Matthew 3:4

Ver 4. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Pseudo-Chrys.: Having said that he is the voice of one crying in the desert, the Evangelist well adds, "John had his clothing of camel's hair;" thus shewing what his life was; for he indeed testified of Christ, but his life testified of himself. No one is fit to be another's witness till he has first been his own.

Hilary: For the preaching of John no place more suitable, no clothing more useful, no food more fitted.

Jerome: His raiment of camel's hair, not of wool - the one the mark of austerity in dress, the other of a delicate luxury.

Pseudo-Chrys.: It becomes the servants of God to use a dress not for elegant appearance, or for cherishing of the body, but for a covering of the nakedness. Thus John wears a garment not soft and delicate, but hairy, heavy, rough, rather wounding the skin than cherishing it, that even the very clothing of his body told of the virtue of his mind. It was the custom of the Jews to wear girdles of wool; so he desiring something less indulgent wore one of skin.

Jerome: Food moreover suited to a dweller in the desert, no choice viands, but such as satisfied the necessities of the body.

Rabanus: Content with poor fare; to wit, small insects and honey gathered from the trunks of trees. In the sayings of Arnulphus [ed. note: Arnulphus, who visited Palestine 705; his travels to the Holy Land written from his mouth by Adamannus, Abbot of Lindisferne, are still extant.], Bishop of Gaul, we find that there was a very small kind of locust in the deserts of Judaea, with bodies about the thickness of a finger and short; they are easily taken among the grass, and when cooked in oil form a poor kind of food.

He also relates, that in the same desert there is a kind of tree, with a large round leaf, of the colour of milk and taste of honey, so friable as to rub to powder in the hand, and this is what is intended by wild honey.

Remig.: In this clothing and this poor food, he shews that he sorrows for the sins of the whole human race.

Rabanus: His dress and diet express the quality of his inward conversation. His garment was of an austere quality, because he rebuked the sinner's life.

Jerome: His girdle of skin, which Elias also bare, is the mark of mortification.

Rabanus: He ate locusts and honey, because his preaching was sweet tot he multitude, but was of short continuance; and honey has sweetness, locusts a swift flight but soon fall to the ground.

Remig.: In John (which name is interpreted 'the grace of God,') is figured Christ who brought grace into the world; in his clothing, the Gentile Church.

Hilary: The preacher of Christ is clad in the skins of unclean beasts, to which the Gentiles are compared, and so by the Prophets' dress is sanctified whatever in them was useless or unclean. The girdle is a thing of much efficacy to every good work, that we may be girt for every ministry of Christ. For his food are chosen locusts, which fly the face of man, and escape from every approach, signifying ourselves who were borne away from every word or speech of good by a spontaneous motion of the body, weak in will, barren in works, fretful in speech, foreign in abode, are now become the food of the Saints, chosen to fill the Prophets' desire, furnishing our most sweet food not from the hives of the law, but from the trunks of wild trees.