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Mat_3:1. Ἐν … ἐκείναις ] áÌÇéÌÈîÄéí äÈäÅí , Exo_2:11; Exo_2:23; Isa_38:1. Indefinite determination of time, which, however, always points back to a date which has preceded it. Mar_1:9; Luk_2:1. Here: at the time when Jesus still sojourned at Nazareth. The evangelist passes over the history of the youth of Jesus, and at once goes onwards to the forerunner of the Messiah; for he might not have had at his command any written documents, and sufficiently trustworthy traditions regarding it, since the oldest manner of presenting the gospel history, as still retained in Mark, began first with John the Baptist, to which beginning our evangelist also turns without further delay. It employs in so doing only the very indefinite transition with the same simplicity of unstudied historical writing, as in Exo_2:11, where by the same expression is meant the time when Moses still sojourned at the court of Egypt, though not the time of his childhood (Mat_3:10), but of his manhood. Accordingly, the following hypotheses are unnecessary; that of Paulus: in the original document, from which Matthew borrowed the following narrative, something about John the Baptist may have preceded, to which this note of time was appended, which Matthew retained, without adopting that preliminary matter; of Holtzmann: that a look forward to Mar_1:9 here betrays itself; of Schneckenburger (üb. d. erste kanon. Ev. p. 120): that in the gospel according to the Hebrews ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἡρώδου erroneously stood, instead of which Matthew put the indefinite statement before us; of Hilgenfeld, Evang. p. 55: in the older narrative, which lay at the foundation of our Matthew, the genealogical tree of Jesus was perhaps followed by ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἡρώδου τοῦ βασιλέως τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἦλθεν (or ἐγένετο ) Ἰωάννης ; compare also Keim, Gesch. J. I. p. 61. The correct view was already adopted by Chrysostom and his followers, Beza, Camerarius, Bengel: “Jesu habitante Nazarethae, Mat_2:23; notatur non breve, sed nulla majori mutatione notabile intervallum.” It is Luk_3:1 which first gives the more precise determination of time, and that very minutely.
παραγίνεται ] Historic present, as in Mat_2:13. Euth. Zigabenus: πόθεν ὁ Ἰωάννης παραγέγονεν ; ἀπὸ τῆς ἐνδοτέρας ʼρήμου . Opposed to this is the ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ that follows. Matthew has only the more general and indefinite expression: he arrives, he appears. Luk_12:51; Heb_9:11.
ὁ βαπτιστ .] Josephus, Antt. xviii. 5. 2 : Ἰωάνν . ὁ ἐπικαλούμενος βαπτιστής .
ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ] îÄãÀáÌÇø éÀäåÌãÈä , Jdg_1:16, Jos_15:61, a level plain adapted for the feeding of cattle, sparsely cultivated and inhabited,[375] which begins at Tekoa, and extends as far as the Dead Sea. Winer, Realwörterb. s.v. Wüste; Tobler, Denkblätter aus Jerus. p. 682; Keim, Gesch. J. I. p. 484 f. The mention of the locality is more precise in Luk_3:2 f.; but that in Matthew, in which the wilderness is not marked off geographically from the valley of the Jordan, which was justified by the nature of the soil (Josephus, Bell. iii. 10. 7, iv. 8. 2 f.), and involuntarily called forth by the following prophecy, is not incorrect. Comp. Ebrard (in answer to Strauss); Keim, l.c. p. 494.
[375] The idea of a flat surface called îÄãÀáÌÈø is given us partially in the Lüne-burger Heath. See generally, Crome, Beiträge zur Erklär. des N. T. p. 41 ff. Not to be confused with òÂøÈáÈä , steppe, concerning which see Credner in the Stud. u. Krit. 1833, p. 798 ff. Compare in regard to our wilderness, Robinson, Pal. II. p. 431.