Gospel of Matthew Chapter 3- 4: 25

John the Baptist

John was the forerunner to Christ. He got the people ready to receive the coming kingdom.

John was a baptizer, not a Baptist, as in a denomination. Baptizing people is what he did.

Baptize: But to understand what “baptizein” means here one needs the Jewish background. According to the Torah one had to be ritually pure before entering the Tabernacle or Temple. Ritual purity could be lost in many ways; the preeminent means of restoring it was through washing. A quick review of Leviticus shows how frequently the matter is mentioned, and one of the six major divisions of the Talmud (Taharot, “Cleansings”) is devoted to it. Even though there is no longer a Temple, observant Jewish women immerse themselves in a mikveh (ritual bath) after each menstrual period, in obedience to Leviticus 15; see MJ 13:4N.

A person who immerses himself participates in an obvious yet living metaphor of purification, with the water, as it were, washing away the impurity. Here Yochanan the Immerser proclaims for the old practice of immersion a new context, cleansing from a life pattern of sin (see vv. 2&N, 6, 11).

Stern, D. H. (1996). Jewish New Testament Commentary : a companion volume to the Jewish New Testament (electronic ed., Mt 3:1). Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications.