John 1:23

1:23 John ¹  said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight ²  the way for the Lord,’ ³  as Isaiah the prophet said.”

Malachi 3:1

3:1 “I am about to send my messenger, ⁴  who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord ⁵  you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger ⁶  of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 4:4-5

Restoration through the Lord

4:4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, to whom at Horeb ⁷  I gave rules and regulations for all Israel to obey. ⁸  4:5 Look, I will send you Elijah ⁹  the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.

Matthew 3:3

3:3 For he is the one about whom Isaiah the prophet had spoken: ¹⁰ 

“The voice ¹¹  of one shouting in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make ¹²  his paths straight.’” ¹³ 

Matthew 3:11-12

3:11 “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy ¹⁴  to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁵  3:12 His winnowing fork ¹⁶  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ¹⁷  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ¹⁸ 

Mark 1:2-3

1:2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ¹⁹ 

“Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way, ²⁰ 

1:3 the voice of one shouting in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make ²¹  his paths straight.’” ²² 

Luke 1:16-17

1:16 He ²³  will turn ²⁴  many of the people ²⁵  of Israel to the Lord their God. 1:17 And he will go as forerunner before the Lord ²⁶  in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, ²⁷  to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”

Luke 1:76

1:76 And you, child, ²⁸  will be called the prophet ²⁹  of the Most High. ³⁰ 

For you will go before ³¹  the Lord to prepare his ways, ³² 

Luke 3:4-6

3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice ³³  of one shouting in the wilderness: ³⁴ 

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make ³⁵  his paths straight.

3:5 Every valley will be filled, ³⁶ 

and every mountain and hill will be brought low,

and the crooked will be made straight,

and the rough ways will be made smooth,

3:6 and all humanity ³⁷  will see the salvation of God.’” ³⁸ 

[1:23]  ¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (John the Baptist) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:23]  ² sn This call to “make straight” is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.

[1:23]  ³ sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.

[3:1]  ⁴ tn In Hebrew the phrase “my messenger” is מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi), the same form as the prophet’s name (see note on the name “Malachi” in 1:1). However, here the messenger appears to be an eschatological figure who is about to appear, as the following context suggests. According to 4:5, this messenger is “Elijah the prophet,” whom the NT identifies as John the Baptist (Matt 11:10; Mark 1:2) because he came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:11-12; Lk 1:17).

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Here the Hebrew term הָאָדוֹן (ha’adon) is used, not יְהוָה (yÿhvah, typically rendered Lord). Thus the focus is not on the Lord as the covenant God, but on his role as master.

[3:1]  ⁶ sn This messenger of the covenant may be equated with my messenger (that is, Elijah) mentioned earlier in the verse, or with the Lord himself. In either case the messenger functions as an enforcer of the covenant. Note the following verses, which depict purifying judgment on a people that has violated the Lord’s covenant.

[4:4]  ⁷ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exod 3:1).

[4:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “which I commanded him in Horeb concerning all Israel, statutes and ordinances.”

[4:5]  ⁹ sn I will send you Elijah the prophet. In light of the ascension of Elijah to heaven without dying (2 Kgs 2:11), Judaism has always awaited his return as an aspect of the messianic age (see, e.g., John 1:19-28). Jesus identified John the Baptist as Elijah, because he came in the “spirit and power” of his prototype Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36).

[3:3]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying.” The participle λέγοντος (legonto") is redundant and has not been translated. The passive construction has also been rendered as active in the translation for the sake of English style.

[3:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “A voice.”

[3:3]  ¹² sn This call to “make paths straight” in this context is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.

[3:3]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.

[3:11]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”

[3:11]  ¹⁵ sn With the Holy Spirit and fire. There are differing interpretations for this phrase regarding the number of baptisms and their nature. (1) Some see one baptism here, and this can be divided further into two options. (a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire could refer to the cleansing, purifying work of the Spirit in the individual believer through salvation and sanctification, or (b) it could refer to two different results of Christ’s ministry: Some accept Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit, but some reject him and receive judgment. (2) Other interpreters see two baptisms here: The baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the salvation Jesus brings at his first advent, in which believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of fire refers to the judgment Jesus will bring upon the world at his second coming. One must take into account both the image of fire and whether individual or corporate baptism is in view. A decision is not easy on either issue. The image of fire is used to refer to both eternal judgment (e.g., Matt 25:41) and the power of the Lord’s presence to purge and cleanse his people (e.g., Isa 4:4-5). The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, a fulfillment of this prophecy no matter which interpretation is taken, had both individual and corporate dimensions. It is possible that since Holy Spirit and fire are governed by a single preposition in Greek, the one-baptism view may be more likely, but this is not certain. Simply put, there is no consensus view in scholarship at this time on the best interpretation of this passage.

