Matthew 3:1

ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις. See Luke 3:1, where the time is defined.

Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστής. So named by the other Synoptists and by Josephus: in the fourth gospel he is called simply John, a note of the authenticity of St John’s gospel. Josephus mentions the great influence of John and speaks of the crowds that flocked to hear him preach and to be baptized of him. He says John taught men ἀρετὴν ἐπασκοῦντας καὶ τῇ πρὸς�· οὕτως γὰρ καὶ τὴν βάπτισιν�, μὴ ἐπί τινων ἁμαρτάδων παραιτήσει χρωμένων�ʼ ἐφʼ ἁγνείᾳ τοῦ σώματος ἅτε δὴ καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς δικαιοσύνῃ προεκκεκαθαρμένης. Ant. XVIII. Matthew 3:2. Compare this view of John’s baptism by the Pharisee Josephus with John’s own statement of the end of baptism—εἰς μετάνοιαν (Matthew 3:11).

κηρύσσων. Heralding, a word appropriate to the thought of the proclamation of a King.

ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς Ἰουδαίας, i.e. the uncultivated Eastern frontier of Judah. The term also includes the cliffs and Western shore of the Dead Sea. In this wild and nearly treeless district there were formerly a few cities, and there are still some luxuriant spots. See Tristram’s Topog. of H. L. Ch. IV.

The wilderness has a threefold significance (α) as the desolate scene of John’s ascetic life, (β) as the battle-field of the Temptation (see notes ch. 4), (γ) as the pathway of the Royal Advent. In this last aspect John fitly appears in the wilderness as the herald of a promised deliverance foreshadowed by two great prophetic types—the deliverance from Egypt (Numbers 23:21-22; Psalms 68:4-7), and the deliverance from Babylon, each associated with a march through the desert. Isaiah speaks of both (ch. Isaiah 43:18-19), ‘Remember not the former things, and the things of ancient times regard not’ (the return from Egypt). ‘Behold I make a new thing … yea, I will make in the wilderness a way’ (the return from Babylon). See Bp Lowth on Isaiah 40.