John Calvin 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)

Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests. It is certain that there never were two persons who held the office of high priest at the same time. Josephus states that Valerius Gratus made Caiaphas high priest a short time before he left the government. During the time that Pilate was governor of Judea, Josephus does not speak of him as having made any change in this respect;²⁴⁴ but, on the contrary, states that when Pilate had been recalled from the government and sent to plead his cause at Rome, Vitellius, who was at that time governor of Syria, reduced Caiaphas to a private rank and transferred the high priesthood to Jonathan, the son of Ananus (Ant. 18:4:3).

When Luke says that there were two high priests, we must not understand him to mean that both held the same title, but that the honor of the priesthood was partly shared with him by Annas his father-in-law. Luke’s narrative indicates such a state of trouble and confusion that, though there was not more than one person who was actually high priest, the sacred office was torn in pieces by ambition and tyranny.

The word of the Lord came upon John. Before relating, as the other Evangelists do, that John began to exercise his office of teaching, Luke asserts that he was divinely called to that office. He does so in order to assure us that the ministry of John carried undoubted authority. Why the interpreters have chosen to translate the word ἐπὶ ᾿Ιωάννην UPON John instead of TO John, I do not see. But because there is no ambiguity as to the meaning that this commission was entrusted to him and that he received a command to preach, I have followed the received version.

From this, we infer that there are no regular teachers except those on whom God has conferred the office, and that it is not enough to have the word of God if there is not also a special calling.

Matthew and Mark do not speak of the preaching of John as extending beyond the wilderness, while Luke says that he came into all the country around Jordan. These statements may be reconciled by observing that John discharged the office of teaching among the neighbors, with whom he lived; but that his Gospel spread more widely and became known in many places, so that the report of it, in a short time, reached Jerusalem. Indeed, the whole of that tract of the Jordan might be called a wilderness, for the word does not mean “a solitude,” but “a rough, and mountainous, and thinly inhabited district.”

²⁴⁴ The whole passage is remarkable, and proves that the appointment to the sacred office of The whole passage is remarkable, and proves that the appointment to the sacred office of high priest was entirely at the disposal of the Roman Governor. “This man (Valerius Gratus) deprived Ananus of the high priesthood, and appointed Ishmael, the son of Phabi, to be high priest. He also deprived him in a little time, and ordained Eleazar, the son of Ananus, who had been high priest before, to be high priest: which office, when he had held for a year, Gratus deprived him of it, and gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus; and, when he had possessed that dignity no longer than a year, Joseph Caiaphas was made his successor. When Gratus had done those things, he went back to Rome, after he had tarried in Judea eleven years, when Pontius Pilate came as his successor.” — (was entirely at the disposal of the Roman Governor. “This man (Valerius Gratus) deprived Ananus of the high priesthood, and appointed Ishmael, the son of Phabi, to be high priest. He also deprived him in a little time, and ordained Eleazar, the son of Ananus, who had been high priest before, to be high priest: which office, when he had held for a year, Gratus deprived him of it, and gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus; and, when he had possessed that dignity no longer than a year, Joseph Caiaphas was made his successor. When Gratus had done those things, he went back to Rome, after he had tarried in Judea eleven years, when Pontius Pilate came as his successor.” — (Ant. 18:2:2.))