Matthew 3:5

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, THEN WENT OUT TO HIM JERUSALEM, AND ALL JUDEA, AND ALL THE REGION ROUND ABOUT JORDAN. From the metropolitan center to the extremities of the Judean province the cry of this great preacher of repentance and herald of the approaching Messiah brought trooping penitents and eager expectants....

1-6 After Malachi there was no prophet until John the Baptist came. He appeared first in the wilderness of Judea. This was not an uninhabited desert, but a part of the country not thickly peopled, nor much enclosed. No place is so remote as to shut us out from the visits of Divine grace. The doctrine he preached was repentance; "Repent ye." The word here used, implies a total alteration in the mind, a change in the judgment, disposition, and affections, another and a better bias of the soul. Consider your ways, change your minds: you have thought amiss; think again, and think aright. True penitents have other thoughts of God and Christ, sin and holiness, of this world and the other, than they had. The change of the mind produces a change of the way. That is gospel repentance, which flows from a sight of Christ, from a sense of his love, and from hopes of pardon and forgiveness through h...

Verse Matthew 3:5. _JORDAN_] Many of the best MSS. and versions, with Mark 1:5, add ποταμω, the _river_ Jordan; but the definitive article, with which the word is generally accompanied, both in the Hebrew and the Greek, is, sufficient; and our article _the_, which should ever be used in the translation, expresses the force of the other....

JERUSALEM - The people of Jerusalem. ALL JUDEA - Many people from Judea. It does not mean that literally all the people went, but that great multitudes went. It was general. Jerusalem was in the part of the country called Judea. Judea was situated on the west side of the Jordan. See the notes at Matthew 2:22. REGION ABOUT JORDAN - On the east and west side of the river. Near to Jordan....

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 3:1 THE HERALD. His public appearance and proclamation (Matthew 3:1, Matthew 3:2), as foretold by Scripture (Matthew 3:3). His Elijah-like dress (Matthew 3:4). He is listened to by multitudes (Matthew 3:5, Matthew 3:6). His faithful warning to typical Jews, and his pointing not to himself, but to the Coming One ...

THEN WENT OUT TO HIM JERUSALEM,.... The uncommon appearance of this person, the oddness of his dress, the austerity of his life, together with the awfulness and importance of his doctrine, and the novelty of the ordinance of baptism he administered, and the Jews having had no prophet for some hundreds of years, and imagining he might be the Messiah, quickly drew large numbers of people to him. Some copies read "all Jerusalem": that is, the inhabitants of that city, a very large number of them; and "all Judea", a great number of people from all parts of that country. "All" is here put for "many". And ALL THE REGION ROUND ABOUT JORDAN; multitudes from thence, which seems to be the same country with that which is called "beyond Jordan", Matthew 4:25 and is distinguished from Judea as here. The Septuagint in...

We are going to read three passages relating to John the Baptist's testimony concerning Christ. Matthew 3:1. _In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 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._ Everything connected with John the Baptist was in harmony with his message. He was the preacher of repentance, so the place where he preached was most suitable; it was in the wilderness, where there was nothing to distract his hearers' attention, as there would have been in crowded cities. His dress was striking, and everything about hi

3. THE HERALD OF THE KING; THE ENTRANCE UPON HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. __ 1. The Herald of the King. (Matthew 3:1 .) 2. His Message and His Baptism. (Matthew 3:7 .) 3. The King in Jordan's Waters. (Matthew 3:13 .) CHAPTER 3 The third chapter relates the ministry of the herald of the King, who announces that the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh, and the presence of the King Himself, who is to come after him; the baptism of the King, who comes from Galilee to the Jordan to John, and the events connected with it, are given in the second half of the chapter. “Now in those days comes John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of the heaven

JOHN THE BAPTIST (Mark 1:2 *, Luke 3:1) The common Synoptic material begins here. The chief difference from Mk. is the addition of Matthew 3:7 from Q (p. 672), _cf._ Luke 3:7, where the words are addressed not to the Pharisees and Sadducees, but to the crowd. In Mt.'s view the Pharisees thought to escape the coming judgment by the mere rite of baptism, and he makes John ask who indicated to (not warned) them that such escape was possible. More than outward repentance is needed a better life, and more than a claim to Abrahamic descent (_cf._ John 8:33). Judgment goes by ch

THERE WENT OUT TO HIM JERUSALEM AND ALL JUDEA. These expressions must be taken not as meaning every individual, but in their popular sense, as showing the wonderful impression produced by his preaching. The Jerusalemites, or people of Jerusalem, are not distinguished from the Judæans, under whom they were included, but merely rendered prominent among them as the people of the capital and holy city. All Judea, and among (or above) the rest, the people of Jerusalem....