Luke 3:16

ἀπεκρίνατο. The answer, as we find from John 1:19-28, was given in its most definite form to a Pharisaic deputation of Priests and Levites, who were despatched by the Sanhedrin expressly to ask him to define his claims.

ὁ ἰσχυρότερός μου. ‘The stronger than I’ (comp. Luke 8:27).

λῦσαι. St Mark adds the graphic touch κύψας, ‘to stoop and untie.’ In Matthew 3:11 it is ‘to carry (βαστάσαι) his sandals;’ i.e. I am not adequate to be his humblest slave.

τὸν ἱμάντα, i.e. the thong. The word ‘latchet’ now obsolete in this sense, is from the same root perhaps as the Latin laqueus (Ital. laccio, Portug. lazzo, old French lacs, Fr. lacet, Engl. lace).

τῶν ὑποδημάτων αὐτοῦ. Of his sandals. The αὐτοῦ after οὗ is a pleonasm. Comp. οἷ τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ, 1 Peter 2:24. The idiom is common in Hellenistic Greek, but is also classical, as in Herod. IV. 44, &c. “Christ which that is to every wound triacle.” Chaucer. See Brief Greek Syntax, § 102.

ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ πυρί. ‘In the Holy Spirit and fire.’ The preposition ἐν distinguishes between the mere instrumentality of the water, and the spiritual element whereby and wherein the child of the kingdom is baptized. This baptism by the Spirit had been foretold in Isaiah 44:3; Joel 2:28. Its first obvious fulfilment was at Pentecost (Acts 1:5; Acts 2:3) and in subsequent outpourings after baptism (Acts 11:15-16). But it is fulfilled without visible supernatural signs to all Christians (1 Corinthians 6:11); “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,” 1 Corinthians 12:13). At the same time Acts 19:2 shews that we must not attribute to the Baptist any clear view of the Holy Ghost as a Person.

καὶ πυρί. In its first and most literal sense the allusion is to the fiery tongues of Pentecost (Acts 2:3); but the secondary and metaphoric allusion is to the burning zeal and illuminating light of the Spirit. St Jerome sees a further allusion to fiery trials (Luke 12:49; Mark 9:49; 1 Peter 4:12) and to the fire of judgment (1 Corinthians 3:13); but these allusions cannot be regarded as certain.