Baptism and temptation: the Son of God proved in the Jordan and the wilderness

The setting moves from the infancy chapters to about thirty years later. Luke 3:1-2 dates John's public work to the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, which most scholars place around AD 28 to 29, and names Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas as rulers. The Jewish historian Josephus also mentions John (Antiquities 18.116-119): he calls him a good man who urged the Jews to practise virtue and be baptized, and says Herod Antipas had him killed. So John is attested outside the New Testament. Matthew's account of him is shorter than Luke's, and Matthew places him at once in the line of the prophets.

John's baptism drew on a world of Jewish washing rites. Ritual immersion for purity was common (the stepped pools found near the Jerusalem temple show this), and some scholars think Jews baptized Gentile converts, though the evidence for that practice in John's day is debated. John's baptism was different in two ways: it was done once, by another, and it was tied to repentance in view of coming judgment. The wilderness of Judea by the Jordan recalled Israel's crossing into the land under Joshua and the exodus from Egypt. His clothing of camel hair and a leather belt echoes the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:8).

Matthew's Gospel was written for readers who knew these Scriptures, and these two chapters answer the question, who is Jesus? The answer comes from the Father's voice (3:17), from the tempter's challenge ('If You are the Son of God', 4:3, 6) and from Jesus' own words from Deuteronomy. The Sea of Galilee, where chapter 4 closes, was a busy fishing region with villages around its north shore, and Capernaum lay on a major trade route, the Way of the Sea mentioned in Isaiah 9:1.

These chapters are narrative built from three kinds of material: John's preaching, the voice at the baptism, and the temptation story that is mostly dialogue. The Old Testament quotations are the key. In 3:3 Matthew quotes Isaiah 40:3. In 4:4, 7 and 10 Jesus answers with three quotations from Deuteronomy (8:3; 6:16; 6:13), and in 4:15-16 Matthew quotes Isaiah 9:1-2. A reader who does not recognize the sources loses the point, so the first task is to find each passage and read it in its own setting.

• The second rule is to watch for echoes of Israel's story. Forty days in the wilderness recalls Israel's forty years there. The Jordan crossing and the wilderness testing both belong to the exodus and conquest pattern. Matthew expects the reader to see that Jesus repeats Israel's journey and succeeds where Israel failed.
• The third is to hold together the two purposes of the temptation: the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness 'to be tempted by the devil' (4:1). The testing is God's purpose for his Son, and the devil's aim is to make him fail.

Finally, Matthew arranges his Gospel with deliberate markers. The phrase 'from that time' appears in 4:17 and 16:21, and Jack Dean Kingsbury and others have argued that these mark the start of the second and third main parts of the book: the Messiah proclaimed and the Messiah heading to the cross.

3:1-6. 'In those days' links John to the infancy chapters. He preaches in the wilderness of Judea: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.' The verb for repent, metanoeo, means a change of mind and direction, and it translates the Hebrew idea of turning (shuv). The kingdom of heaven means the rule of God, and 'near' means it has drawn close. Whether Jesus and John taught that the kingdom had arrived or was still coming is an old scholarly debate; Matthew's wording keeps both ideas open. Matthew says John is the voice of Isaiah 40:3. In Isaiah the voice prepares the way for the LORD himself to come and rescue his people from exile, so John's role implies that Jesus' coming is the LORD's coming. People confess their sins and are baptized in the Jordan.

3:7-12. The Pharisees and Sadducees come. John calls them a brood of vipers and asks who warned them to flee the coming wrath. The warning is that descent from Abraham does not secure standing before God; God could raise children for Abraham from stones. The axe at the root and the winnowing fork depict judgment. The threshing floor was where grain was tossed so the chaff blew away. John says one more powerful than he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Interpreters differ on 'fire': judgment, purifying, or a single baptism with the Spirit that both cleanses and judges. Pentecost in Acts 2 includes tongues like fire.

