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, 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.'"
7
He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him,
20"You brood of
21vipers! Who warned you to flee from
22the wrath to come?
8
Bear fruits
23in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves,
24'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from
25these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
9
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
26Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
10
And the crowds asked him,
27"What then shall we do?"
11
And he answered them,
28"Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise."
12
29Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, "Teacher,
30what shall we do?"
13
And he said to them,
31"Collect no more than you are authorized to do."
14
Soldiers also asked him, "And we,
32what shall we do?" And he said to them,
33"Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your
34wages."
15
As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John,
35whether he might be
36the Christ,
16
37John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but
38he who is mightier than I is coming,
39the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you
40with the Holy Spirit and with
41fire.
17
His
42winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to
43gather the wheat into his barn,
44but the chaff he will burn with
45unquenchable fire."
18
So
46with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.
19
But
47Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done,
20
added this to them all, that
48he locked up John in prison.