Exegesis:
kai ‘and,’ i.e. as a consequence of this divine commission.
eis pasan [tēn] perichōron tou Iordanou ‘into all the country around the Jordan.’ The Jordan country is the area where John went to fulfil his commission, not visiting one definite place but going from place to place within this area, cf. “he went all over the Jordan valley” (New English Bible).
perichōros ‘neighbouring,’ mostly used as a substantive, with chōra ‘country’ understood, and rendered ‘neighbourhood.’
kērussōn baptisma metanoias eis aphesin hamartiōn ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.’
kērussō ‘to proclaim,’ ‘to speak,’ with a connotation of authoritative proclamation. The content of John’s preaching is described in the following words baptisma metanoias eis aphesin hamartiōn. These words belong together.
baptisma ‘baptism’ in Luke (with the exception of 12.50 where it is used a figurative sense) always of the rite proclaimed and administered by John the Baptist.
metanoia ‘change of mind,’ ‘repentance,’ a deliberate turning from sin to God. The genitive metanoias here is qualifying and defines the baptism John proclaimed as an act expressing repentance.
eis aphesin hamartiōn ‘for the forgiveness of sins,’ indicating either purpose or result, probably the former. Cf. also on 1.77.
Translation:
And, or, ‘then,’ ‘accordingly.’
He went into all …, or, ‘travelled-around in’ (Kituba); Pohnpeian specifies the aspect, using a reduplication of the root-word ‘move’ with a suffix that carries the meaning of ‘doing in several places what the root-word says’; the same aspect form is used in the rendering of ‘preaching.’
All the region of the Jordan, or, ‘the whole area near J.,’ ‘on both borders of the river J.’ (Uab Meto).
Preaching. This subordinate participle may better become a second finite verb, ‘and (he) preached,’ or even the main verb, ‘and going through … he preached.’ For to preach, i.e. ‘to proclaim,’ ‘to make widely known. In Chinese the UV had ‘to hand down (the Way),’ but the revision (L) uses the term for ‘to propagate,’ “nowadays a very common word…, (which) de-specializes the term and puts it again in the midst of reality, showing with a new freshness the force of the Greek word”.
A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Some languages that use a word for ‘bath’ add a qualification, cf. the compound nouns ‘bath-of-enlightenment’ and ‘bath-of-dedication’ (Tamil and Kannada respectively).
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.