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The Ministry of John the Baptist. Luk_3:1-20
The time of John's ministry:
v. 1. Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
v. 2. Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
With the historian's propensity for exact dating of events, Luke here fixes the time when John began his ministry in the wilderness. It was in the fifteenth year of the rule of Emperor Tiberius, who became regent with Augustus in the year 765 after the founding of Rome, and assumed the full functions of Caesar two years later. This would place, the beginning of John's ministry in the year 26 A. D. , when Jesus was thirty years old, v. 23. Pontius Pilate was the sixth or fifth governor, or procurator, of the Roman province of Judea, from 26 to 36 A. D. Other parts of Palestine were governed by members of the Herod family, by sons of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Perea after the death of his father, ruling there until 38 A. D. His brother Philip became tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis, also of Batanaea, Auranitis, Gaulanitis, and some parts about Jamnia. He died in 32 A. D. Finally, Lysanias, the tetrarch of Abilene, is mentioned. This was the second ruler of this name, the former having ruled sixty years before. This tetrarchy is mentioned by Luke, because the district afterwards formed part of the Jewish territory, "having been assigned by Caligula to his favorite, Herod Agrippa I, in A. D. 36. " Annas and Caiaphas are named as the incumbents of the high priest's office. Annas had been deposed by the Romans, after having held the office from 7 to 14 A. D. Caiaphas, his son-in-law, became his successor, 14-35 A. D. But Hannas continued to hold high honor among the Jews and exercised great authority. Whenever the two names are mentioned together, that of the influential Hannas receives first place. It appears, then, that Luke's careful chronology in this instance has again been substantiated by records of secular history. This was God's appointed time. His word, His command, came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. He had the direct authority of God for his ministry; the content of his preaching was given him by the Lord, just as the content of the preaching and the manner of fulfilling all the works of the pastor's office are definitely fixed by God, to this day, in Holy Scriptures. John, at this time, was in the wilderness, living chiefly in the mountainous wilderness southeast of Jerusalem, toward the Dead Sea, but also in the wilderness of Judea and in the valley of the Jordan.