Luke 3:1-6

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of ¹Tiberius Caesar, ²Pontius Pilate ³being governor of Judea, and ⁴Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

2 during ⁵the high priesthood of Annas and ⁶Caiaphas, ⁷the word of God came to ⁸John the son of Zechariah in ⁹the wilderness.

3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming ¹⁰a baptism of repentance ¹¹for the forgiveness of sins.

4 As it is written in ¹²the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ¹³“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ¹⁴‘Prepare the way of the Lord, ^[a] make his paths straight.

5 ¹⁵Every valley shall be filled, ¹⁶and every mountain and hill shall be made low, ¹⁷and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,

6 ¹⁸and all flesh shall see ¹⁹the salvation of God. ’”

Cross References

• 1. 3:1 [ch. 2:1]
• 2. 3:1 See Matt. 27:2
• 3. 3:1 ch. 2:2
• 4. 3:1 ver. 19; ch. 8:3; 9:7, 9; 13:31; 23:7; Matt. 14:1; Acts 4:27; 13:1; [Mark 6:14]
• 5. 3:2 John 18:13, 24; Acts 4:6
• 6. 3:2 See Matt. 26:3
• 7. 3:2 For ver. 2-17, see Matt. 3:1-12; Mark 1:2-8
• 8. 3:2 John 1:6, 7
• 9. 3:2 ch. 1:80; Josh. 15:61; [Judg. 1:16]
• 10. 3:3 Acts 2:38
• 11. 3:3 Matt. 26:28; [ch. 1:77]
• 12. 3:4 ch. 4:17; [Acts 8:28]
• 13. 3:4 John 1:23; Cited from Isa. 40:3-5
• 14. 3:4 ch. 1:76
• 15. 3:5 [Isa. 57:14]
• 16. 3:5 Isa. 49:11; Zech. 4:7
• 17. 3:5 Isa. 42:16; 45:2
• 18. 3:6 Isa. 52:10; [Ps. 98:2, 3]
• 19. 3:6 ch. 2:30; Acts 28:28; [ch. 1:69, 71, 77; Titus 2:11]

Footnotes

• [a] 3:4 Or 'crying, Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord'