And Jesus grew in stature of body and faculties of mind, (his divine Spirit assisting and strengthening his natural faculties,) and was induced with great wisdom through the grace and power of God's Spirit upon him. q had continued there all the feast days, and then came home, as they— r after they were come a day's journey they missed him, and made strict inquiry after him amongst their— Gen. xxii. 16. ' give us power, ability, grace, that we being secured and rescued from danger of enemies might obey and attend him in a sincere performance of all duties toward God and man, and cheerfully and constantly persevere therein. And this John shall be a prophet of God, (foretelling judgments on the nations if they repent not speedily,) or rather of an higher rank, pointing out Christ (see note [d] on Matt. xi.), and as his forerunner, by the preaching of repentance and change, to fit men for Christ. To teach men that in Christ there is a possibility of obtaining salvation for sinners, to wit, by pardon of their sins upon repentance and new life. Which is a special act of compassion in God, through which it is that this rising sun, i. e. the Messias or Christ, so called by the prophets, is come from heaven to visit and abide among us. To shine forth to blind, ignorant, obdurate worldlings living in a state of death, and to put us into that way that will bring us to salvation. [t] shadow of death] What is the meaning of this figurative speech, the shadow of death, will be best conjectured by comparing it with psalm xxiii. 4, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, &c. There making God his shepherd, ver. 1, he compares himself to a sheep, which feeds sometimes upon a hill, sometimes in a valley; and again may be supposed to be in danger of wolves, or else free from that danger. The hills being the highest, have all the light and warmth of the sun upon them, and the valleys contrariwise, that are shaded by the hills, have much less of that warmth or light, and being also more subject to incursion of wolves than the hills were, (where their coming would be more discernible); this is there the meaning of the valley of the shadow of death, a gloomy vale of danger of the utmost evil. Proportionably here, (in a spiritual sense,) the shadow of death is a state of sin and ignorance, want of light or knowledge, and want of warmth or grace, the description of the state under the law, which afforded neither of these in any proportion to what is now done by Christ, and so left men in a dangerous condition, till Christ was thus pleased to shine upon them, and thereby to rescue them out of it. And John grew, and had the Spirit of God daily more and more shewing himself in him, and dwelt in the bill country of Judæa, where he was born, till the time of his preaching or setting to the execution of his office among the Jews. ## CHAP. II. AND it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar in † deal mercifully with our fathers, μινὰ τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν πούφαι ἔλεος. * delivered with- out fear from the hands of our enemies might serve him. * rising of the sun, or the east. * Augustus the Roman emperor, that all persons the Roman empire should have their names and [a] governor] Some question may be what is here meant by ἡγεμονεύοντος. But ʰ Jac. Cujacius, the learned lawyer, hath cleared it: Rectius vetus interpres, Luc. i, procurante Pilato, quam alii, præside. Præses enim Syriæ tum fuit Vitellius vir consularis, procurator Pilatus, eques Romanus. Cujus rei authores habeo Tertullianum, Tacitum, Josephum. "The ancient interpreter, Luke i, renders it more truly, Pilate being procurator, than others, Pilate being president or governor; for Vitellius was then governor of Syria, one that had been consul, but Pilate, a knight of Rome, was procurator. So I learn from Tertullian, Tacitus, and Josephus." Ib. [b] tetrarch of Ituræa] That which is here said of Herod's brother Philip being tetrarch of Ituræa and Trachonitis, is thus far confirmed by Josephus, Ant. l. 18. c. 7, that this Philip died in the twentieth year of Tiberius, having for the space of thirty-seven years been præfect of Trachonitis and Gaulanitis and Batanæa, where, instead of Gaulanitis, the truer reading is Auranitis, of which we have mention in the same Josephus, Ant. l. 15. c. 13, as a part of Zenodorus his province, Trachonitis and Batanæa being there named as the other parts of it, the latter of which (or else that and Auranitis together) is sure the Ituræa here. As for the word τετράρχης, tetrarch, it denotes a principality of a fourth part; and when Herod, who is called so, is elsewhere called king Herod, the word king is to be taken in that latitude as to signify no more than what tetrarch here doth, one placed by the Romans over this region of Galilee, with regal power and for life, and thereby differing from the ἡγεμῶν, a governor, (such as Pilate here, and Matt. xxvii. 