Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Matthew · About this commentary
This Is My Beloved Son
Matthew 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. · WEB
Matthew alone records the argument at the water's edge — and alone has the voice speak to the bystanders rather than to the Son.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him Matthew 3:13.
The baptism, the opened heavens, the Spirit descending as a dove and the voice are all in the earliest account Mark 1:9–11. Two things here are Matthew's own, and both are load-bearing.
But John would have hindered him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?" Matthew 3:14.
The first is John's objection, which raises the question every reader has: this is a baptism of repentance for the confession of sins, and the one being baptized has none to confess. Matthew is the Gospel most concerned with how Jesus stands toward the law, so it is Matthew who stops to record that the difficulty was felt at the time and answered.
"Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness" Matthew 3:15.
The answer is the first recorded word of Jesus in this Gospel, and the noun is the one the Sermon on the Mount will build on Matthew 5:20. He is not confessing sin; he is taking his place with the people who are — stepping into the line, under the water, as one of them. The pronoun is worth hearing: for us to fulfill, John included. Righteousness here is doing the whole of what God has appointed, and the appointed thing at this moment is solidarity.
Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" Matthew 3:17.
The second difference is the address. In the earlier telling the voice speaks to Jesus — you are my beloved Son — and here it speaks about him, in the third person, to whoever is standing on the bank. Nothing in the content changes; the direction does, and it fits a Gospel written to establish before witnesses who this is. At the transfiguration Matthew keeps the third person and adds a command for the hearers: listen to him Matthew 17:5.
The words themselves are two Scriptures joined — the enthronement of the king who is called God's son Psalms 2:7, and the opening of the first servant song, my chosen, in whom my soul delights Isaiah 42:1. Son and servant are named over him in one sentence at the outset, and the rest of the book is the working out of both.
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