Luke 3:18-20

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Luke 3:15-20

We are now drawing near to the appearance of our Lord Jesus publicly; the Sun will not be long after the morning-star. We are here told, I. How the people took occasion, from the ministry and baptism of John, to think of the Messiah, and to think of him as at the door, as now come. Thus the way of the Lord was prepared, and people were prepared to bid Christ welcome; for, when men's expectations are raised, that which they are in expectation of becomes doubly acceptable. Now when they observed... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Luke 3:7-18

3:7-18 To the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, John used to say, "You spawn of vipers, who put it into your heads to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruits to match repentance. Do not begin to say among yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." The crowds asked him,... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Luke 3:19-20

3:19-20 So then, urging the people with many other pleas, John preached the gospel to them. But, when Herod the tetrarch was rebuked by him concerning the matter of Herodias, his brother's wife, and concerning all the other wicked things he had done, he added this also to them all--he shut up John in prison. John was so plain and blunt a preacher of righteousness that he was bound to run into trouble. In the end Herod arrested him. Josephus says that the reason for the arrest was that... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Luke 3:18

And many other thing's ,.... Relating to the person and office of the Messiah, to the nature of his kingdom, the Gospel dispensation, and to faith in him; for he pointed him out to the people, and exhorted them to believe in him, and expressed much joy and pleasure on the hearing of his success and increase; and these, with others beside, in his "exhortation", or whilst he was exhorting , or "comforting", preached he unto the people : publishing the Gospel, the good news, and glad... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Luke 3:19

But Herod the tetrarch being reproved by him ,.... By John, as the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions add: for Herodias his brother Philip's wife ; for taking her to wife, whilst his brother Philip was living. The account, which the Jewish chronologer F24 Ganz. Tzemach David, par, 1. fol. 25. 2. gives, of this Herod, and of this fact of his, and John's reproving him for it, and the consequence of it, perfectly agrees with this of the evangelist. "Herod Antipater, and there are... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Luke 3:20

Added yet this above all ,.... This sin to all other sins, and which was of a more flagitious nature; and attended with more aggravating circumstances, especially in the issue of it: that he shut up John in prison ; in the castle of Machaerus, by the instigation of Herodias; See Gill on Matthew 14:3 . read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 3:19

Herod the tetrarch - See this subject explained at large, Matthew 14:1 ; (note), etc., and Mark 6:21 , Mark 6:23 ; (note). read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 3:19

Verse 19 Luke 3:19.Now Herod the tetrarch. Luke alone explains the reason why Herod threw John into prison: though we shall afterwards find it mentioned by Matthew 14:3, and Mark 6:17. Josephus says, (Ant. 18, v. 2,) that Herod, dreading a popular insurrection and a change of the government, shut up John in the castle of Macherus, (because he dreaded the man’s influence;) (318) and that Herodias was married, not to Philip, who was Salome’s husband, but to another Herod. But as his recollection... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:1-18

The forerunner, and his ministry. Some thirty years have passed since the birth of a son of the old age had filled the house of the good priest Eacharias with the voice of rejoicing. The blameless priest and his blameless wife are dead. The son who, when an unconscious babe, was called "the prophet of the Highest," has lived the life of a recluse, receiving his inspirations wholly from the study of the Law of the Lord, from lonely communings with God and truth in the great temple of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 3:1-20

The ministry of the Baptist. We left Jesus, when last we studied Luke's narrative, in Nazareth, subject to his parents and realizing a gracious development in subjection. We have now to pass over about eighteen years, of which we know only that during them he had become a carpenter, that we may contemplate the preparatory movement under John the Baptist. In these verses we find Luke entering upon the description with the hand of a true artist. He summarizes for us a whole life in fewer... read more

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