2,) with commission for so many years, πεμπόμενος, 1 Peter ii. 14, a deputy of ʳ Cont. Paul. Samosat. ἀποκρισ. η'. ʒ P. 778 E. ʰ Observ. l. 9. c. 13. Annas a chief priest being a man of principal authority among the Jews, and Caiaphas placed by the procurator in the pontificate, the word of— b to several parts of the coasts that were nigh Jordan, Bethabura, John i. 28, Ænon, John iii. 23, and by that means all the region about Jordan came to hear him, and he warned all the people to repent and be baptized of him, to come in as proselytes of his, that so their sins might be forgiven, which would otherwise bring certain destruction on them. c There shall come a crier, or herald, or harbinger of the Messias in the wilderness, to fit men by repentance for the receiving of Christ, and part of his proclamation shall be in these words, Every valley &c., which may figuratively import the peculiar quality of the gospel of Christ, which was to work upon the poor in spirit and exalt them to a participation of the greatest privileges, which none of the higher, loftier spirits were capable of, till they were humbled, and brought down from their heights; but literally they may seem to foretel the terrible destruction which should shortly come upon this people for their impenitence, the plaining of the land for the coming of the Roman army, (see note [c] on Matt. iii.,) and the visible discrimination which should then be made betwixt the obdurate impenitent unbelievers on one side, and those that are penitent and receive Christ on the other. [c] high priests] Concerning the two ἀρχιερεῖς, or high priests in this place, (and the reconciling it with the Old Testament, where there was to be but one at a time, one of the sons of Aaron, Exod. xxix. 30. Lev. xvi. 32, and he to continue, not for a year only, but for his life, whereas here it seems to be otherwise,) many things have diversely been said by learned men. Without surveying of their several conjectures, I shall first think it worth observing, that in the books of Samuel, (when sure there was but one high priest,) Ahimelech the son of Ahitub being slain, and Abiathar succeeding him in the high priest's office, 1 Sam. xxii, there is yet, after that, frequent mention of Zadok and Abiathar together, 2 Sam. xv. 35, Zadok and Abiathar the priests; and ch. xvii. 15, and xix. 11, and xx. 25, and 1 Chron. xv. 11, every where Zadok and Abiathar priests, and Zadok placed before Abiathar constantly (as Annas before Caiaphas here). The reason of which is probably this, because though Zadok was not actually high priest in David's time, yet being the son of Ahitub, 2 Sam. viii. 17, (not that Ahitub, the father of Ahimelech, 1 Sam. xxii. 11, who was of Ithamar's line, 1 Chron. xxiv. 2, but another, 1 Chron. vi. 8. and 53, the lineal successor of Eleazar, vv. 4. and 50,) to him the high priesthood regularly belonged; and so after the expulsion of Abiathar (the last of Eli's, and so of Ithamar's line, 1 Kings ii. 26, 27.) was restored to him, 1 Kings ii. 35; and Abiathar being in David's time the high priest of Eli's, and so of Ithamar's line, (to which, it seems, it was changed from Eleazar's, and continued in that line for some time,) Zadok being a principal person in authority with David, a priest, and regularly heir to the high priesthood, is constantly joined with (and set before) Abiathar the high priest. Agreeable to this example it is, that Annas, father-in-law to (the high priest of that year) Caiaphas, a most eminent person himself, and one that had been high priest also, and, I suppose, the chief of the race of Aaron's sons then alive, as Zadok was, is here set before, and joined with Caiaphas, and called ἀρχιερεὺς, high priest, though punctually he executed not the office of the high priest. This being said by way of preparation, the main of the difficulty may perhaps be removed by observing of three things: first, that at this time, the land being under the Roman emperor, (whose name and the year of his reign is set down at the beginning of the verse, as also his procurator of Judæa, Pontius Pilate, and the tetrarchs of other places,) the succession of the high priests was now changed, the one lineal descendant in the family of Aaron, which was to continue for life, being not permitted to succeed, (λέλυτο μὲν ἡ διὰ βίου, καὶ ἐκ προγόνων διαδοχή, saith Eusebius, l. 1. c. 18,) but some other, whom he pleased, named to that office by the procurator every year, or renewed, as often as he pleased. To which purpose is that of Theophylact: Οἱ τότε ἀρχιερεῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐπεπήδων τῇ τιμῇ, ὠνιτὴν αὐτὴν κτώμενοι, καὶ τὸν νόμον διαφθείροντες: "They who were at that time high priests of the Jews, invaded that dignity, bought it, and so destroyed the