Luke 3:1-20. PREACHING, BAPTISM, AND IMPRISONMENT OF JOHN.
(See on Mt 3:1-12; Mark 6:17, &c.).
1, 2. Here the curtain of the New Testament is, as it were, drawn
up, and the greatest of all epochs of the Church commences. Even our
Lord's own age
(Lu 3:23)
is determined by it [BENGEL]. No such elaborate
chronological precision is to be found elsewhere in the New Testament,
and it comes fitly from him who claims it as the peculiar
recommendation of his Gospel, that he had "accurately traced down all
things from the first"
(Lu 1:3).
Here, evidently, commences his proper narrative. Also see on
Mt 3:1.
the fifteenth year of Tiberius--reckoning from the period when he
was admitted, three years before Augustus' death, to a share of the
empire [WEBSTER and
WILKINSON], about the end of the year of Rome 779,
or about four years before the usual reckoning.
Pilate . . . governor of Judea--His proper title was Procurator, but with more than the usual powers of
that office. After holding it
about ten years he was ordered to Rome, to answer to charges brought
against him, but ere he arrived Tiberius died (A.D. 35), and soon after
Pilate committed suicide.
Herod--(See on
Mr 6:14).
Philip--a different and very superior Philip to the one whose
wife Herodias went to live with Herod Antipas. (See
Mr 6:17).
Iturea--to the northeast of Palestine; so called from Ishmael's son
Itur or Jetur
(1Ch 1:31),
and anciently belonging to the half tribe of Manasseh.
Trachonitis--farther to the northeast, between Iturea and Damascus;
a rocky district, infested by robbers, and committed by Augustus to
Herod the Great to keep in order.
Abilene--still more to the northeast, so called from Abila,
eighteen miles from Damascus [ROBINSON].
JFB.
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