Bible Strands
Luke 3:20
Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records Herod the tetrarch’s response after John publicly rebuked him for his marriage to Herodias and his other evils. This imprisonment occurs after John’s baptismal ministry and immediately before Jesus’ own baptism.
The words — The text employs προσέθηκεν (prosethēken), meaning “he added,” and κατέκλεισεν (katekleisen), meaning “he locked up.” These verbs indicate that the imprisonment was an additional act compounding Herod’s prior transgressions.
The thread — This progression of rulers escalating punishment while rejecting divine warning aligns with 2 Kings 24:4 and 2 Chronicles 36:16, where persistent rebellion against God’s messengers precedes divine wrath.
Why it lands — The verse states a historical fact: political power was used to silence prophetic correction. It demands recognition that rejecting rebuke typically produces increased oppression rather than moral change.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.
- 2 Chronicles 24:17 After the death of Jehoiada, however, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.
- 2 Chronicles 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
- Nehemiah 9:26 But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.
- Jeremiah 2:30 “I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”
- Matthew 23:31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,
- Revelation 16:6 For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”
- 2 Kings 21:16 Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
- Matthew 21:35 But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.