Luke 3

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:14

(14) And the soldiers likewise . . .—The Greek word has not the definite article, and is a participle. Better, and soldiers, as they were marching. The words probably point to the troops of Antipas on their way down the valley of the Jordan to attack Aretas (comp. Notes on 2 Corinthians 11:32), the father of the Tetrarch’s divorced wife, who had declared war on account of the wrong thus done to his daughter. Roman soldiers were not likely to have come to the Baptist’s preaching.Do violence to... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:15

(15) All men mused in their hearts . . .—The surmise which St. Luke thus records is not given by St. Matthew or St. Mark, but it agrees with what we find in St. John (John 1:19), and explains the reference to the “mightier” one which in the other Gospels comes in somewhat abruptly. On the answer itself, see Notes on Matthew 3:11-12. St. Luke’s report includes the chief features of those of St. Matthew and St. Mark, but it omits the characteristically vivid “stooping down” to unloose which we... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:17

(17) He will throughly purge . . .—The better MSS. give, throughly to purge, and to gather. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:18

(18) Many other things . . .—This lay, more or less, in the nature of the case; but St. Luke’s is the only record which lays stress on the wider range of the Baptist’s teaching. The sources of information which supplied him with Luke 3:10-14, probably brought to his knowledge much of the same character; but what he records, in common with the other two Evangelists, was, as it were, the text and burden of it all. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:19-20

(19-20) But Herod the tetrarch.—See Notes on Matthew 14:3-5. St. Luke’s anticipation of the close of the Baptist’s history supplies a curious instance of an arrangement which was obviously deliberate. It seemed to him better to complete the account of the Baptist’s ministry here than to bring in the account of the imprisonment as an episode later on. It coincides in part with St. John’s arrangement (John 3:24).For all the evils which Herod had done.—The marriage with Herodias is conspicuous as... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:21-22

(21-22) Now when all the people were baptized.—See Notes on Matthew 3:13-17. St. Luke’s account is the shortest of the three first Gospels, but it adds here, as afterwards in his report of the Transfiguration, the fact that our Lord was “praying” at the time of the divine attestation to His Sonship. (See Introduction.) read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:22

(22) In a bodily shape.—The words are peculiar to St. Luke, and tend to confirm the traditional symbolism which finds in the dove the emblem of the Holy Spirit. They, at least, fall in naturally with this view; but the other construction, that the Holy Spirit descended, after the manner of a dove, first hovering and then resting, in a bodily form (undefined) of some sort, is, at least, not excluded. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:23

(23) Began to be about thirty years of age.—At this age the Levites entered on their full work (Numbers 4:23; Numbers 4:30; Numbers 4:35), a kind of probationary period beginning at twenty-five (Numbers 8:24) or even, in later times, when their work was lighter, at twenty (1 Chronicles 23:27). No age was fixed for the beginning of the priesthood, nor of the prophet’s work; but it may fairly be inferred that thirty was looked on as the time when manhood reached its completeness, and we may... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Luke 3:38

(38) Which was the son of God.—The whole form of the genealogy leads us to apply these words to Adam. Humanity as such, as the result of an immediate creative act, was the offspring of God (Acts 17:28), and the words of the angel (Luke 1:35) imply that it was because the human nature of our Lord originated in a like creative act, that it was entitled, not less than by its union with the Sonship of the Eternal Word, to be called the Son of God. What was true of the second Adam was true also... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Luke 3:1-38

Luke 3:2 Prophets have passed for something as well as priests in making God's will known; and Established Church priesthoods have not been generally on particularly good terms with prophets. The only occasion on which the two orders are said to have been in harmony was when the prophets prophesied lies, and the priests bore rule in their name. Froude. Luke 3:2 The young who are of healthy, lively blood and clean conscience have either emotion or imagination to fold them defensively from an... read more

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