Luke 3:1-11

John the Baptist Preaches

1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when ¹Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and ²Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,

2 in the high priesthood of ³Annas and ⁴Caiaphas, ⁵the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

3 And he came into all ⁶the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;

4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "⁷THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.

5 '⁸EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED WILL BECOME * STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH;

6 ⁹AND ALL FLESH WILL ¹⁰SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.' "

7 So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "¹¹You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8 "Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and ¹²do not begin to say to yourselves, '¹³We have Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.