Luke 3
Luke 3 is the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, traditionally attributed to Luke the Evangelist, a companion of Paul the Apostle on his missionary journeys. It contains an account of the preaching of John the Baptist as well as a genealogy of Jesus. The Expositor's Greek Testament states that in this chapter "the ministry of the new era opens". Text. The original text was written in Koine Greek and is divided into 38 verses. Textual witnesses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: John  the Baptist. As he has already done in the first two chapters, Luke provides several points of historical data, in this case six, to specify the date of the events in the first century CE. Verses 1–2. Tiberius' fifteenth year of rule was AD 29 or 30 (calculated from the death of his predecessor, Augustus, in AD 14), so one can date the start of John's preaching to then. New Testament scholar William Ramsay suggests that the year was AD 26, calculated from the time Tiberius was appointed as co-Princeps with Augustus in AD 12. Ramsay notes that  this manner of calculation could be 'made under an Emperor whose years were reckoned from his association as colleague', such as employed by Titus, whose reign began from his association with his father on July 1, AD 71. The rule of Pontius Pilate in Judea during the reign of Tiberius is well attested in history (for example, Tacitus in "Annals" , written "ca." AD 116). Luke, like , and , quotes Isaiah 40 but quotes it to the greatest length in reference to John the Baptist. It is possible that he does this to include the message that "...all flesh ("or" all mankind ) will see God's salvation" () to his Gentile audience. Verses 7-17. John first exhorts the listeners ("brood of snakes") to prove their repentance by the way they lived. Their sincerity was being called into question. As John continues to preach a baptism of repentance, he then tell the crowds that their descent from Abraham will not save them from "the wrath to come", that "...out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and  thrown into the fire." (8-9) The people ask what they should do and John speaks of sharing (verse 11). Specifically to tax collectors (publicans in the King James Version), and to soldiers he says that they should not abuse their positions. They ask him if he is the Christ, and he replies "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." () also found in , and -. John is then locked up by Herod for  rebuking him about his wife Herodias, Herod adding this "crowning iniquity" to all his other misdeeds. Jesus's baptism. Luke then tells us that Jesus was one of the many who John baptized. The Holy Spirit appears to him like a dove and tells him "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased" (cf. -, Mark 1, John 1). Verse 23a. The King James Version's wording is "ungrammatical, a strange expression". Many translations insert reference to his "work" or his "ministry". Luke does not state how many years John baptised for, but this is when  most date the start of Jesus's ministry, 29 or 30. He had to be more than thirty years old, as he was born about six months before Jesus was born, as noted in Luke 1. Most probably John was born in 4 BC. The ancestry of Jesus. Verses 23b-38. Luke sets out here, like Matthew in his opening chapter, a genealogy of Jesus. Luke starts with his legal father Joseph and lists 73 people between Joseph and Adam, who Luke says is "...the Son of God", thus having 75 people between God and Jesus. This genealogy is longer than  Matthew's, works retrospectively from Jesus back to Adam, (whereas Matthew's runs chronologically forward from Abraham to Jesus), and has a number of other differences. Luke names Joseph's father and thus Jesus's grandfather as Heli, which could be Mary's father, as noted in the Talmud. On the other hand, Matthew records the name of Joseph's father was Jacob. They then say that Jesus's great grandfather was named Matthat or Matthan, who could be the same person or, as first suggested by Julius Africanus, brothers. The lists then diverge from there, coming together again at  David. The list in Luke also differs from , which says that Arphaxad was Selah's father, not his grandfather through Cainan. Verse 33. Parallel verses: