Luke 3–4

THE MESSIAH’S HERALD

3In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,^z Herod was tetrarch^C of Galilee,^aa his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas^ab and Caiaphas,^ac God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.^{ad 3}He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan,^ae proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,^{af 4}as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:

A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

Prepare the way for the Lord;

make his paths straight!

⁵Every valley will be filled,

and every mountain and hill will be made low;^D

the crooked will become straight,

the rough ways smooth,

⁶and everyone will see the salvation of God.^Ea

⁷He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers!^b Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?^{c 8}Therefore produce fruit^d consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’^e for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. ⁹The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”^f

¹⁰“What then should we do?”^g the crowds were asking him.

¹¹He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”^h

¹²Tax collectorsⁱ also came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?”^j

¹³He told them, “Don’t collect any more than what you have been authorized.”

¹⁴Some soldiers also questioned him, “What should we do?”

He said to them, “Don’t take money from anyone by force or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

¹⁵Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.^{k 16}John answered them all,^l “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with^A the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His winnowing shovel^m is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn,ⁿ but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”^{o 18}Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people. ¹⁹But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch^p because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the evil things he had done,^{q 20}Herod added this to everything else—he locked up John in prison.^r

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

²¹When all the people were baptized,^s Jesus also was baptized. As he was praying,^t heaven opened,^{u 22}and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”^v

THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST

²³As he began his ministry, Jesus was about thirty years old and was thought to be the

son of Joseph,^w son of Heli,

²⁴son of Matthat, son of Levi,

son of Melchi, son of Jannai,

son of Joseph, ²⁵son of Mattathias,

son of Amos, son of Nahum,

son of Esli, son of Naggai,

²⁶son of Maath, son of Mattathias,

son of Semein, son of Josech,

son of Joda, ²⁷son of Joanan,

son of Rhesa, son of Zerubbabel,^x

son of Shealtiel, son of Neri,

²⁸son of Melchi, son of Addi,

son of Cosam, son of Elmadam,

son of Er, ²⁹son of Joshua,

son of Eliezer, son of Jorim,

son of Matthat, son of Levi,

³⁰son of Simeon, son of Judah,

son of Joseph, son of Jonam,

son of Eliakim, ³¹son of Melea,

son of Menna, son of Mattatha,

son of Nathan, son of David,

³²son of Jesse,^y son of Obed,^z

son of Boaz, son of Salmon,^A

son of Nahshon, ³³son of Amminadab,

son of Ram,^B son of Hezron,

son of Perez,^aa son of Judah,

³⁴son of Jacob, son of Isaac,

son of Abraham,^ab son of Terah,

son of Nahor, ³⁵son of Serug,

son of Reu, son of Peleg,^ac

son of Eber, son of Shelah,

³⁶son of Cainan,^C son of Arphaxad,

son of Shem, son of Noah,^ad

son of Lamech, ³⁷son of Methuselah,

son of Enoch,^ae son of Jared,

son of Mahalalel, son of Cainan,

³⁸son of Enos, son of Seth,

son of Adam, son of God.

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS

4Then Jesus^a left the Jordan,^b full of the Holy Spirit,^c and was led by the Spirit^d in the wilderness ²for forty days^e to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry. ³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone.”^DEf

⁵So he took him up^F and showed him all the kingdoms of the world^g in a moment of time. ⁶The devil said to him, “I will give you their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me,^h and I can give it to anyone I want. ⁷If you, then, will worship me,^G all will be yours.”

⁸And Jesus answered him,^H “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serveⁱ him only.”^I

⁹So he took him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰For it is written:

He will give his angels orders concerning you,

to protect you,^{Jj 11}and

they will support you with their hands,

so that you will not strike

your foot against a stone.”^Kk

¹²And Jesus answered him, “It is said: Do not test the Lord your God.”^Ll

¹³After the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

MINISTRY IN GALILEE

¹⁴Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,^m and news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity.^{n 15}He was teaching in their synagogues,^o being praised^M by everyone.

REJECTION AT NAZARETH

¹⁶He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.^p As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day^q and stood up to read.^{r 17}The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written:

¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me^A

to proclaim release^B to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set free the oppressed,

¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.^Cs

²⁰He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.^t And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”^u

²²They were all speaking well of him^D and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth; yet they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”^v

²³Then he said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb^E to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. What we’ve heard that took place in Capernaum,^w do here in your hometown also.’ ”

²⁴He also said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.^{x 25}But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days,^y when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. ²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.^{z 27}And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy, and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”^aa

²⁸When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of town,^ab and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff. ³⁰But he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.^ac

DRIVING OUT AN UNCLEAN SPIRIT

³¹Then he went down to Capernaum,^ad a town in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. ³²They were astonished at his teaching because his message had authority.^{ae 33}In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice,^{a 34}“Leave us alone! What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”^b

³⁵But Jesus rebuked him^c and said, “Be silent and come out of him!”^d And throwing him down before them, the demon came out of him without hurting him at all.

³⁶Amazement came over them all, and they were saying to one another, “What is this message? For he commands the unclean spirits with authority and power, and they come out!” ³⁷And news about him began to go out to every place in the vicinity.

HEALINGS AT CAPERNAUM

³⁸After he left the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house.^e Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her.^{f 39}So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately^g and began to serve them.

⁴⁰When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to him. As he laid his hands on each one of them, he healed them.^{h 41}Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “You are the Son of God!”ⁱ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.^j

⁴²When it was day, he went out and made his way to a deserted place.^k But the crowds were searching for him. They came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them. ⁴³But he said to them, “It is necessary for me to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose.” ⁴⁴And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.^Al