The Preaching of John the Baptist

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the [fn]high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

make his paths straight.

5 Every valley will be filled,

and every mountain and hill will be brought low.

The crooked roads will be made straight,

and the rough ways will be made smooth.

6 And all flesh will see the salvation of God.’ ”

7 John said to the crowds that were coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit consistent with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10 So the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 John answered them, “Whoever has two tunics must share with him who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Some tax collectors also came to be [fn]baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been authorized to collect.” 14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by [fn]threats or false accusations, and be content with your wages.”

15 Now as the people were waiting in expectation and were all questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one is coming who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his [fn]hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”

18 With these and many other exhortations John preached good news to the people. 19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his [fn]brother's wife, and because of all the evils that he had done, 20 Herod added this to everything else: He locked up John in prison.