1Now in the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being ruler of Judaea, and Herod being king of Galilee, his brother Philip king of the country of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias king of Abilene,
2When Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the waste land.
3And he came into all the country round about Jordan, preaching baptism as a sign of forgiveness of sin for those whose hearts were changed.
4As it says in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, The voice of one crying in the waste land, Make ready the way of the Lord, make his roads straight.
5Every valley will be lifted up, and all the mountains and hills made low, and the twisted will be made straight, and the rough ways smooth;