BLB(i)
1 And in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip being tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and of Trachonitis, and Lysanias being tetrarch of Abilene,
2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came upon John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
3 And he went into all the region surrounding the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins,
4 as it has been written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’
5 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; and the crooked will become into straight, and the rough ways into smooth.
6 And all flesh will see the salvation of God.”
7 So he was saying to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “Offspring of vipers, who forewarned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8 Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance. And do not begin to say in yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
9 And already also the ax is applied to the root of the trees; therefore every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds were asking him, saying, “What then shall we do?”
11 And answering, he was saying to them, “The one having two tunics, let him impart to the one having none; and the one having food, let him do likewise.”
12 And tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”
13 And he said to them, “Collect nothing more beyond that having been appointed to you.”
14 And those being soldiers also were asking him, saying, “And what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Extort no one, nor accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”
15 And the people are expecting and all wondering in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ.
16 John answered all saying, “I indeed baptize you with water, but the One mightier than I comes, of whom I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire,
17 of whom the winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
18 Therefore indeed exhorting many other things, he was preaching the good news to the people.
19 But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him concerning Herodias the wife of his brother, and concerning all the evils that Herod had done,
20 added this yet to all: He also locked up John in prison.