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Matthew 3:13-17
New Catholic Bible
Matthew 3:13-17
New Catholic Bible
13 Jesus Is Baptized.[a] Then Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 John tried to dissuade him, saying, “Why do you come to me? I am the one who needs to be baptized by you.” 15 But Jesus said to him in reply, “For the present, let it be thus. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all that righteousness demands.”[b] Then he acquiesced.
16 After Jesus had been baptized, as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened and he beheld the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”[c]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 3:13 The theophanies of the Old Testament were meant to convey something of the ineffable transcendence of God (Ex 3); the theophany that here begins the New Testament reveals something of the inner life of God: God is three persons. The dove perhaps suggests the Creator Spirit (Gen 1:2), but may also symbolize the divine goodwill that was restored after the flood (Gen 8:8-12), or the very People of God (Hos 7:11; 11:11; Isa 60:8), the formation of which is the work of the Spirit.
- Matthew 3:15 All that righteousness demands: i.e., all observances, everything that is part of God’s plan. Jesus obeys the Father’s will in everything (Phil 2:8).
- Matthew 3:17 This heavenly pronouncement intermingles language from Ps 2:7 and Isa 42:1, prophetic terminology that was well known to those with Messianic expectations (see Mt 17:5; Mk 1:11; 9:7; Lk 3:22; 9:35).
