In those days John the Baptist came,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet
Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the
wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”[Isaiah 40:3]
11 “I baptize you with [in] water for
repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I
am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with [in] the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,
gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable
fire.”
The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to
the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I
need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now;
it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John
consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he
went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from
heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
NOTES:
3:1–12 Here Matthew takes up the order of Jesus’ ministry
found in the gospel of Mark, beginning with the preparatory preaching of John
the Baptist.
3:1 Unlike Luke, Matthew says nothing of the Baptist’s
origins and does not make him a relative of Jesus. The desert of Judea: the
barren region west of the Dead Sea extending up the Jordan valley.
3:2 Repent: the Baptist calls for a change of heart and
conduct, a turning of one’s life from rebellion to obedience towards God. The
kingdom of heaven is at hand: “heaven” (lit., “the heavens”) is a substitute
for the name “God” that was avoided by devout Jews of the time out of
reverence. The expression “the kingdom of heaven” occurs only in the gospel of
Matthew. It means the effective rule of God over his people. In its fullness, it
includes not only human obedience to God’s word but the triumph of God over
physical evils, supremely over death. In the expectation found in Jewish
apocalyptic, the kingdom was to be ushered in by a judgment in which sinners
would be condemned and perish, an expectation shared by the Baptist. This was
modified in Christian understanding where the kingdom was seen as being
established in stages, culminating with the parousia of Jesus.
3:3 See note on Jn 1:23.
3:4 The clothing of John recalls the austere dress of the
prophet Elijah (2 Kgs 1:8). The expectation of the return of Elijah from heaven
to prepare Israel for the final manifestation of God’s kingdom was widespread,
and according to Matthew this expectation was fulfilled in the Baptist’s
ministry (Mt 11:14; 17:11–13).
3:6 Ritual washing was practiced by various groups in
Palestine between 150 B.C. and A.D. 250. John’s baptism may have been related
to the purificatory washings of the Essenes at Qumran.
3:7 Pharisees and Sadducees: the former were marked by
devotion to the law, written and oral, and the scribes, experts in the law,
belonged predominantly to this group.
The Sadducees were the priestly
aristocratic party, centered in Jerusalem. They accepted as scripture only the
first five books of the Old Testament, followed only the letter of the law,
rejected the oral legal traditions, and were opposed to teachings not found in
the Pentateuch, such as the resurrection of the dead. Matthew links both of
these groups together as enemies of Jesus (Mt 16:1, 6, 11, 12; cf. Mk 8:11–13,
15). The threatening words that follow are addressed to them rather than to
“the crowds” as in Lk 3:7. The coming wrath: the judgment that will bring about
the destruction of unrepentant sinners.
3:11 Baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire: the water
baptism of John will be followed by an “immersion” of the repentant in the
cleansing power of the Spirit of God, and of the unrepentant in the destroying
power of God’s judgment. However, some see the holy Spirit and fire as
synonymous, and the effect of this “baptism” as either purification or
destruction. See note on Lk 3:16.
3:12 The discrimination between the good and the bad is
compared to the procedure by which a farmer separates wheat and chaff. The
winnowing fan was a forklike shovel with which the threshed wheat was thrown
into the air. The kernels fell to the ground; the light chaff, blown off by the
wind, was gathered and burned up.
3:13–17 The baptism of Jesus is the occasion on which he is
equipped for his ministry by the holy Spirit and proclaimed to be the Son of
God.
3:14–15 This dialogue, peculiar to Matthew, reveals John’s
awareness of Jesus’ superiority to him as the mightier one who is coming and
who will baptize with the holy Spirit (Mt 3:11). His reluctance to admit Jesus
among the sinners whom he is baptizing with water is overcome by Jesus’
response. To fulfill all righteousness: in this gospel to fulfill usually
refers to fulfillment of prophecy, and righteousness to moral conduct in
conformity with God’s will. Here, however, as in Mt 5:6; 6:33, righteousness
seems to mean the saving activity of God. To fulfill all righteousness is to
submit to the plan of God for the salvation of the human race. This involves
Jesus’ identification with sinners; hence the propriety of his accepting John’s
baptism.
3:16 The Spirit…coming upon him: cf. Is 42:1.
3:17 This is my beloved Son: the Marcan address to Jesus (Mk
1:11) is changed into a proclamation. The Father’s voice speaks in terms that
reflect Is 42:1; Ps 2:7; Gn 22:2.
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