NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER THREE

Part IV

Verse 11: “I baptize you in water to show that you have changed your hearts and lives. But there is someone coming later who is able to do more than I can do. I am not good enough to even be the one who takes off His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

It is remarkable that in just two verses we see the use of “fire” in two totally different ways. One Jewish commentator makes this observation: “Fire is the most refined material on earth. God supervises these regions of the lower universe, as He punishes the sinners by fire, while saving those who love Him from the fire.”¹ The preposition here in Greek “en” has been translated elsewhere as “in,” “with,” and “among” Later on, Jesus’ exit up out of the water in verse 16 would indicate that He had been “in” the water thereby alluding to immersion as the form of water baptism He received from John the Baptizer. But John quickly shows that his baptism was just a preclude to something already on its way. And the One who was bringing it was of such stature and holiness, that he would not even qualify to be His servant.

In Jewish writings we find these customs related to servants’ duties: “If the slave tied his master’s sandals, or loosened his sandals, or carried his clothes behind him to the bathhouse, this means the slave is freed of any misconduct.”² Likewise, we read that Rabbis taught: “How is a heathen slave acquired by taking possession of him? If he carries his owner’s luggage behind him to the baths where he undresses him, washes him, anoints him, massages him, dresses him, and puts his shoes back on, he then becomes his property.”³ In other words, these are the duties expected of any servant, and only if that servant can adequately perform them should that servant be taken. These same qualifications for a servant’s work are mentioned by another revered Rabbi.⁴ There is also a comparison made between a servant and a student, showing just how inferior John the Baptizer rated himself compared to Jesus. It says: “All manner of service that a slave must render to his master, a student must render to his teacher, except for taking off his shoes.”⁵ In John’s eyes, even though he was a relative of Jesus, and the prophesied forerunner of the Messiah, still he did not feel himself to be on the level of a student in relationship to our Lord, even to the point of saying he was even unworthy to tie or untie Jesus’ sandals.

John the Baptizer then says, I only baptize with water, but the One greater than me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Isaiah spoke of a similar connection between water and Spirit: “I will pour water for thirsty people, and streams will flow through the desert. I will pour my Spirit on your children, and I will bless your family.”⁶ John the Baptizer may have had this scripture in mind when talking about his baptism and Jesus’ baptism. Were these terms foreign to the Jewish listener? If so, how did John the Baptizer expect them to then understand what he was talking about? However, if Rabbis already taught about baptism by water and fire, then it would be easier for them to get a better grasp of what John the Baptizer was implying. Should this not be the same message from any minister of the Gospel; I can baptize you in water, but only Jesus can baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

We find one answer in Jewish verbal teachings where it says: “A certain person of another sect said to Rabbi Abbahu: Your God is a priest, since it is written, That they accept my wave offering.⁷ Wave offerings, as a rule, were only given to Priests. Now, after God buried Moses,⁸ where did He bathe after His contact with a corpse?⁹ If you reply, ‘By using water: is it not written, Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?¹⁰ i.e. He could not bathe in water, especially when compared to how big He is. Or is the answer – ‘He bathed in fire?’ Since it is written, Behold the Lord will come in fire.’¹¹ ‘Is then purification by fire effective?’ On the contrary,’ he replied, ‘bathing for the purpose of purification should essentially be in fire, for it is written, And all that cannot stand the fire you will make them go through water.’¹² Essentially therefore, purification can also be by fire¹³.”¹⁴

Also, a Greek philosopher and orator had some experiences and insights that related to the same subject. Since he was a contemporary of Jesus, no doubt some of the more learned Jewish scholars, such as Saul of Tarsus, may have certainly heard of his writings. At the request of an empress, he wrote a lengthy autobiography. In that book we find the following mention of water mixed with fire in a ceremony. On a visit to India he remembers seeing: “Indians purify themselves of unintentional mistakes. He tells that the sages of India call the well, the well of testing, and the fire, the fire of pardon.”¹⁵ He goes on to say, “…they anointed their heads with an amber-like drug, which imparted such a warmth to these Indians, that their bodies steamed and sweat ran off them as profusely as if they were washing themselves with fire; next they threw themselves into the water and, having taken such a bath, they took off for the temple with wreaths upon their heads and full of sacred song.”¹⁶ He continues: “Here are interests which no law has required of us, nor nature planted in us from birth, but to which we have devoted ourselves out of mere strength of character and courage. In behalf therefore of these, should anyone try to violate them, let the wise man pass through fire, let him bare his neck for the ax, for he will not be overcome by any such threats, nor driven to any sort of deception; but he will hold on to all he knows as firmly as if it were a religion in which he had been initiated.”¹⁷ And the prophet Zechariah mentions the role of fire, “The troubles will be like the fire a person uses to prove silver is pure. I will test them the way a person tests gold.”¹⁸

