Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 3:2

"in the highpriesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness." — Luke 3:2 (ASV)

The difference in the number of names presents no real difficulty. We have seen that St. Matthew omits three names in the list of kings in order to adapt it to the memoria technica of fourteen names in each group, and what he did in one case he may well have done in another for the same reason.