Lukas 20:3-6

20:3 He answered them, ¹  “I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: 20:4 John’s baptism ²  – was it from heaven or from people?” ³  20:5 So ⁴  they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 20:6 But if we say, ‘From people,’ all the people will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

¹ tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” This is redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

² sn John, like Jesus, was not a part of the official rabbinic order. So the question “John’s baptism – was it from heaven or from men?” draws an analogy between John the Baptist and Jesus. See Luke 3:1-20; 7:24-27. The phrase John’s baptism refers to the baptism practiced by John.

³ tn The plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used here (and in v. 6) in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NAB, NRSV, “of human origin”; TEV, “from human beings”; NLT, “merely human”).

sn The question is whether John’s ministry was of divine or human origin.

⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Jesus’ question.