6 and they were baptized in the Jordan by him, confessing their sins.
many also of those who did believe were coming, confessing and declaring their acts,
and Peter said unto them, `Reform, and be baptized each of you on the name of Jesus Christ, to remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.' Also with many more other words he was testifying and exhorting, saying, `Be saved from this perverse generation;' then those, indeed, who did gladly receive his word were baptized, and there were added on that day, as it were, three thousand souls,
and there were going forth to him all the region of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and they were all baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee upon the Jordan, unto John to be baptized by him, but John was forbidding him, saying, `I have need by thee to be baptized -- and thou dost come unto me!' But Jesus answering said to him, `Suffer now, for thus it is becoming to us to fulfill all righteousness,' then he doth suffer him. And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and lo, opened to him were the heavens, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him,
And Paul said, `John, indeed, did baptize with a baptism of reformation, saying to the people that in him who is coming after him they should believe -- that is, in the Christ -- Jesus;' and they, having heard, were baptized -- to the name of the Lord Jesus,
and I remembered the saying of the Lord, how he said, John indeed did baptize with water, and ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit;
and all to Moses were baptized in the cloud, and in the sea;
being buried with him in the baptism, in which also ye rose with `him' through the faith of the working of God, who did raise him out of the dead.
of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on also of hands, of rising again also of the dead, and of judgment age-during,
only in victuals, and drinks, and different baptisms, and fleshly ordinances -- till the time of reformation imposed upon `them'.
also to which an antitype doth now save us -- baptism, (not a putting away of the filth of flesh, but the question of a good conscience in regard to God,) through the rising again of Jesus Christ,
if we may confess our sins, stedfast He is and righteous that He may forgive us the sins, and may cleanse us from every unrighteousness;
and Aaron hath laid his two hands on the head of the living goat, and hath confessed over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, and hath put them on the head of the goat, and hath sent `it' away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness;
the word that he sent to the sons of Israel, proclaiming good news -- peace through Jesus Christ (this one is Lord of all,) ye -- ye have known; -- the word that came throughout all Judea, having begun from Galilee, after the baptism that John preached; Jesus who `is' from Nazareth -- how God did anoint him with the Holy Spirit and power; who went through, doing good, and healing all those oppressed by the devil, because God was with him;
and John was also baptizing in Aenon, nigh to Salem, because there were many waters there, and they were coming and were being baptized -- for John was not yet cast into the prison -- there arose then a question from the disciples of John with `some' Jews about purifying,
and I knew him not, but, that he might be manifested to Israel, because of this I came with the water baptizing. And John testified, saying -- `I have seen the Spirit coming down, as a dove, out of heaven, and it remained on him; and I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water, He said to me, On whomsoever thou mayst see the Spirit coming down, and remaining on him, this is he who is baptizing with the Holy Spirit;
and they questioned him and said to him, `Why, then, dost thou baptize, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?' John answered them, saying, `I baptize with water, but in midst of you he hath stood whom ye have not known, this one it is who is coming after me, who hath been before me, of whom I am not worthy that I may loose the cord of his sandal.' These things came to pass in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing,
having risen, I will go on unto my father, and will say to him, Father, I did sin -- to the heaven, and before thee, and no more am I worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hirelings. `And having risen, he went unto his own father, and he being yet far distant, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and having ran he fell upon his neck and kissed him; and the son said to him, Father, I did sin -- to the heaven, and before thee, and no more am I worthy to be called thy son.
I indeed did baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.' And it came to pass in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John at the Jordan;
And I pray to Jehovah my God, and confess, and say: `I beseech Thee, O Lord God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the kindness to those loving Him, and to those keeping His commands;
Whoso is covering his transgressions prospereth not, And he who is confessing and forsaking hath mercy.
My sin I cause Thee to know, And mine iniquity I have not covered. I have said, `I confess concerning My transgressions to Jehovah,' And Thou -- Thou hast taken away, The iniquity of my sin. Selah.
And Joshua saith unto Achan, `My son, put, I pray thee, honour on Jehovah, God of Israel, and give to Him thanks, and declare, I pray thee, to me, what thou hast done -- hide not from me.'
and they have confessed their sin which they have done, then he hath restored his guilt in its principal, and its fifth is adding to it, and hath given `it' to him in reference to whom he hath been guilty.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Matthew 3
Commentary on Matthew 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
At the start of this chapter, concerning the baptism of John, begins the gospel (Mk. 1:1); what went before is but preface or introduction; this is "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.' And Peter observes the same date, Acts 1:22, beginning from the baptism of John, for then Christ began first to appear in him, and then to appear to him, and by him to the world. Here is,
Mat 3:1-6
We have here an account of the preaching and baptism of John, which were the dawning of the gospel-day. Observe,
The beginning of the gospel in a wilderness, speaks comfort to the deserts of the Gentile world. Now must the prophecies be fulfilled, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, Isa. 41:18, 19. The wilderness shall be a fruitful field, Isa. 32:15. And the desert shall rejoice, Isa. 35:1, 2. The Septuagint reads, the deserts of Jordan, the very wilderness in which John preached. In the Romish church there are those who call themselves hermits, and pretend to follow John; but when they say of Christ, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth, ch. 24:26. There was a seducer that led his followers into the wilderness, Acts 21:38.
Mat 3:7-12
The doctrine John preached was that of repentance, in consideration of the kingdom of heaven being at hand; now here we have the use of that doctrine. Application is the life of preaching, so it was of John's preaching.
Observe,
Mat 3:13-17
Our Lord Jesus, from his childhood till now, when he was almost thirty years of age, had lain hid in Galilee, as it were, buried alive; but now, after a long and dark night, behold, the Sun of righteousness rises in glory. The fulness of time was come that Christ should enter upon his prophetical office; and he chooses to do it, not at Jerusalem (though it is probable that he went thither at the three yearly feasts, as others did), but there where John was baptizing; for to him resorted those who waited for the consolation of Israel, to whom alone he would be welcome. John the Baptist was six months older than our Saviour, and it is supposed that he began to preach and baptize about six months before Christ appeared; so long he was employed in preparing his way, in the region round about Jordan; and more was done towards it in these six months than had been done in several ages before. Christ's coming from Galilee to Jordan, to be baptized, teaches us not the shrink from pain and toil, that we may have an opportunity of drawing nigh to God in ordinance. We should be willing to go far, rather than come short of communion with God. Those who will find must seek.
Now in this story of Christ's baptism we may observe,
Now, when he was coming up out of the water, and all the company had their eye upon him,