In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John,the son of Zechariah, in the desert.
He went throughout the whole country around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“A voice of one crying out in the desert:
‘Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The crooked shall be made straight; the rough made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'”
A Far Country 