[3:12]  ¹⁶ sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:12]  ¹⁷ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

[3:12]  ¹⁸ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

[1:2]  ¹⁹ tc Instead of “in Isaiah the prophet” the majority of mss read “in the prophets” (A W ˹³ Ï Ir^lat). Except for Irenaeus (2nd century), the earliest evidence for this is thus from the 5th (or possibly late 4th) century (W A). The difficulty of Irenaeus is that he wrote in Greek but has been preserved largely in Latin. His Greek remains have “in Isaiah the prophet.” Only the later Latin translation has “in the prophets.” The KJV reading is thus in harmony with the majority of late mss. On the other hand, the witnesses for “in Isaiah the prophet” (either with the article before Isaiah or not) are early and geographically widespread: א B D L Δ Θ Ë¹ 33 565 700 892 1241 2427 al sy^p co Ir. This evidence runs deep into the 2nd century, is widespread, and is found in the most important Alexandrian, Western, and Caesarean witnesses. The “Isaiah” reading has a better external pedigree in every way. It has the support of the earliest and best witnesses from all the texttypes that matter. Moreover it is the harder reading, since the quotation in the first part of the verse appears to be from Exod 23:20 and Mal 3:1, with the quotation from Isa 40:3 coming in the next verse. The reading of the later mss seems motivated by a desire to resolve this difficulty.

[1:2]  ²⁰ sn The opening lines of the quotation are from Exod 23:20; Mal 3:1. Here is the forerunner who points the way to the arrival of God’s salvation. His job is to prepare and guide the people, as the cloud did for Israel in the desert.

[1:3]  ²¹ sn This call to “make his paths straight” in this context is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.

[1:3]  ²² sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.

[1:16]  ²³ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:16]  ²⁴ sn The word translated will turn is a good summary term for repentance and denotes John’s call to a change of direction (Luke 3:1-14).

[1:16]  ²⁵ tn Grk “sons”; but clearly this is a generic reference to people of both genders.

[1:17]  ²⁶ tn Grk “before him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ²⁷ sn These two lines cover all relationships: Turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children points to horizontal relationships, while (turn) the disobedient to the wisdom of the just shows what God gives from above in a vertical manner.

[1:76]  ²⁸ sn Now Zechariah describes his son John (you, child) through v. 77.

[1:76]  ²⁹ tn Or “a prophet”; but since Greek nouns can be definite without the article, and since in context this is a reference to the eschatological forerunner of the Messiah (cf. John 1:17), the concept is better conveyed to the English reader by the use of the definite article “the.”

[1:76]  ³⁰ sn In other words, John is a prophet of God; see 1:32 and 7:22-23, 28.

[1:76]  ³¹ tc Most mss, especially the later ones (A C D L Θ Ψ 0130 Ë^1,13 33 Ï sy), have πρὸ προσώπου κυρίου (pro proswpou kuriou, “before the face of the Lord”), but the translation follows the reading ἐνώπιον κυρίου (enwpion kuriou, “before the Lord”), which has earlier and better ms support (Ì⁴ א B W 0177 pc) and is thus more likely to be authentic.

[1:76]  ³² tn This term is often translated in the singular, looking specifically to the forerunner role, but the plural suggests the many elements in that salvation.

[3:4]  ³³ tn Or “A voice.”

[3:4]  ³⁴ tn Or “desert.” The syntactic position of the phrase “in the wilderness” is unclear in both Luke and the LXX. The MT favors taking it with “Prepare a way,” while the LXX takes it with “a voice shouting.” If the former, the meaning would be that such preparation should be done “in the wilderness.” If the latter, the meaning would be that the place from where John’s ministry went forth was “in the wilderness.” There are Jewish materials that support both renderings: 1QS 8:14 and 9.19-20 support the MT while certain rabbinic texts favor the LXX (see D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:290-91). While it is not absolutely necessary that a call in the wilderness led to a response in the wilderness, it is not unlikely that such would be the case. Thus, in the final analysis, the net effect between the two choices may be minimal. In any case, a majority of commentators and translations take “in the wilderness” with “The voice of one shouting” (D. L. Bock; R. H. Stein, Luke [NAC], 129; I. H. Marshall, Luke [NIGTC], 136; NIV, NRSV, NKJV, NLT, NASB, REB).

[3:4]  ³⁵ tn This call to “make paths straight” in this context is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance as the verb ποιέω (poiew) reappears in vv. 8, 10, 11, 12, 14.

[3:5]  ³⁶ sn The figurative language of this verse speaks of the whole creation preparing for the arrival of a major figure, so all obstacles to his approach are removed.

[3:6]  ³⁷ tn Grk “all flesh.”

[3:6]  ³⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 40:3-5. Though all the synoptic gospels use this citation from Isaiah, only Luke cites the material of vv. 5-6. His goal may well be to get to the declaration of v. 6, where all humanity (i.e., all nations) see God’s salvation (see also Luke 24:47).