Bible Commentaries
Luke 3

Verses 1-15

48 Though Herod was dead and Archelaus had been banished by this time, the absence of their

Son no doubt revived the dread, inspired by the massacre of the babes of Bethlehem, which caused them to dwell in Nazareth. This may have been the first time they had taken Him outside Galilee, since their return from Egypt, for fear that His royal rights would endanger

His life. Hence His absence would mean much more to them than that He had been lost among the thousands who crowded the roads from the holy city. And, indeed, His astonishing discourse with the doctors could easily have reminded some of the previous prodigies and predictions that accompanied His infancy. But, no doubt, He was already conscious of God's will for Him, and that His time had not yet come. So He returns to Nazareth until His majority, or about thirty years of age. Not till then could He take up His public ministry.

1 This is the most precise chronological memorandum in the scriptures. Yet, even so, the various chronologies are only approximately agreed, partly because, in expressing years in figures, no account is taken of their overlap. Assuming that John the baptist began his ministry at thirty years, according to custom, our Lord's age at this time would be six months less, or twenty. nine and a half. This makes the fifteenth year of Tiberius and the twenty-ninth year of our Lord the same for more than half of their extent. According to Roman reckoning, the first year of Tiberius was probably 765, two years before the death of Augustus in 767. This would make the fifteenth of Tiberius 780 A.U.C. Pilate was governor from 779 to 789. Herod, tetrarch of Galilee was in power from 750 to 792, while his brother Philip continued to his death in 786.

2-11 Compare Mat_3:1-10 ; Mar_1:2-5 ; Joh_1:6-8 ; Joh_1:19-23 .

3 At this time John had attained his majority, and, according to the law ( Num_18:8-24 ) was entitled to the easy, comfortable and honorable career of a priest, ministering one week in twenty-four in the temple service, clothed in the sacred vestments, fed at the altar, and supported by the tithes of the people. He, however, forsakes the forms and ceremonies of divine worship for those vital functions in which the priesthood had failed. They should have brought the people to repentance and prepared them for Messiah. Instead, we find them His sorest opponents. John's work was to smooth the path of the coming Christ. In a most serious sense, it was not a success. Though he made many disciples, and baptized multitudes more, when Christ came His path was far from smooth, His road was very rough. John's gospel was essentially one of works. He looked for fruit. When he was asked, What shall we do? he did not urge them to believe, but advised them as to their conduct. He aimed at a reformation in the nation, similar to that demanded by the prophets that went before him. He had no illusions as to the effect of his baptism. Unless accompanied by heartfelt repentance it would be useless. He had no difficulty in getting them to submit to baptism, but was furious in his denunciation of those who wished it without conforming their lives to its spiritual import. The cleansing of baptism in water is external and ceremonial: the purification he wished to produce was internal and spiritual.

10 The lack of love among the people seems to have led to unlawful selfishness. The poor were not being provided for. Hence he exhorts them to observe a measure of that commandment which bade them love their associate as themselves.

12 The tribute collectors were notably unjust in raising their assessments to their own profit. They kept the peasants impoverished.

14 The soldiers took advantage of their position to extort money by force or blackmail, and thus harassed the people.

15-18 Compare Mat_3:11-12 ; Mar_1:7-8 ; Joh_1:15-27 ; Joh_1:30-34 .

15 John was a faithful forerunner who refused to receive the glory due to his Master. He often seems to have insisted that he was not the Christ. The difference between them was expressed in the two baptisms, his in water, and that in holy Spirit and with fire. Water failed to separate the true from the false. But spirit makes them manifest. The Lord Himself never baptized in water, but left that for His disciples. He did not baptize in spirit until after His ascension.

Verses 16-38

19 Compare Mat_14:3-5 ; Mar_6:17-18 .

19 Herod's treatment of John is here inserted ahead of time to close the account of John's ministry before opening that of his Master's.

21-22 Compare Mat_3:13-17 ; Mar_1:9-11 ; Joh_1:32-34 .

23 Maturity and sonship, as distinguished from nativity and minority, were not attained at birth, but waited until the thirtieth year. The genealogy here given does not deal with birth or begettal, but with sonship. Hence it is not introduced until He arrives at His full manhood, and God Himself claims Him as His Son. The following pedigree is hardly intended to prove Him a descendant of Adam, but rather to show that this line, through which He came as to flesh, was absolutely incapable of producing the Sinless One, apart from His divine paternity.

23 This genealogy gives us the "Seed of the woman " ( Gen_3:15 ) Who shall crush the serpent's head. Unlike Matthew's pedigree, it does not trace the physical male ancestry, but the legal line, through Mary back to Adam. Christ is first proclaimed as the Son of God. Then He is shown to be the legal (not physical) son of Joseph. Joseph, also, is not the offspring of Heli, whose son he is said to be, for in Matthew we read that he was begotten by Jacob. He was, therefore, the son-in-law of Heli, by his marriage with Mary, Heli's daughter. As Heli had no son of his own his allotment passed to his daughter's husband ( Num_27:8 ) and so Joseph is the legal son of Heli and the physical son of Jacob.

27 The lines meet in Zerubbabel and Salathiel ( Mat_1:12 ) , just after the captivity, because the line of Nathan died out in Neri, so that Jechoniah's son Salathiel was also the legal son and heir of Neri. From thence it is traced back to the second surviving son of Bathsheba the wife of David. From David back to Abraham this corresponds with Matthew's genealogy. When Eve bore Cain she supposed that he was the promised Seed, so she said "I have acquired a man, Jehovah", and she names him "Cain", that is "Acquired". But before his brother Abel was born she realized her mistake, and called him "Abel," Vanity. The Seed was not to be the seed of Adam, but the Seed of the woman. This lesson is emphasized again when the male line dies out in Neri, and the allotment passes through a woman to a legal son, and this is repeated when Joseph becomes the son of Heli through his wife Mary. Not a single man in the whole list was capable of generating the One Who was to bruise the serpent's head. It is a broken, sinful pedigree. Hence the absolute necessity that He should be begotten, not of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God, and that a virgin should bring forth Emmanuel.

36 As this Cainan is not found in the Hebrew text and seems to have been unknown to some of the early fathers, some are inclined to regard it as a very early corruption of the text. But, if we retain it we have the notable number, seventy-seven, as the full total, and, when all names found also in Matthew's genealogy are omitted, we discover three groups of exactly twenty names each.

1-13 Compare Mat_4:1-11 ; Mar_1:12-13 .

2 The Slanderer is the suzerain of the kingdoms of the earth. Before proclaiming the Kingdom it was necessary that he should be met and overcome. He took the dominion away from mankind through his deception in the garden ( 1Ti_2:14 ). Adam was in no need of food, yet he sinned. Christ was famished from a forty-day fast, yet He withstood the temptation to provide Himself with food. Adam was in a beautiful garden, the head of all creatures on earth, yet he yielded to Satan. Christ was in a wilderness among the wild beasts, yet He refused to do homage even though it should give Him the headship which was rightfully His. Adam questioned God's goodness and offended Him by seeking that which He withheld. Our Lord refused to doubt His love, though every token of it seemed to have vanished. He would not put it to a test. On every point in which the first man failed, the second Man, though tempted many times more searchingly, stood the test triumphantly. No mere son of Adam could have stood. Had He not been the Son of God the stress would have been too great.