Luke 3:1–16

John the Baptist Begins His Ministry

3Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,^a when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, ²in the time of the high priest Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³And he went into all the surrounding region of the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight!

⁵Every valley will be filled,

and every mountain and hill will be leveled,

and the crooked will become straight,

and the rough road will become^* smooth,

⁶and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’ ”^b

⁷Therefore he was saying to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁹And even now the ax is positioned at the root of the trees; therefore every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰And the crowds were asking him, saying, “What then should we do?” ¹¹And he answered and^* said to them, “The one who has two tunics must share with the one who does not have one,^* and the one who has food must do likewise.” ¹²And tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” ¹³And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you are ordered to.”^{c 14}And those who served in the army were also asking him, saying, “What should we also do?” And he said to them, “Extort from no one, and do not blackmail anyone,^* and be content with your pay.”

¹⁵And while^* the people were waiting expectantly and all were pondering in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he might be the Christ,^{d 16}John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than I am is coming, of whom I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.