Better understanding the Gospel

with Marie-Noëlle Thabut

THE 15TH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF TIBERA

Let's look at the text in order: Luke certainly has his reasons for being so precise all of a sudden about the date, the places, and the characters in the scene he is setting. We also notice that these are already the actors in the drama of Jesus' Passion, a way of telling us, among other things, that it is already on the horizon.

The fact remains that the date given, "The fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius," is not very clear to us, but this is not Luke's fault: nothing is more difficult than reconstructing dates from that period; in any case, to within a few months, one thing is certain, we are here in 27 or 28 AD .

Luke also introduces the political figures, first, then the religious figures who will weave the drama around John the Baptist, and later around Jesus. A Roman governor, Pilate, oversees Judea (that is, the region of Jerusalem), while local kings govern the other provinces. Why does Judea have a separate regime? Simply so that Rome can directly control this particularly difficult province; and Pilate is known for his severity. Finally, the King Herod mentioned here is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great; the latter was in power at the time of Jesus' birth, but during his public ministry (as with that of John the Baptist), it was Herod Antipas.

As for the locations, Luke names two Jewish provinces, Galilee and Judea, and three non-Jewish provinces in the north of the country: Ituraea, Trachonitis, and Abilene . He does not, however, cover the entire region; but he does not seek to be exhaustive, he does not give us a lesson in political geography; he wants to suggest to us that the coming salvation concerns both Jews and Gentiles, which will be a very strong emphasis throughout his Gospel. It is not surprising that Luke, the former Gentile convert, is particularly sensitive to the Gentiles' access to salvation.

Finally, he names the religious authorities, the high priests, Annas and Caiaphas. In the Greek text, he even refers to them as "the" high priest, Annas, and Caiaphas—a rather curious formulation! It is true that there was never more than one high priest in office. Annas served from 6 to 15 AD, and his son-in-law Caiaphas from 18 to 36 AD; but Annas wielded considerable influence over her son-in-law, and perhaps this is what Luke intended to highlight. Both of them, moreover, will play a role in the trial of Jesus (John 18:13).

THE PREACKING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

Let's continue with the text: "The word of God came to John," literally "There was a word from God concerning John." This is precisely the same formula used in the Greek Bible (the Septuagint) for Jeremiah (Jer 11:1) and for Hosea (Hos 1:1). Luke intentionally uses it; he wants to present John (the one we call John the Baptist) from the outset as a true prophet. He had recounted earlier in his Gospel the miraculous birth of John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. John the Baptist is therefore the son of a priest, a common occurrence at the time, but, like many devout Jews, he has distanced himself from the Temple in Jerusalem. And he invites his brothers to join him in the desert to rediscover the fervor of Joshua and the Hebrew people crossing the Jordan. In doing so, he fulfills a true prophetic mission: "He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." Conversion has always been a favorite preaching theme of the prophets. We will discuss John's baptism and Christian baptism in more detail next week in connection with the following verses from the Gospel of Luke; for today, let us simply note that Jesus did not invent baptism since John was already baptizing before him!

John's preaching is placed under the highest possible patronage: "As it is written in the book of the oracles of Isaiah"; a way of saying: John the Baptist is a true prophet, the one who opens your eyes to the fulfillment of the ancient promises. For the great objective of the New Testament writings is to reveal that Jesus is indeed the one who fulfills God's plan announced in the Old Testament. Each author does so in their own way, with their own unique genius, but the objective is always the same. The quotation chosen by Luke is taken from chapter 40 of the book of Isaiah, specifically from Second Isaiah, the prophet who preached during the Babylonian Exile and announced God's faithfulness and the return to the land.

Let's be clear: this announcement from Isaiah was primarily addressed to his contemporaries; their immediate concern was immediate; it is therefore an oracle of circumstance. To exiles who might well have believed themselves abandoned by God, he announced: you will soon be returning home. He did so through extremely evocative images for them: every year, for the great national festival, the festival of the god Marduk, the Jewish slaves deported to Babylon were subjected to veritable forced labor; a highway had to be built in the middle of the desert: filling in ravines, leveling hills, straightening winding paths... all this, physically arduous and even more so morally, since it was in honor of a pagan idol! Now, what was Isaiah saying? From now on, it is the Lord's road that will cross the desert: in other words, God is leading the procession of your triumphant return to the land.

John the Baptist, rereading the prophecy of his distant spiritual father, discovers in it the announcement of another path to liberation: from now on it is no longer only the exiles in Babylon, but every man who will see the salvation of God.

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Notes

1 - Nothing is more difficult than reconstructing the dates of that era for two reasons; first, everything depends on the day chosen for the beginning of the year: was it October? Was it January? Furthermore, from one country to another, they didn't have the same way of counting; Tiberius reigned from 13 to 37 AD; is Luke considering the anniversary of Tiberius's accession to power? Second, there have been many calendar changes since then! Hence our uncertainty about the age of Jesus at the beginning of his public life: a blessed uncertainty, perhaps, which leads us to look elsewhere for what is truly important.

2 - In the year 6, Rome deposed King Archelaus (son of Herod the Great and brother of Herod Antipas and Philip), and did not replace him.

3 - Ituraea is located northeast of the Sea of Galilee; Trachonitis is east of Galilee, south of Damascus and Abilene, or the region of Abila, is located northwest of Damascus.

4 - Here is the text from Isaiah: “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough places shall become level, and the rugged terrain a plain. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed…’” (Isaiah 40:3-5). (It should be noted that, in his quotation from Isaiah, Luke has, certainly intentionally, replaced the word “glory” with the word “salvation”: “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” For him, clearly, the glory of God is the salvation of the world, which our Eucharistic liturgy affirms at the time of the prayer over the offerings.)