---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible"
author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 571 of 927
url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/571/
cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 571. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/571/"
---

# Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

*Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown*

The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation.

## 571. Matthew · 5 of 36

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/571/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/571/#p-N

[¶0] [Lu 3:13]:

[¶1] And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you--This is directed against that extortion which made the publicans a byword. (See on [Mt 5:46]; [Lu 15:1]).

[¶2] [Lu 3:14]:

[¶3] And the soldiers--rather, "And soldiers"--the word means "soldiers on active duty."

[¶4] likewise demanded--asked.

[¶5] of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man--Intimidate. The word signifies to "shake thoroughly," and refers probably to the extorting of money or other property.

[¶6] neither accuse any falsely--by acting as informers vexatiously on frivolous or false pretexts.

[¶7] and be content with your wages--or "rations." We may take this, say Webster and Wilkinson, as a warning against mutiny, which the officers attempted to suppress by largesses and donations. And thus the "fruits" which would evidence their repentance were just resistance to the reigning sins--particularly of the class to which the penitent belonged--and the manifestation of an opposite spirit.

[¶8] [Lu 3:15]:

[¶9] And as the people were in expectation--in a state of excitement, looking for something new

[¶10] and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not--rather, "whether he himself might be the Christ." The structure of this clause implies that they could hardly think it, but yet could not help asking themselves whether it might not be; showing both how successful he had been in awakening the expectation of Messiah's immediate appearing, and the high estimation and even reverence, which his own character commanded.

[¶11] [Lu 3:16]:

[¶12] John answered--either to that deputation from Jerusalem, of which we read in [Joh 1:19], &c., or on some other occasion, to remove impressions derogatory to his blessed Master, which he knew to be taking hold of the popular mind.

[¶13] saying unto them all--in solemn protestation.

[¶14] (We now return to the first Gospel.)

[¶15] 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance--(See on [Mt 3:6]);

[¶16] but he that cometh after me is mightier than I--In Mark and Luke this is more emphatic--"But there cometh the Mightier than I" ([Mr 1:7]; [Lu 3:16]).

[¶17] whose shoes--sandals.

[¶18] I am not worthy to bear--The sandals were tied and untied, and borne about by the meanest servants.

[¶19] he shall baptize you--the emphatic "He": "He it is," to the exclusion of all others, "that shall baptize you."

[¶20] with the Holy Ghost--"So far from entertaining such a thought as laying claim to the honors of Messiahship, the meanest services I can render to that 'Mightier than I that is coming after me' are too high an honor for me; I am but the servant, but the Master is coming; I administer but the outward symbol of purification; His it is, as His sole prerogative, to dispense the inward reality." Beautiful spirit, distinguishing this servant of Christ throughout!

[¶21] and with fire--To take this as a distinct baptism from that of the Spirit--a baptism of the impenitent with hell-fire--is exceedingly unnatural. Yet this was the view of Origen among the Fathers; and among moderns, of Neander, Meyer, De Wette, and Lange. Nor is it much better to refer it to the fire of the great day, by which the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Clearly, as we think, it is but the fiery character of the Spirit's operations upon the soul--searching, consuming, refining, sublimating--as nearly all good interpreters understand the words. And thus, in two successive clauses, the two most familiar emblems--water and fire--are employed to set forth the same purifying operations of the Holy Ghost upon the soul.

[¶22] 12. Whose fan--winnowing fan.

[¶23] is in his hand--ready for use. This is no other than the preaching of the Gospel, even now beginning, the effect of which would be to separate the solid from the spiritually worthless, as wheat, by the winnowing fan, from the chaff. (Compare the similar representation in Mal 3:1-3).

[¶24] and he will throughly purge his floor--threshing-floor; that is, the visible Church.

[¶25] and gather his wheat--His true-hearted saints; so called for their solid worth (compare [Am 9:9]; [Lu 22:31]).

[¶26] into the garner--"the kingdom of their Father," as this "garner" or "barn" is beautifully explained by our Lord in the parable of the wheat and the tares ([Mt 13:30], ).

[¶27] but he will burn up the chaff--empty, worthless professors of religion, void of all solid religious principle and character (see [Psa 1:4]).

[¶28] with unquenchable fire--Singular is the strength of this apparent contradiction of figures:--to be burnt up, but with a fire that is unquenchable; the one expressing the utter destruction of all that constitutes one's true life, the other the continued consciousness of existence in that awful condition.

