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Mat_3:15. Ἄρτι ] now, suffer it just now. The antithesis of time is here not that of the past (see on Gal_1:9), but of the future, as in Joh_13:37; 1Co_13:12. Chrysostom: οὐ διηνεκῶς ταῦτα ἔσται . ἀλλʼ ὄψει με ἐν τούτοις οἷς ἐπιθυμεῖς · ἄρτι μέντοι ὑπόμεινον τοῦτο .
The meaning: “sine paulisper” (Fritzsche), comp. de Wette: “let it be for once,” is not sufficient. Schneckenburger, p. 122, regards the ἄφες as having been inappropriately transferred from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Erroneously, as it there belongs (in the sense: let it remain) to the apocryphal addition, according to which John, after the baptism of Jesus, prays the latter to baptize him; and Jesus answers: ἄφες , ὅτι οὕτως ἐστὶ πρέπον πληρωθῆναι πάντα (Epiphanius, Haer. xxx. 13). This apocryphal outgrowth is manifestly a farther spinning out of the tradition, as recorded in Matthew. Several of the Fathers likewise inferred from ἄρτι , in our verse, that John was afterwards baptized by Jesus.
ἡμῖν ] to thee and to me. To refer it merely to Jesus (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Glöckler), or, in the first place to Jesus (de Wette, Bleek), is opposed to the context. See Mat_3:14.
πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην ] all righteousness, all which as duty it is obligatory on us to do. Ch. F. Fritzsche in Fritzschior. Opusc. p. 81. Comp. πληρ . εὐσέβειαν , 4Ma_14:15. If I do not allow myself to be baptized, and thou dost not baptize me, there remains something unfulfilled (therefore, οὕτω ) which ought to be done by us, in accordance with the divine will; then satisfaction is not made by us to all righteousness. Comp. on πᾶσαν the plural expression δικαιοσύναι in Sir_44:10; Job_2:13.