indeed the coming of Jehovah as Messiah which is promised in this passage (Luke 3:11, “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd..., He shall carry the lambs in His arms”), the herald who invites the people to prepare the way of his God is really the forerunner of the Messiah. The image is taken from an oriental custom, according to which the visit of a sovereign was preceded by the arrival of a courier, who called on all the people to make ready the road by which the monarch was to enter.

The text is literally: A voice of one crying!...There is no finishing verb; it is an exclamation. The messenger is not named; his person is of so little consequence, that it is lost in his message. The words in the desert may, in Hebrew as in Greek, be taken either with what precedes: “cries in the desert,” or with what follows: “Prepare in the desert.” It matters little; the order resounds wherever it is to be executed. Must we be satisfied with a general application of the details of the picture? or is it allowable to give a particular application to them, to refer, for instance, the mountains that must be levelled to the pride of the Pharisees; the valleys to be filled up, to the moral and religious indifference of such as the Sadducees; the crooked places to be made straight, to the frauds and lying excuses of the publicans; and lastly, the rough places, to the sinful habits found in all, even the best? However this may be, the general aim of the quotation is to exhibit repentance as the soul of John's baptism.

It is probable that the plur. εὐθείας was early substituted for the sing. εὐθεῖαν, to correspond with the plur. τὰ σκολιά. With this adj. ὁδόν or ὁδούς must be understood.

When once this moral change is accomplished, Jehovah will appear. Καί, and then. The Hebrew text is: “ All flesh shall see the glory of God. ” The LXX. have translated it: “The glory of the Lord shall be seen (by the Jews?), and all flesh (including the heathen?) shall see the salvation of God.” This paraphrase, borrowed from Isaiah 52:10, proceeded perhaps from the repugnance which the translator felt to attribute to the heathen the sight of the glory of God, although he concedes to them a share in the salvation. This term salvation is preserved by Luke; it suits the spirit of his Gospel.

Only the end of the prophecy (Luke 3:5-6) is cited by Luke. The two other synoptics limit themselves to the first part (Luke 3:4). It is remarkable that all three should apply to the Hebrew text and to that of the LXX. the same modification: τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, His paths, instead of τὰς τρίβους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν, the paths of our God. This fact has been used to prove the dependence of two of the synoptics on the third. But the proof is not valid. As Weizsäcker remarks, this was one of the texts of which frequent use was made in the preaching of the Messiah; and it was customary, in applying the passage to the person of the Messiah, to quote it in this form. If Luke had, in this section, one of the two other synoptics before him, how could he have omitted all that refers to the dress and mode of life of the forerunner?