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1 In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the Judean desert. 2 He said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” 3 For this is what had been spoken through the Prophet Isaiah when he said, “A voice crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight his paths!” 4 John wore clothes made of camel hair with a leather belt around his waste, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 At that time all the people of Jerusalem and Judea and the area surrounding the Jordan were coming out, 6 and being baptized in the Jordan River by him as they confessed their sins.

Comments

Mt passes over Jesus’ childhood and early adulthood without comment, and we now find ourselves at the start of his ministry. A new figure has emerged: John, dressed in the traditional garb of OT prophets (cf. Elijah’s dress in 2 Kgs 1.8) and living off the bare sustenance provided by the land, preaches repentance in the wilderness. Great crowds come to him, confessing their sins and being baptized in the Jordan.

John’s baptism may have been inspired by the Jewish mikvah (plural mikvot), i.e. a ritual bath for cleansing the ritual impurities specified in the Torah, especially Leviticus. While the exact location of John’s activity is not certain, the traditional (and plausible) site is the point on the Jordan between Mount Nebo and Jericho, which gives the baptisms an added symbolic significance: this was the site where the Israelites crossed into the promised land in Joshua 3.14-17. By re-entering the land from the Jordan, John’s penitents were symbolically entering the Promised Land as new Israelites.

John may have been influenced by the Essenes, or even have been a former Essene himself. They were a contemporaneous ascetic Jewish sect who dwelt in wilderness communities and made frequent use of mikvot.

The quotation is 3.3 is Isaiah 40.3, and it summarizes John’s whole mission. By leading the people to repentance, symbolized by baptism, he is preparing the way for God to visit his people by sending the Messiah. The Kingdom of Heaven (equivalent to the Kingdom of God in Mk and Lk) is a world where God’s will is done one earth as in heaven, a world inaugurated by the Messiah.