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Luke opens chapter three with a list of names most of us skip. An emperor, a governor, three regional rulers, two high priests. Every one of them had access, money, and a platform. And the word of God went past all of them to a man in the wilderness.
Today we slow down and work through who these people actually were, why Luke includes them, and what it means that God chose the one person on that page nobody would have picked.
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Why does Luke open with a list of names?
For years I skipped this part. It felt like Roman background I didn't need. But when we slow down to actually study the word, we find that everything is there on purpose. Luke wrote this, but these words are God breathed, which means the Holy Spirit decided what went in and what stayed out.
Luke is doing two things. First, he's dating the story like a historian. That's how the ancient world marked time, by naming who held power. He's writing to Gentiles, so he's saying these were real rulers and this really happened, and you can go check it.
Second, he's setting up a contrast that lands in verse two.
Who was Tiberius Caesar?
The emperor of Rome, and the stepson of Caesar Augustus, the one we talked about in the Christmas story. Augustus adopted him as his heir.
That detail tells us how much time has passed. Augustus ruled from 27 BC to AD 14. Tiberius ruled from AD 14 to 37, so his fifteenth year puts us around AD 28 or 29, which is when John started preaching. It lines up with verse 23, where Jesus is about thirty. Last we saw Him, He was twelve in the temple.
One thing worth knowing: after Julius Caesar, Caesar stopped being a family name and became a title, basically another word for emperor. Every Roman ruler after him took it, which is part of why this gets confusing.
Tiberius was not a popular leader. He was suspicious of people and harsh with anyone he saw as a threat, and he eventually withdrew from Rome entirely to the island of Capri while the empire mostly ran without him.
Who was Pontius Pilate?
The Roman governor of Judea from about AD 26 to 36. His official title was prefect, and we know that for certain because in 1961 archaeologists digging in Caesarea found a stone slab with his name and title carved into it. It's called the Pilate Stone.
Jewish writers from that time describe him as stubborn and cruel. He brought Roman military standards into Jerusalem knowing it would offend Jewish law. He took money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct. Luke 13 mentions Galileans he had killed while they were offering sacrifices. He's eventually the man who hands Jesus over to be crucified.
Which Herod is this one?
This is where a lot of us get lost, so let's slow down.
The Herod in the Christmas story was Herod the Great, and he is not the same Herod you meet later. He died around 4 BC. He had about ten wives and a lot of children, and he was so paranoid about losing his throne that he killed three of his own sons. A Roman writer said it was safer to be Herod's pig than his son.
When he died, Rome split his kingdom three ways among his surviving sons. None of them became king. The word tetrarch means ruler of a fourth. A family that once held all the power was now fractured into pieces.
Archelaus got the largest share, including Judea. He was brutal, and after about ten years both the Jews and the Samaritans, who agreed on almost nothing, complained to Rome and Augustus removed him. That's how Judea ended up under direct Roman governors like Pilate. He shows up in the Christmas story too. When Joseph came back from Egypt and heard Archelaus was ruling Judea, he was afraid to go there and settled in Nazareth instead, which we read in Matthew 2.
Philip ruled the northeastern territories and built Caesarea Philippi, the city where Peter later confessed that Jesus was the Christ. Of all the Herods, he had the best reputation.
Herod Antipas is the one named here. He ruled Galilee, where Jesus grew up and did most of His ministry. He's the one who arrests John the Baptist and eventually has him beheaded. Jesus calls him that fox in Luke 13, and Pilate sends Jesus to him during the trial.
There's a fourth son we hear little about, usually called Herod II. He never ruled anything, but he was the first husband of Herodias. Antipas took her from him, and that's the marriage John the Baptist called out publicly. That is eventually what costs John his freedom and his life.
Later there's Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, who kills the apostle James in Acts 12. This family line runs from the birth of Jesus all the way through Acts.
Who was Lysanias?
An obscure ruler, not related to the Herods at all, who ruled a small region called Abilene near Damascus. Some people have questioned why Luke bothers to include him.
He's there for the same reason as everyone else. Luke is sketching the political map from the top down. The emperor, the governor of Judea, the Herod sons in Galilee and the northeast, and then one more regional ruler further north. Luke is a details guy, and he's saying in exact terms who was in charge of every piece of this world, and what year it was, so you can go verify it.
Why are there two high priests?
Israel was only supposed to have one, and he was supposed to serve for life. Here we have two.
Annas served as high priest from about AD 6 to 15, and then Rome removed him. But Rome could take away the office without taking away the power. Five of his sons served as high priest at different times, and so did his son-in-law Caiaphas, who holds the title during the ministry of Jesus.
When Jesus was arrested, they brought Him to Annas first, which we saw back in John 18. Acts 4 still calls Annas the high priest. Caiaphas held the office. Annas was calling the shots.
Luke names both because both were running things, and it shows how far the priesthood had fallen. The holiest office in Israel had become a political appointment by Rome. Even the religious establishment was under Roman control.
Why does Luke write like an Old Testament prophet?
Think about how Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea open their books. They date the writing by naming the kings in power, and then comes the line: the word of the Lord came to them.
That's exactly the formula here. Luke names the rulers, and then verse two says the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.
We have just come out of four hundred years with no prophet in Israel. Luke picks up the old formula because the prophet is back. It isn't silent anymore. And what did the Old Testament prophets do? They foretold Jesus. That's exactly what John is here to do.
Who did God actually speak to?
Look at that list again. Every powerful person in it had access. They had money. They had influence. They had platform.
None of them got the word from the Lord.
Instead the word came to a man in the wilderness, a miracle baby whose parents had waited their whole lives for him, a man who ate locusts and honey and dressed in fur and struck people as an oddball.
That gives me so much comfort. There are seasons in my own life where I feel like I'm out in the wilderness and I'm the oddball, and the Lord still speaks. I would much rather be a person in the wilderness in communication with God than somebody in power who isn't.
So the next time you're tempted to think God won't use you because you're just some weirdo in the wilderness, remember that is exactly who He uses. He always has.
Timestamps
- 00:00 Welcome and where we are in the Luke study
- 01:16 Reading Luke 3:1-9
- 03:42 Why I used to skip this part
- 04:31 The two things Luke is doing
- 05:48 Tiberius Caesar and the timeline
- 07:26 Why every emperor was called Caesar
- 08:25 Pontius Pilate and the Pilate Stone
- 09:36 What kind of ruler Pilate was
- 10:04 Sorting out the Herods
- 10:58 A kingdom split three ways
- 11:34 Archelaus, and why Joseph settled in Nazareth
- 12:41 Philip and Caesarea Philippi
- 12:55 Herod Antipas, the one named here
- 13:39 Herod II, Herodias, and what it cost John
- 14:25 Herod Agrippa and Acts 12
- 14:53 Lysanias of Abilene
- 16:17 Why two high priests?
- 17:43 Annas in power, Caiaphas in title
- 18:14 How far the priesthood had fallen
- 18:43 Luke writes like an Old Testament prophet
- 19:43 The prophet is back
- 20:22 Real people, real history, go check it
- 21:21 Look at who God actually spoke to
- 22:31 The oddball in the wilderness
- 24:23 Prayer
Frequently asked questions
What does tetrarch mean? Ruler of a fourth. It was used loosely by this point, but it indicates a ruler over part of a kingdom rather than a king.
What is the Pilate Stone? A stone slab found by archaeologists in Caesarea in 1961 bearing Pontius Pilate's name and his title as prefect.
Which Herod is named in Luke 3? Herod Antipas, who ruled Galilee and later had John the Baptist beheaded.
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