3:13-17 The Baptism of Jesus

We have seen the “people of Jerusalem and all Judea” going out to the Baptist; here Jesus goes out to the Jordan. The “baptism of John” is located at a specific place and administered by John. Dominic Crossan has called this a monopoly, as distinct from the baptism that is administered by all disciples of Jesus, anywhere, which he calls a franchise.

Matthew explicitly indicates that Jesus was baptized by John and against his protest; Mark explicitly has John baptize Jesus (1:9) but has no protest; Luke has the awkward reference to Jesus’ baptism, supposedly by John, after the reference to John being put in prison (3:22), but no protest; the Fourth Gospel does not report Jesus baptism and majors on protest. The embarrassment that gives rise to the protest (“John tried to prevent him …”) could arise from a sense of the superiority of Jesus to John or the nature of John’s baptism “for repentance”. John’s baptism is not a model for Christian baptism. Jesus is marked out with John’s baptism to “bear good fruit” and thus “fulfill all righteousness”.

Following the baptism of Jesus, the heavens are “opened”. On the assumption that Matthew used Mark as a source, Matthew has broken Mark’s closure created by the linking of the ripping of the heavens at the baptism with the ripping of the temple curtain by changing the first “ripping” to “opened”. What he gains (?) is the opening up of communication through the heavens.

We see the Spirit descending like a dove (following the flood?) but who else sees this? He saw probably best goes with Jesus as the subject but it could be John (as in John 1:32). Harrington favours a public event (p. 62).

The focus and point of the whole scene comes with the divine voice, the “bath qol” (daughter of the voice) an echo of a word uttered above and now coming through the opened heavens. “Son of God” is added to “Son of Abraham” and “Son of David” from the genealogy. This allows for the testing of the “Son of God” in 4:1-11 (“If you are the Son of God…”)

The baptism story links backward and forward in Matthew’s story and it links Jesus to the Baptist and places him beyond John. “Treasures old and treasures new” (13:52) does not suggest, or require, a “replacement theology”. The treasures are balanced off by Matthew.