“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.”
Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. The description of John's clothing and diet places him explicitly in the tradition of Elijah: 2 Kings 1:8 describes Elijah as wearing a garment of hair with a leather belt around his waist. John is the Elijah who was to come (Matthew 11:14; 17:12–13). The wilderness diet of locusts and wild honey communicates John's complete separation from the structures of comfortable society — he is not at the king's table, not in the courts of the powerful, not beholden to any patron. The freedom to speak without fear of economic or social consequences is one of the gifts of the wilderness life. Amos 7:14–15 describes a similar dislocation from mainstream religious life that produced prophetic clarity.
Church Fathers on Matthew 3:4
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.
For the preaching of John no place more suitable, no clothing more useful, no food more fitted.
His raiment of camel’s hair, not of wool - the one the mark of austerity in dress, the other of a delicate luxury.
Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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