Matthew 11:14

11:14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, who is to come.

Matthew 16:20

16:20 Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. ¹ 

Matthew 27:57

Jesus’ Burial

27:57 Now ²  when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. ³ 

Matthew 1:21

1:21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him ⁴  Jesus, ⁵  because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 8:17

8:17 In this way what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet was fulfilled: ⁶ 

“He took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.” ⁷ 

Matthew 8:24

8:24 And a great storm developed on the sea so that the waves began to swamp the boat. But he was asleep.

Matthew 12:50

12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is ⁸  my brother and sister and mother.”

Matthew 21:27

21:27 So ⁹  they answered Jesus, ¹⁰  “We don’t know.” ¹¹  Then he said to them, “Neither will I tell you ¹²  by what authority ¹³  I am doing these things.

Matthew 26:48

26:48 (Now the betrayer ¹⁴  had given them a sign, saying, “The one I kiss is the man. ¹⁵  Arrest him!”) ¹⁶ 

Matthew 3:4

3:4 Now John wore clothing made from camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. ¹⁷ 

Matthew 3:11

3:11 “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy ¹⁸  to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁹ 

Matthew 14:2

14:2 and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead! And because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him.”

¹ tc Most mss (א² C W Ï lat bo) have “Jesus, the Christ” (᾿Ιησοῦς ὁ Χριστός, Ihsou" Jo Cristo") here, while D has “Christ Jesus” (ὁ Χριστὸς ᾿Ιησοῦς). On the one hand, this is a much harder reading than the mere Χριστός, because the name Jesus was already well known for the disciples’ master – both to them and to others. Whether he was the Messiah is the real focus of the passage. But this is surely too hard a reading: There are no other texts in which the Lord tells his disciples not to disclose his personal name. Further, it is plainly a motivated reading in that scribes had the proclivity to add ᾿Ιησοῦς to Χριστός or to κύριος (kurio", “Lord”), regardless of whether such was appropriate to the context. In this instance it clearly is not, and it only reveals that scribes sometimes, if not often, did not think about the larger interpretive consequences of their alterations to the text. Further, the shorter reading is well supported by א* B L Δ Θ Ë^1,13 565 700 1424 al it sa.

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

² sn Though some dispute that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, his actions regarding Jesus’ burial suggest otherwise.

¹ tn Grk “you will call his name.”

² sn The Greek form of the name Ihsous, which was translated into Latin as Jesus, is the same as the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), which means “Yahweh saves” (Yahweh is typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). It was a fairly common name among Jews in 1st century Palestine, as references to a number of people by this name in the LXX and Josephus indicate.

¹ tn Grk “was fulfilled, saying.” The participle λέγοντος (legontos) is redundant and has not been translated.

² sn A quotation from Isa 53:4.

¹ tn The pleonastic pronoun αὐτός (autos, “he”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “So” to indicate that the clause is a result of the deliberations of the leaders.

² tn Grk “answering Jesus, they said.” This construction is somewhat awkward in English and has been simplified in the translation.

³ sn Very few questions could have so completely revealed the wicked intentions of the religious leaders. Jesus’ question revealed the motivation of the religious leaders and exposed them for what they really were – hypocrites. They indicted themselves when they cited only two options and chose neither of them (“We do not know”). The point of Matt 21:23-27 is that no matter what Jesus said in response to their question, they were not going to believe it and would in the end use it against him.

⁴ sn Neither will I tell you. Though Jesus gave no answer, the analogy he used to their own question makes his view clear. His authority came from heaven.

⁵ tn On this phrase, see BDAG 844 s.v. ποῖος 2.a.γ. This is exactly the same phrase as in v. 23.

¹ tn Grk “the one who betrays him.”

² tn Grk “The one I kiss is he.”

³ sn This remark is parenthetical within the narrative and has thus been placed in parentheses.

¹ sn John’s lifestyle was in stark contrast to many of the religious leaders of Jerusalem who lived in relative ease and luxury. While his clothing and diet were indicative of someone who lived in the desert, they also depicted him in his role as God’s prophet (cf. Zech 13:4); his appearance is similar to the Prophet Elijah (2 Kgs 1:8). Locusts and wild honey were a common diet in desert regions, and locusts (dried insects) are listed in Lev 11:22 among the “clean” foods.

¹ tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”

² sn With the Holy Spirit and fire. There are differing interpretations for this phrase regarding the number of baptisms and their nature. (1) Some see one baptism here, and this can be divided further into two options. (a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire could refer to the cleansing, purifying work of the Spirit in the individual believer through salvation and sanctification, or (b) it could refer to two different results of Christ’s ministry: Some accept Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit, but some reject him and receive judgment. (2) Other interpreters see two baptisms here: The baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the salvation Jesus brings at his first advent, in which believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of fire refers to the judgment Jesus will bring upon the world at his second coming. One must take into account both the image of fire and whether individual or corporate baptism is in view. A decision is not easy on either issue. The image of fire is used to refer to both eternal judgment (e.g., Matt 25:41) and the power of the Lord’s presence to purge and cleanse his people (e.g., Isa 4:4-5). The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, a fulfillment of this prophecy no matter which interpretation is taken, had both individual and corporate dimensions. It is possible that since Holy Spirit and fire are governed by a single preposition in Greek, the one-baptism view may be more likely, but this is not certain. Simply put, there is no consensus view in scholarship at this time on the best interpretation of this passage.