Lukechapter 3
38 verses · BSBLuke book hub →
Speaks with:John 1×5Matthew 3×3Isaiah 40×3Matthew 1×3Luke 23×2Luke 1×2
Summary
Chapter summary
John the Baptist's ministry dated to Tiberius's fifteenth year; brood of vipers; 'bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.' Practical counsel to soldiers and publicans. Baptism of Jesus; Spirit descending; Father's voice. Luke's genealogy ascends through David to Abraham to Seth to Adam, the son of God.
Context
Gospel · Luke — Luke overview
- A. 1–20 John Preaches Repentance and Confronts Herod
- B. 21–22 Baptized, and the Spirit Descends
- C. 23–38 The Line Traced Back to Adam
The outline
A.John Preaches Repentance and Confronts Herodvv. 1 to 20
Read vv. 1 to 20 →B.Baptized, and the Spirit Descendsvv. 21 to 22
Read vv. 21 to 22 →C.The Line Traced Back to Adamvv. 23 to 38
Read vv. 23 to 38 →
The world behind this chapter
Luke 3The history
Luke opens this chapter like a historian, not a storyteller. He fixes the year by the reign of Tiberius Caesar, then names Pontius Pilate as governor of Judea, Herod Antipas over Galilee, his brother Philip over the north-eastern territories, Lysanias over Abilene, and Annas and Caiaphas in the high priesthood. Six independent handles, any one of which a contemporary could have checked.
Several of them are confirmed outside the Bible. Pilate's name and title appear on a stone found at Caesarea in 1961; Josephus describes Antipas and Philip and the high priestly family; and an inscription from the region of Abila names a Lysanias as ruler there, a figure critics had once doubted.
Naming two high priests at once is itself accurate reporting. The office was in Rome's gift and changed hands often. Annas had been deposed years earlier but remained the power in the family, with several sons and his son-in-law Caiaphas holding the office in turn.
The practical advice John gives is aimed at the actual occupations in front of him. Tax collectors are told to collect no more than they are authorised to — which is a direct hit on how tax farming made its profit. Soldiers are told not to extort money by threats or file false accusations, both of which were standing abuses by armed men in the provinces.
What it meant to them
Luke is doing something deliberate for a reader like Theophilus: anchoring the story in the public record of the empire. This did not happen once upon a time. It happened in a datable year, under named officials.
The genealogy that closes the chapter then runs the opposite direction from Matthew's — backwards, past Abraham, to Adam, and to God. The lists differ, and the usual explanations are that one traces legal descent and the other physical, or that one follows Mary's line. Luke's point stands either way: this man belongs not merely to Israel but to the human race.
Sources cited
- Sir William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen
- Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation)
- F. F. Bruce, New Testament History
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Luke 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 23 · A picture of Christ
A shoot from the stem of Jesse
Isaiah 11:1→Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.
MannaFest topical index
v. 23 · A disputed family line
Joseph is 'son of Jacob' (Matthew) yet 'son of Heli' (Luke). The two classic resolutions (Luke traces Mary's line, or a levirate marriage gave Joseph a legal and a natural father) are both presented here; neither is flattened.
Matthew 1:16→and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Matt 1:16; Luke 3:23; Africanus in Eusebius EH I.7 (PD); Annius of Viterbo 1498
v. 27 · The same person
Shealtiel and Zerubbabel are the one place where Matthew's and Luke's genealogies touch (Matt 1:12; Luke 3:27), but they arrive by different fathers (Jeconiah in Matthew, Neri in Luke) and leave by different sons (Abiud in Matthew, Rhesa in Luke).
Matthew 1:12→After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Matt 1:12; Luke 3:27; TIPNR (4 records)
v. 31 · The same person
Nathan son of David heads Luke's royal-bypass line; TIPNR lists his offspring as Mattatha (Luke 3:31), the floor link making the fork concrete.
2 Samuel 5:14→These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
2 Sam 5:14; Luke 3:31; TIPNR
v. 31 · Where the family lists differ
After David the lists fork: Matthew via Solomon (H8010), Luke via Nathan (H5416) - both David's sons in TIPNR. The decisive divergence.
Matthew 1:6→and Jesse the father of David the king. Next: David was the father of Solomon by Uriah’s wife,
Matt 1:6; Luke 3:31; STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0)
v. 38 · A parallel passage
The two genealogies (Abraham->Christ; Adam->Christ) that land the seed line; Luke's terminus 'Adam, son of God' frames Christ as second Adam (1 Cor 15:45-47).
Matthew 1:1→This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
MT-ASV
Where scholars push back(1)
Matthew 1:12. Because the surrounding names differ, the reference work TIPNR treats them as two different pairs of men who share names rather than one pair, a disambiguation others reject.
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.