Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

258 Matthew III. 1.
a rnucli inferior level to the Christian ordinance, yet it was not an
empty rite ; only, it could not impart more than he who administered
it possessed. It accomplished the blessing of the law in those who
received it, since it brought repentance to perfection ; but then,
indeed, it pointed to another baptism, which bestowed the Spirit
a sense of whose need that first baptism had excited.
Luke iii. 1, afibrds us an important chronological datum. John
the Baptist began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius ; as
John was six months older than Jesus (Luke i. 36), the mention of
this circumstance (compared with Luke iii. 23) is a hint as to the
Saviour's age. True, it is only a hint. For, in i\\Q first place, the
age of Jesus is not given exactly (Luke iii. 23, ijv (ho el Tpidaovra
£Twv) ; then, too, the interval between the public appearance of John
and of Jesus, is not definitely stated. In any case, the year of
Christ's birth, as is evident from the previous remarks on that point,
is placed too late in the chronology of Dionysius, as the fifteenth
year of Tiberius begins with the 19th of August of the year 27 after
Christ.* The mention of the diff'erent princes ruling in Palestine
at that time, is another aid in determining the date of John's pub-
lic appearance.
(The term I'jyenovevoj, govern, like Sierro), is used for difierent gra-
dations in the Koman provincial administration. Pilate was only
procurator of Judea, which ofiice he sustained ten years, and laid it
down about the time of Tiberius' death, being deposed by ViteUius,
at that time pro-consul of Syria. (Terpapxeo), to be tetrarcli, meant
originally to govern the fourth part of a great territory, then in a wider
sense to rule in general, but still in an inferior capacity. Thus Cicero
calls Deiotarus a tetrarcli [Cic. ad. div. i. 15.] Ethnarch was a
higher title ; it was borne by Archelaus, Herod the Great's eldest
son. Luke comprises the two provinces of Batanea and Auranitis,
under the name 'Irovpaia.)
The oiily remarkable circumstance in Luke's enumeration is, that
in the words " Lysanias being Tetrarch of Abilene," he mentions
even the governor of Abilene, the territory of the town Abela near
Antilibanus, which lay beyond the boundaries of Palestine. Besides,
no Lysanias is spoken of as governor of this region in the time of
but thirty years earlier, a man of that name was governor,
Tiberius ;
who was slain by Antony. If we consider, however, that the town,
and the territory belonging to it, was so inconsiderable, that it could
not possibly be expected that all its rulers should necessarily be
* In this way the years of his associated rule with Augustus are not included. It is
according to this date that the calculation of the Abbot Dionysius Exigmis is made, with
whom our era had its origin. Sase, in his Leben Jesu, S. 39, &., whom Meyer follows in
his <strong>commentary</strong> on this passage, is inclined, erroneously, to hold to this interpretation as
the correct one, as he regards the rest of the information in the history of the childhood
as mythical
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