Again it shows that the teaching and ministry of John the Baptizer and Jesus were not some radical form of cultism with new and strange doctrines. Rather, they were sent to select what was true and filter out the heresies that crept into the written Word of God in order to show that it all pointed to God’s ultimate plan of redemption and salvation through the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. But it also provided an expectation that the baptism by fire provided by Jesus would be more purifying and energizing than the one by water. Today this fire baptism is spoken of as the baptism in the Holy Spirit that was accompanied by tongues of fire in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost. But among those who call themselves Pentecostals, there was for a long time dissent on whether the cleansing brought by the baptism of fire was to be exhibited externally or internally. In some cases, however, rather than one side winning out over the other, it appears that both sides have lost their enthusiasm for either one.

Verse 12: “He already holds the winnowing fork in His hand to clean the grain. He will separate the good grain from the straw, so He can clean up the grain on the threshing floor and store it away in his grainery. Then He will burn the useless straw with a fire that cannot be stopped.”

Here John the Baptizer mentions one of the instruments used by farmers in his day to clean the grain brought in from the field before it was stored or sold on the market to make flour. The farmer would wait until a strong wind came up, then after the grain had been trampled on to remove the husks covering the seed, he would then fill a winnowing fan, raise it with its long handle, and as he shook and tossed the grain up in the air the wind would blow away the lighter husks, which is called “chaff”, so the clean seed could drop back into the fan, making it easier to gather and make even cleaner.

We see that one well-known Jewish Rabbi speaks of this in his commentary: “You will winnow them: You will scatter them, as with a pitchfork, to the wind and a wind will carry them away by themselves to Gehinnom.”¹⁹ Then he comments on the use of the winnowing fork in the same context as John the Baptizer does here: “…concerning the conduct of the daughter of My people, a wind will come but not to sift the chaff from the threshing floor. I will sift them with a sieve, but not to cleanse them. That’s not what the wind is for. That is to say, not for good but for evil, but to send men, women, children, and livestock into exile.”²⁰ In other words, this winnowing was done as a form of judgment. And in a discussion by other Rabbis it was said: “If a wooden pitchfork, winnow-fan or rake (as well as a hair-comb) losses one of its teeth, and another tooth is made of metal, these can become unusable because they are susceptible to contamination.”²¹

After examining the Christology presented so far, we can see here that John the Baptizer had been given Christ’s whole mission in a nutshell. What John said in verse 11 has already transpired, and what he says in verse 12 will yet take place! Isaiah also made this clear: “These people and their works will both burn up, and no one will be able to put out that fire.”²² Zechariah also echos this same warning, “My anger will be like a hot fire—no one will be able to stop it.”²³ So those listening to John the Baptizer knew exactly what he was talking about and the inference he was making to a coming time of harvest, which by metaphor, means the judgment. It also contains a subliminal thought that God has established the rules and methods for judgment, and if that method is abandoned and someone tries to substitute their own ideas, it will not do the job intended, and may even contaminate the whole process.

Some scholars see the mention here by the Rabbis of the following four items: grappling irons (to pull); pitch forks (to pitch); winnowing fans (to sift); and hair-combs (to separate), as also being elements of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ that was just about to be announced. And in particular, the winnowing fan,²⁴ was specifically tied to the concept of judging. By cleaning up the threshing floor, this also suggests Israel as a nation. In Isaiah we read: “My people, you will be like the grain crushed on my threshing floor. I have told you everything I heard from the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel.”²⁵ And for the record, according to the teaching of Rabbis, such winnowing was forbidden on the Sabbath.²⁶ But the most important part that John the Baptizer was wanting them to notice, was what happened to the chaff. Copies of Jewish verbal teachings states clearly: “The stubble and stalks must be burned. It conveys uncleanness by contact and when being carried.”²⁷ This echos what we read in Isaiah in the Song of the Vineyard about Jerusalem and the men of Judah: “Bad things will happen to them. Their descendants will be destroyed completely, just as fire burns straw and leaves. Their descendants will be like plants with rotten roots, whose flowers have all blown away like dust in the wind.”²⁸ Matthew does not tell us what reaction John the Baptizer received from these curious Pharisees and Sadducees, because he was anxious to get on with the real subject of his Gospel.