Matthew 3:5 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 3:5 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan,”

Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him. The response to John's preaching is remarkable: Jerusalem and all Judea stream out to the wilderness to hear him. The religious center comes to the margins; the city empties toward the desert. This reversal anticipates the whole of Matthew's gospel: the insiders come to the margins where the action is, while many of those who should have been most ready resist. Luke 7:29–30 records that all the people and even the tax collectors justified God by being baptized with John's baptism, but the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves. The wilderness draw is the draw of genuine authority — the crowds recognize what the institutions do not.

Church Fathers on Matthew 3:5

Having described the preaching of John, he goes on to say, 'There went out to him,' for his severe life preached yet more loudly in the desert than the voice of his crying.
Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

For it was wonderful to see such fortitude in a human body; this it was that chiefly attracted the Jews, seeing in him the great Elias. It also contributed to fill them with wonder that the grace of Prophecy had long failed among them, and now seemed to have at length revived.
Chrysostom · 4th century

This baptism was only a forerunning of that to come, and did not forgive sins. [ed. note: Tertullian (de Bapt. 10. 11) S. Jerome (adv. Lucifer. 7) S. Gregory (Hom. in Evang. vii. 3) Theophylact in Marc. ch. i. S. Augustine (de Bapt. e Donat. v. 10) considered that S. John’s baptism gave a sort of suspensive or implicit remission, to be realized in the Atonement; and S. Cyril . Hieros. Cat. iii. 7-9. S. Greg . Nyss. in laud. Bas. t. 3. p. 482. vid. Dr. Pusey on Baptism, Ed. 2.…
Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation · interlin.

Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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