during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
3 sermons cite this verse
… of Judea, Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip, the tetrarch of Iteria and Trachonitis, and Lysanias, the tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priest of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert, and he went into all the country preaching the good news. It's quite striking, isn't it? People say, well, what you have in the New Testament Gospels is legend. I've read legend. You've read legend as well. This doesn't read like legend. This is not legend. He's writing down here historical data, verifiable data, challengeable data. And the historical, geographical, political context in which the Gospels are written is provided for us in part so as to take away the leg of that stool in argument. And furthermore, if the Gospel writers had been determined to embellish or transform things, don't you think they would have changed the way they come across? What interest do they have in describing themselves as a bunch of cowards that ran away when Jesus was arrested? Don't you think they would have said, and we went away, and we had a retreat, and we planned what was going to happen after Jesus was raised from the dead. …
And as I read these couple of verses, I want you to think if it sounds like Luke is making up a story. This is Luke chapter three, verses one and two. It says this in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor Judea, Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip, Tetrarch of Aetrian, Tractonicus, and Licinius, Tetrarch of Abilene. During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the desert. Does it sound like he's making up a story? He's given an exact time here, 29 AD, 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, who came to power in 14 AD. I mean, they didn't have the kind of dating system we have now. They would date it by the reign of the emperor. So he's telling it's 29 AD. All eight people are known from history. They all were known to live at this exact time, this is not a made up story. In fact, there are several more details in Luke that are eyewitness details. The book of Acts, his second work, has 84 details from chapter 13 to chapter 28, the end of the book, that are all eyewitness details. Only an eyewitness would know this. We have them all listed in chapter 10 of I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. …
Then he says this, in that time period, right then, the word of God, the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness. This is the famous John the Baptist. Now, I wish we could spend more time on this. The reason he has to tell us which John he's talking about is because when you read the New Testament, there are Johns all over the place. So he has to tell us, this is John, but I got to tell you which John it is. It's John, the son of Zechariah, who was actually a priest at the temple. Now, John the Baptist is not a Bible character. John the Baptist is a historical character that shows up in this gospel, and in fact, in the other gospels as well, because he had a specific role to play when it came to Jesus. But John the Baptist is known of outside of biblical literature. Josephus wrote three big pieces of literature and tells the whole history of the Jews. And he writes, and he's writing in about 90 AD, about 60 years after John the Baptist has died. And when he gets to the piece of history that overlaps with the life of John the Baptist, guess who Josephus talks about? …