Isaiah 40:3
A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God” (NIV).
Matthew 3:1-6
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River (NIV).
Note the quotation by Matthew of the prophecy of Isaiah is not precise. When I was a young Christian I became a bit baffled by the fact Old Testament Scripture was often quoted with some variation. Considering I was told Scripture was the “word of God,” as a fresh college graduate I expected quotations to be precise. After all, that is what my college professors expected of me!
I eventually learned people at the time of Christ often quoted the Hebrew Scriptures from a Greek translation termed the Septuagint. Greek was a common language between folks of different countries in regions in the vicinity of the Mediterranean Sea, so the scholarly Greek translation was popular. But the translation by scholars of the Hebrew, and a small amount of Aramaic, into a much different language, resulted in some language variance. Yet the message remained.
In the past few months, we covered the entire first chapter of Matthew. The Christmas story continues in the second chapter telling of the Magi who traveled to worship Jesus, and telling of the evil King Herod. Then there is an escape to Egypt by Joseph, Mary, and their baby. In due time, they returned home to Nazareth.
Matthew then jumps ahead in time to when Jesus was about thirty years old, and we are abruptly introduced to an eccentric character. John the Baptist grew up apparently a hermit in the desert (see Luke 1:80). John wore camel hair clothes and ate locusts and wild honey (see Matthew 3:4). Locusts probably taste better soaked in honey, but getting wild honey involves dealing with wild bees. John seems to make some people a little uncomfortable even after nearly 2,000 years. I have rarely heard a sermon about him, and I never recall him being discussed in any of my Biblical studies classes.
Yet people were flocking to him! “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan (Matthew 3:5).
What was John doing? First he was preaching. Second, he baptized people in water. But water baptism was not a command under the Mosaic Law, and most of these folks were probably Jewish. A scholar in the 1700’s, Dr. John Gill, said there was no written record of baptism before the time of John the Baptist. (1) (Have any such writings been discovered since the 1700’s?)
And no Jewish writings exist which record Jewish baptism, distinct from Christians who were Jewish, after the time of Christ’s ministry on earth until the Talmuds, and the Jewish Talmuds were written centuries after Christ. There are statements in Talmuds of Jewish people baptizing Gentiles who desired to convert to Judaism, (2) though it was not done in the name of God. (3) And there is a mention of some Jewish women being baptized, possibly since they did not have the covenant sign of circumcision. (4) But applying the practice of Jewish baptism for converts to a period several centuries earlier is scholarly speculation, which Dr. Gill disagrees with.
However, baptism did not seem foreign to some Pharisees. When some Pharisees questioned John as recorded in John 1:24-25, they seem to be familiar with the practice of baptism. I consider baptism had possibly become a practice at some juncture before the time of Christ, where Jewish people would immerse people who were not ethnically Jewish in water as a sign of their conversion to Judaism. Yet I speculate the practice was done only for a short period of time before the time of Christ, and was probably uncommon.
The bottom line is Jewish male infants were circumcised on the eighth day, as commanded by God to Abraham (Genesis 17:12). Jewish infants, youth, or men were not baptized.
So the question is clear: Why would Jewish people flock to a vagabond who was doing an act, baptizing in water, which was either a foreign act or an insulting act for a Jewish man?
I think there were two main reasons.
First, I think a minor reason John was not shunned was the fact he was in the priestly line of Aaron. We learn from Luke, who like Matthew gives details about the “Christmas story,” that John was a descendant of the high priest Aaron, the brother of Moses. Both the dad and the mom of John the Baptist were descendants of Aaron (Luke 1:5). And only descendants of Aaron were eligible to be Hebrew priests.
Now John apparently was not an ordained priest like his dad, and he did not serve in the Temple like his dad had. John was radical, yet I think people in that region knew the lineage of John.
Second, I think the primary reason people flocked to John and were baptized was they were anticipating the Messiah, and they thought John might be Him. The prophet Daniel gave a prophecy which included a time period when the Messiah would arrive (see Daniel 9:25). And there were likely those who still recalled the testimony which the angel of the Lord gave some shepherds about thirty years before (see Luke 2:8-12). Jewish people at the time of Christ were expecting the Messiah, which is subtly shown in several Scripture passages, for example, Luke 3:15- “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.” If John was the Christ, they were willing to carry out the sign of repentance.
John clearly stated he was not the Christ (see John 1:20). Yet he told of the One who was to come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Indeed John’s mission was to prepare people for the start of the ministry of Jesus the Messiah. And preparation required the need for repentance and a water baptism symbolic of repentance. Jesus would later instigate a water baptism in the name of the Triune God, symbolizing death to sin and new life in Him!
Repenting to God is simply recognizing your wrong doings and saying sorry to God. Repenting to a person is simply recognizing your wrong doings which have hurt a particular person, and saying sorry to that person. Repenting does not mean you are the only one who has done something wrong. It is simply facing up to your own wrong doings.
All people need to repent of our sins to God, admitting our sins, and saying sorry. Jesus, who is God the Son, came into the world to be our Savior and intercessor. We need no other intercessor besides God the Son. Anywhere and anytime, you can say sorry to Jesus!
Hunter Irvine
(1) John Gill, A Dissertation concerning the Baptism of Jewish Proselytes (London: George Keith, 1771), 47.
{Note this was previously one section of a book by Dr. Gill, A Body of Practical Divinity, which was likewise published by George Keith in 1770.}
(2) Ibid., 52.
(3) Ibid., 69.
(4) Ibid., 52.