3:13-17. Jesus comes from Galilee to be baptized, which puzzles John, for Jesus has no sins to confess. Jesus says it is fitting to 'fulfill all righteousness'. This phrase is debated. It likely means that Jesus is taking his place with his people and doing what God's plan requires, obeying the Father in solidarity with sinners. At the baptism the heavens open and the Spirit descends like a dove. The voice from heaven says, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!' The phrase echoes Psalm 2:7, where God addresses his king as 'My Son', and Isaiah 42:1, where God's chosen servant is the one in whom he delights and on whom he places his Spirit. Some also hear Genesis 22:2, where Abraham's beloved son is offered. Father, Son and Spirit are present at once.

4:1-11. The Spirit leads Jesus to be tempted. After forty days of fasting, the tempter says, 'If You are the Son of God', challenging the very title just given. The first temptation, to turn stones to bread, tests whether the Son will use his power to satisfy himself. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, which comes from the passage where Moses says God humbled Israel and fed them with manna to teach them that man lives by every word from God. In the second temptation, the devil takes him to the pinnacle of the temple and himself quotes Psalm 91:11-12. Jesus replies with Deuteronomy 6:16, recalling Israel's testing of God at Massah (Exodus 17). The location 'pinnacle' (pterygion) was probably a high corner of the temple complex; the exact place is uncertain. In the third temptation, the devil offers all the kingdoms of the world for worship. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 6:13, that worship and service belong to God alone. Psalm 2:8 had promised the Son the nations as his inheritance, and the devil offers the same gift without the cross. Then the devil leaves and angels minister.

4:12-17. John's arrest sends Jesus to Galilee, and he moves to Capernaum. Matthew quotes Isaiah 9:1-2. In Isaiah's day, Zebulun and Naphtali were the first lands taken by the Assyrians (732 BC), and the prophet promised light for that region. Matthew calls it Galilee of the Gentiles, because of its mixed population. Jesus then preaches the same message as John.

4:18-25. Jesus calls two pairs of brothers, Simon and Andrew, then James and John. In the later rabbinic pattern, students usually chose their teacher. Here the teacher chooses, and the response is immediate. The call is to follow and to fish for people. Then a summary: teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing every disease, and crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan. This summary introduces the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5 to 7) and the miracles (chapters 8 and 9).

The passage is a central witness to the doctrine of the Trinity. At the baptism the Son is in the water, the Spirit descends on him and the Father speaks. The church has always seen here a revelation of one God in three persons, and the early church read it as showing that Jesus is the Son by nature, not by adoption at his baptism.

The passage also teaches that the kingdom of God is the main subject of Jesus' ministry. John's message and Jesus' message at 4:17 are the same words, and the kingdom grows through the book. It teaches the authority of Scripture: against each temptation Jesus says 'it is written', and he treats Deuteronomy as a sufficient answer. The temptation account also shows that Jesus' sinlessness was real. Hebrews 4:15 says he has been tempted in every way, yet without sin, and Hebrews 2:18 says he is able to help those who are tempted.

And it sets out the nature of repentance. John's warning that Abrahamic descent is not enough, and that fruit is required, matches the prophets (Isaiah 1:10-20; Jeremiah 7). Paul will make the same point in Romans 2 and 4. Salvation is by God's grace, and repentance and faith are the response.

The passage answers who Jesus is by quoting the Old Testament in three ways.

• First, John fulfils Isaiah 40:3, and the voice prepares the way for the LORD. The coming of Jesus is the coming of Israel's God.
• Second, the Father's voice joins two promises: the Davidic king of Psalm 2 and the suffering and Spirit-anointed servant of Isaiah 42. In Jesus both roles are united, and the servant text points toward Isaiah 53.

Third, the temptation presents Jesus as the true Israel. Israel was God's son (Exodus 4:22), tested in the wilderness for forty years, and failed through hunger, testing God and idolatry. Jesus, tested for forty days, is hungry, is invited to prove himself, and is offered a shortcut to kingship, and each time he gives the answer Israel should have given. He quotes the three Deuteronomy passages that describe Israel's failures. What Israel did not do, he does.

His baptism also shows that he stands with sinners. He receives a baptism of repentance without needing it, which looks forward to the cross, where he bears sin he did not commit. The devil's offer of the kingdoms of the world without suffering is the path he refuses, and he takes the one that leads through the cross to the authority he claims at the end of the Gospel (28:18). The light of Isaiah 9:1-2 has risen on Galilee in his person.