[¶29] Luke adds the following important particulars ([Lu 3:18-20]):

[¶30] [Lu 3:18]:

[¶31] And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people--showing that we have here but an abstract of his teaching. Besides what we read in [Joh 1:29], 33, 34; 3:27-36, the incidental allusion to his having taught his disciples to pray ([Lu 11:1])--of which not a word is said elsewhere--shows how varied his teaching was.

[¶32] [Lu 3:19]:

[¶33] But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done--In this last clause we have an important fact, here only mentioned, showing how thoroughgoing was the fidelity of the Baptist to his royal hearer, and how strong must have been the workings of conscience in that slave of passion when, notwithstanding such plainness, he "did many things, and heard John gladly" ([Mr 6:20]).

[¶34] [Lu 3:20]:

[¶35] Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison--This imprisonment of John, however, did not take place for some time after this; and it is here recorded merely because the Evangelist did not intend to recur to his history till he had occasion to relate the message which he sent to Christ from his prison at Machærus ([Lu 7:18], &c.).

### Mt 3:13-17. Baptism of Christ and Descent of the Spirit upon Him Immediately Thereafter. ( = Mr 1:9-11; Lu 3:21, 22; Joh 1:31-34)

[¶37] Baptism of Christ ([Mt 3:13-15]).

[¶38] 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him--Moses rashly anticipated the divine call to deliver his people, and for this was fain to flee the house of bondage, and wait in obscurity for forty years more ([Ex 2:11], &c.). Not so this greater than Moses. All but thirty years had He now spent in privacy at Nazareth, gradually ripening for His public work, and calmly awaiting the time appointed of the Father. Now it had arrived; and this movement from Galilee to Jordan is the step, doubtless, of deepest interest to all heaven since that first one which brought Him into the world. Luke ([Lu 3:21]) has this important addition--"Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus being baptized," &c.--implying that Jesus waited till all other applicants for baptism that day had been disposed of, ere He stepped forward, that He might not seem to be merely one of the crowd. Thus, as He rode into Jerusalem upon an ass "whereon yet never man sat" ([Lu 19:30]), and lay in a sepulchre "wherein was never man yet laid" ([Joh 19:41]), so in His baptism, too. He would be "separate from sinners."

[¶39] 14. But John forbade him--rather, "was (in the act of) hindering him," or "attempting to hinder him."

[¶40] saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?--(How John came to recognize Him, when he says he knew Him not, see on John 1. 31-34.) The emphasis of this most remarkable speech lies all in the pronouns: "What! Shall the Master come for baptism to the servant--the sinless Saviour to a sinner?" That thus much is in the Baptist's words will be clearly seen if it be observed that he evidently regarded Jesus as Himself needing no purification but rather qualified to impart it to those who did. And do not all his other testimonies to Christ fully bear out this sense of the words? But it were a pity if, in the glory of this testimony to Christ, we should miss the beautiful spirit in which it was borne--"Lord, must I baptize Thee? Can I bring myself to do such a thing?"--reminding us of Peter's exclamation at the supper table, "Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" while it has nothing of the false humility and presumption which dictated Peter's next speech. "Thou shalt never wash my feet" ([Joh 13:6], ).

[¶41] 15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now--"Let it pass for the present"; that is, "Thou recoilest, and no wonder, for the seeming incongruity is startling; but in the present case do as thou art bidden."

[¶42] for thus it becometh us--"us," not in the sense of "me and thee," or "men in general," but as in [Joh 3:11].

[¶43] to fulfil all righteousness--If this be rendered, with Scrivener, "every ordinance," or, with Campbell, "every institution," the meaning is obvious enough; and the same sense is brought out by "all righteousness," or compliance with everything enjoined, baptism included. Indeed, if this be the meaning, our version perhaps best brings out the force of the opening word "Thus." But we incline to think that our Lord meant more than this. The import of circumcision and of baptism seems to be radically the same. And if our remarks on the circumcision of our Lord (see on [Lu 2:21-24]) are well founded, He would seem to have said, "Thus do I impledge Myself to the whole righteousness of the Law--thus symbolically do enter on and engage to fulfil it all." Let the thoughtful reader weigh this.

[¶44] Then he suffered him--with true humility, yielding to higher authority than his own impressions of propriety.