Homilies on Luke: Fragments on Luke

On the passage from, "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar," up to the point where it says, "make his paths straight."

WHEN THE PROPHETIC word was sent only to the Jews, the names of Jewish kings were put in the headings of the prophecies. For example, "The vision that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw, against Judea and against Jerusalem, during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah."^1. In the time of Isaiah, I see no one else named except the kings of Judah. In some prophets we also read the names of the kings of Israel, as in this instance: "And in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel."^2. But then the mystery of the Gospel was to be preached, and the Gospel spread throughout the whole world. The initiator of that Gospel was John, in the desert. The authority of Tiberius ruled the world. Then, "in [his] fifteenth year," it is recorded that "the word of the Lord came to John."^3. If salvation were to be proclaimed only to those of the Gentiles who were destined to believe, and if Israel were to be totally excluded, it would have been enough to say, "In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea."

2. But, since many from Judea and Galilee were destined to believe, these kingdoms too were put in the heading. The passage reads, "Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, and the word of the Lord came to John,

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