Matthew 3
CHAPTER 3
John the Baptist baptizes Jesus
And in those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying: 2 Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying: The voice of one crying in the wilderness - Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.
4 Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. 6 And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the anger to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance. 9 And think not to say within yourselves: We have Abraham as our father, for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 And even now the axe lies at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you in water to repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire; 12 whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor and he will gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.
13 Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan, to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But John would have stopped him, saying: I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me? 15 But Jesus answering said to him: Permit it now, for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he permitted him. 16 And Jesus when he was baptized immediately came up out of the water, and the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming to rest on him. 17 And a voice came from the heavens came, saying: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Commentary
3:6 Baptized... in the river- Baptism [Greek 'baptizo'] means to dip, to immerse- not to sprinkle. So baptism was performed in a river. Note 3:16 "out of the water".
3:7 Offspring of vipers- They were the descendants of the snake spoken of in Gen. 3:15. There will always be opposition between those in Christ, the descendant of the woman, and the descendants of the snake. We will be temporarily wounded by them, but we will triumph in the end.
3:9 Within yourselves- The Bible is aware of how we are likely to respond. God’s concern is with our state of mind, how we think within. For this is the ultimate source of human sin.
3:12 Unquenchable fire- not literally. A symbol of complete destruction (Jer. 17:27).
3:15 Jesus was baptized as an adult by immersion- as an example to us. We should also be baptized.
