Exegetical Notes on Matthew 3:1-12

I'm posting these here not as a polished essay, but as a record of my observations on the text at hand.

Exegetical Notes on Matthew 3:1-12

Matthew 3:1-12 (NRSV)

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Who: John the Baptist

What: Preaching and Baptizing to people, Pharisees, and Sadducees. 

When: Approximately 30 A.D.

Where: In the region west of the Jordan River

Why/How: Exhorting people to change the way they think.  In a sense, he’s calling on people to return to their roots.

Historical Context:

NT Times, Roman occupation of Judea.  According to Darrel Bock in NT Introduction, Dallas Theological Seminary on iTunesU, there are 4 responses to the occupation:

Zealots: Fight

Sadducees: Cooperate and maintain the Temple

Pharisees: Create a counter culture based on Torah but remain in the occupied territory

Essenes: Create a counter culture based on Torah and withdraw to the Wilderness

Observations: John withdrew to the wilderness and people followed him.  Both Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized.  Interesting that both Pharisees and Sadducees are mentioned together.

v.7: Brood of Vipers – Is this a reference to the serpent in Genesis 3? 

Only other reference is Job 20:16

Interpretation: Desert/Wilderness can refer to Israel’s time wandering.  Forty years allowed for one generation to die out who believed it better to be in Egypt in slavery.  A new generation arose that was zealous to follow God’s will.  They went on to conquer the land of Israel under Joshua’s leadership.  The older generation still had their heads in Egypt - the old way of thinking and being.  In a similar way, John was asking people, through the call to repentance, to die to the old way of thinking as exemplified by the Romans, Pharisees, and Sadducees.  

Baptism is a kind of death.  Romans 6:4 (NRSV) “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

Correlation: Matthew 5:20 (NRSV) … unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew references Isaiah 40:3, which is within a passage of deliverance from exile.

Grammatical and Word Observations: 

Repent: Greek Metanoia – literally to change one’s mind, think differently, reconsider. 

Meta = change, noeo = to exercise the mind.

Perhaps we could say, change how one goes about thinking about things.

Sins: Hamartano: (Strong’s G264) – Literally to miss the mark, to be without a share in (Israel’s identity involved each family having a share of the land.

Brood: G1081 in Strong’s: Offspring

Vipers: G2191 in Strong’s: A Poisonous Snake, an Adder

Serpent in Matthew 7:10 G3789 in Strong’s: ophis

Geographical:  In the wilderness around the Jordan River.  The Jordan River runs from the Sea of Galilee in the North to the Dead Sea in the South.  Israel took the promised land when they crossed the Jordan River

Logical Progression: John’s main argument was an exhortation.  He was calling on people to change the way they were thinking about life.  The old way was passing away, and the new way of living, referred to in Scripture as “The Kingdom of Heaven” was breaking in.  John was preparing people for this change by being disruptive.

The rebuke of Pharisees and Sadducees is significant since they represented the prevailing thoughts of the time.  He uses violent imagery to let them know that their time is short.  “ … trees … will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”  “… the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”