Luke 3 Study Notes

3:18 As well as preaching related to repentance (v. 3), John also proclaimed good news consistent with the message Messiah was prophesied to deliver (see note at 4:18).

3:19 On Herod Antipas, the tetrarch, see note at v. 1. Antipas divorced his wife, the daughter of King Aretas IV of Arabia, so he could marry the wife of his brother Philip (Mt 14:3; see note at Lk 3:1). Such a marriage was forbidden by Mosaic law (Lv 18:16; 20:21).

3:20 The events here are not given in chronological sequence, since John could not have baptized Jesus (see note at vv. 21-22) while he was in prison. Luke wrapped up his discussion of John’s ministry before moving on to the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. John was arrested at some point after Jesus began his public ministry (Jn 3:22-24). Josephus, the Jewish historian, stated John was held in the Machaerus prison, east of the Dead Sea.

3:21-22 Jesus was not baptized for the forgiveness of sins, as were all the other people whom John baptized. Rather, Jesus was baptized to identify himself and his ministry with the ministry and message of his forerunner (see notes at vv. 4-6,15-17). Prayer, especially Jesus’s praying, is a strong emphasis of Luke’s Gospel. This is the first of three times in the Gospels when a voice from heaven spoke about Jesus. The other two were at the transfiguration (see note at 9:34-35) and in the temple during Passion Week (Jn 12:28). This is a relatively rare scriptural passage in which all three persons of the Godhead are mentioned: (1) the Father who said, you are my beloved Son, (2) Jesus the Divine Son, who was being baptized, and (3) the Holy Spirit who was in physical appearance like a dove. The words “you are my beloved Son” echo Ps 2:7, while with you I am well-pleased looks back to a key prophecy of the messianic servant in Is 42:1.

3:23-38 The family tree of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is considerably different from the one in Mt 1:1-17. Luke’s genealogy traces Jesus’s lineage all the way back to Adam, emphasizing Jesus’s relation to all humankind, while Matthew’s version starts with Abraham and moves forward to Jesus, emphasizing Jesus’s relation to Israel (i.e., that he was the Son of Abraham, fulfiller of the Abrahamic promises, and the messianic Son of David). In Luke, the family tree moves through Nathan, a younger son of David (Lk 3:30), while in Matthew it goes through Solomon (Mt 1:6-7), inheritor of Israel’s throne after David. Since Lk 1-2 narrates events from Mary’s point of view, 3:23-38 follows Jesus’s physical line through Mary since v. 23 says Jesus was only “thought to be the son of Joseph.” By contrast, Mt 1:1-17, in the midst of a section from Joseph’s point of view (Mt 1-2), tracks Jesus’s legal lineage. This demonstrates his right to the throne of David through his adoptive father, Joseph.

3:23 Jesus began his ministry at about thirty years old—the age when a Levite began priestly service (Nm 4:46-47; see note at Lk 1:80). Thought to be the son of Joseph affirms the prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus (see notes at 1:31-33,34-35). Jesus was not Joseph’s physical son, as everyone around them mistakenly assumed (see note at 4:22).

3:38 Adam is called son of God in this genealogy because he was directly created by God (see Gn 2:7).