law." which prescribed a succession in the family of Aaron. Secondly, that there was at this time, after the Roman conquest, and before the destruction of the temple, (whensoever they made no king of (but only sent a procurator into) Judæa,) the place and title of νῦσας, ἄρχων τοῦ λαοῦ, ruler of the people, (and with it some part of And all men shall discern the deliverance which is wrought for the penitent believers when all impenitents are destroyed. d destruction approaching? e do not think it will serve your turn that you are able to say, (see note [a] on Mark ii.,) We are of the seed of Abraham, who have right to the promises made to him, whatsoever our actions are; see Matt. iii. 9: for I say— And the common sort of people asked him, What was their task, or part of duty, to prevent or avert this ruin. And he prescribed to them an extensive liberality, charity, mercifulness to all that wanted what they had to spare. ' the toll or tribute gatherers to be baptized— ' Receive all the taxes which the emperor requires to be gathered; but beside that, do not you either by cunning or force take any more for yourselves. And to the military men of the Jews (employed by their procurators or the Romans) he prescribed these rules, Neither fright nor plunder any man, but be content with that allowance which is assigned for your maintenance. [d] accuse any falsely] Συκοφαντεῖν, though it have a proverbial signification to accuse, and by that means to flatter those, to whom that accusation is whisperingly conveyed, and had its original from a passage about figs, as Phavorinus and the grammarians ordinarily express it, yet it is used in a greater latitude for wronging, taking away any thing by force from any, according to the latitude of the signification of the Hebrew שש, which signifies both to calumniate and to use violence; and accordingly is rendered in the Old Testament sometimes by ἀδικίω, ἀποστερίω, καταδυναστεύω, (in the notion of oppressing by force,) ἐκπίζω, θλίβω, ἁρπάζω, sometimes by συκοφαντέω, but that in many places when the sense would rather have required ἀδικίω, or the like; so in Job xxxv. 9. psalm cxix. 21, and other places. From this Old Testament use of the word must the sense of it be fetched in the New. So when Zacchaeus, ch. xix. 8, saith of himself, εἴ τινός τι ἐσυκοφάντησα, (which is the only other place where the word is used,) it belongs clearly to wrong dealing, violence, injustice, taking by force from others, (which was ordinary for the publicans to do, Πάντες τελῶναι, πάντες εἰσὶν ἅρπαγες, "All publicans are rapacious," saith Zeno the comedian, and such was Zacchaeus here;) and therefore his penitent heart, in that case, vows the satisfaction which the law requires for theft, restitution fourfold. And as the people were amused concerning him, looking for some further declaration or manifestation from him, and having some disputes within them whether he were not the Messias himself; John gave a clear answer to their doubts, telling every one that came to him, in plain words, that he was not the Christ, saying, My whole office is thus to receive you as proselytes to believe on the Messias, who shall suddenly reveal himself; I am but a disciple of that great Master, sent before him, as disciples of prophets are wont to be, to take up room for him, (see Luke x. 1, and Matt. xxvi. 20,) to serve him, to take off and lay away his shoes, (see note [h] on Matt. iii.,) and truly I am unworthy of this office, to be the disciple of so divine a person. But he, when he cometh, shall be another manner of person, and do other kind of things; over and above the receiving of proselytes with water in baptism he shall send down the Spirit on his disciples in an appearance as of fire, Acts ii., and thereby enable them to speak with tongues miraculously, and so fit them for their office: (see note [a] on Acts i.) ' winnowing instrument, see note on Matt. iii. 12, is in his— ' not wrong any. And John Baptist said many such things as these, and more different from these, by way of exhortation and proclamation to the people, concerning the gospel of Christ. And Herod calling him to the court, and hearing him often, and that with great respect to him at first, (Mark vi. 20,) at last being reproved by him for marrying his brother's wife, and for all other sins that John saw him to be guilty of, added yet this— And the holy eternal Spirit of God appeared visibly to come down and to descend upon him, as a dove uses to descend and light on any thing, (see note And at this time of his being baptized Jesus was about thirty years old, the age before which the Levites were not to be admitted to sacred functions, Num. iv. 3 and 43, 1 Chron. xxxiii. 2. And being born of a pure virgin he had truly no father on earth, but yet Joseph the son of Heli being betrothed to Mary his mother, he was his reputed father.