Luke 15:15

15:15 So he went and worked for ¹  one of the citizens of that country, who ²  sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ³ 

Luke 3:1

The Ministry of John the Baptist

3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, ⁴  when Pontius Pilate ⁵  was governor of Judea, and Herod ⁶  was tetrarch ⁷  of Galilee, and his brother Philip ⁸  was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ⁹  was tetrarch of Abilene,

[15:15]  ¹ tn Grk “joined himself to” (in this case an idiom for beginning to work for someone).

[15:15]  ² tn Grk “and he.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) and the personal pronoun have been translated by a relative pronoun to improve the English style.

[15:15]  ³ sn To a Jew, being sent to the field to feed pigs would be an insult, since pigs were considered unclean animals (Lev 11:7).

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Or “Emperor Tiberius” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).

[3:1]  ⁵ sn The rule of Pontius Pilate is also described by Josephus, J. W. 2.9.2-4 (2.169-177) and Ant. 18.3.1 (18.55-59).

[3:1]  ⁶ sn Herod refers here to Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. He ruled from 4 b.c.-a.d. 39, sharing the rule of his father’s realm with his two brothers. One brother, Archelaus (Matt 2:22) was banished in a.d. 6 and died in a.d. 18; the other brother, Herod Philip (mentioned next) died in a.d. 34.

[3:1]  ⁷ sn A tetrarch was a ruler with rank and authority lower than a king, who ruled only with the approval of the Roman authorities. This was roughly equivalent to being governor of a region. Several times in the NT, Herod tetrarch of Galilee is called a king (Matt 14:9, Mark 6:14-29), reflecting popular usage.

[3:1]  ⁸ sn Philip refers to Herod Philip, son of Herod the Great and brother of Herod Antipas. Philip ruled as tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis from 4 b.c.-a.d. 34.

[3:1]  ⁹ sn Nothing else is known about Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene.