Ver. 2. λέγων introduces the burden of his preaching.—peravoeire, Repent. That was John’s great word. Jesus used it also when He began to preach, but His distinctive watchword was Believe. The two watchwords point to different conceptions of the kingdom. John’s kingdom was an object of awful dread, Jesus’ of glad welcome. The message of the one was legal, of the other evangelic. Change of mind John deemed very necessary as a preparation for Messiah’s advent.—f βασιλεία τῶν οὐ- ρανῶν, the Kingdom of Heaven. This title is peculiar to Matthew. In the other Gospels it is called the Kingdom of God. Not used either by John or by
80
5 Is. xl. 3. f here and
γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ῥηθεὶς ὑπὸ] ᾿Ησαΐου τοῦ προφήτου, λέγοντος, ''"Φωνὴ
in parall. βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, ' Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν Κυρίου: εὐθείας ποιεῖτε
in sense oe of a worn τὰς *tpiBous αὐτοῦ.’ path (τρι-
‘
4. Αὐτὸς δὲ 6 Ἰωάννης εἶχε τὸ 5 ἔνδυμα
βω). αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τριχῶν καµήλου, καὶ ζώνην δερµατίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν
g Ch. xxii. ,
11, xxviii, αὐτοῦ: ἡ δὲ τροφὴ αὐτοῦ Hv? Ἡ ἀκρίδες καὶ µέλι ! ἄγριον.
; ¢cloth- ing generally in Mt. vi. 25, 28.
h Mk.i.6. Rev. ix. 3, 7.
i Mk. 1.6. Jude 13 (fierce).
1 νπο here as in ii, 17, instead of δια in BCD.
2 avrov after qv in BCD.
Jesus, says Weiss, but to be ascribed to the evangelist. There does not seem to be any urgent reason for this judgment. In Daniel ii. 44 the kingdom is spoken of as to be set up by “the God of heaven,” and in the Judaistic period previous to the Christian era, when a transcendent conception of God began to prevail, the use of heaven as a syno- nym for God came in. Custom might cause it to be κος even by those who did not sympathise with the con- ception of God as transcendent, outside and far off from the world (vide note in H. C., Ρ. 55).
Ver. 3. ἐστιν, etc.: the evangelist here speaks. He finds in John the man of prophecy who proclaims in the desert the near advent of Jehovah comin to deliver His people. He quotes Isaiah only. Mark (1. 2) quotes Malachi also, identifying John, not only with the vice in the desert, but with Elijah. Isamh's herald is not merely a type of John in the view of the evangelist; the two are identical. The quotation follows the Sept., except that for τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν is substituted αὐτοῦ. Note where Matthew stops. Luke, the universalist, goes on to the end of the oracle. The mode of introducing the prophetic citation is peculiar. ‘This is he,” not “that it might be fulfilled". Weiss (Meyer) thinks this an indication that the passage is taken from "' the apostolic source”’.
Ver. 4. αὐτὸς 6°l. The story returns to the historical person, John, and identifies him with the herald of
ophecy. “This same John.” Then follows a description of his way of life— his clothing and his food, the details con- veying a life-like picture of the manner of the man: his habits congruous to his vocation.—rd ἀπὸ τριχών καµή- λον: his characteristic (αὐτοῦ) piece of clothing was a rough rude garment woven out of camel’s hair, not as some have thought, a camel’s skin We read in Heb. xi. 37, of sheep sains and goat
The T. R. is suspiciously smooth.
skins worn by some of God's saints, but not of camel skins. Fritzsche takes the opposite view, and Grotius. Euthy., following Chrysostom, says: “Do not ask who wove his garment, or whence he got his girdle ; for more wonderful is it that he should live from childhood to manhood in so inhospitable a climate”. John took his fashion in dress from Elijah, described (2 Kings i. 8) as “an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins". It need not be doubted that the investment is histori- cal, not a legendary creation, due to the opinion that John was Elijah redivivus. The imitation in dress does not imply a