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Mat_3:16. Εὐθύς ] which cannot belong to ἀνεῴχθ . (Maldonatus, Grotius, B. Crusius), nor can it be referred to βαπτισθείς by supposing a hyperbaton (Fritzsche); see Kühner, II. 2, p. 642. Matthew would have written, καὶ εὐθὺς βαπτισθείς . It belongs to ἀνέβη , beside which it stands: after He was baptized, He went up straightway, etc. This straightway was understood at once as a matter of course, but does not belong, however, merely to the descriptive, but to the circumstantial style of the narrative, setting forth the rapid succession (of events).
ἀνεῴχθησαν αὐτῷ οἱ οὐρανοί ] designates neither a clearing up of the heavens (Paulus), nor a thunderstorm quickly discharging itself (Kuinoel, Ammon), since the poetic descriptions, as in Sil. It. i. 535 ff., are quite foreign (see Drackenborch, ad Sil. It. iii. 136; Heyne, ad Virg. Aen. iii. 198) to our simple historical narrative; as, moreover, neither in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, nor in Epiphanius, Haer. xxx. 13, nor in Justin, c. Tryph. 88,[384] is a thunderstorm meant. Only an actual parting of the heavens, out of which opening the Spirit came down, can be intended. Eze_1:1; Joh_1:51; Rev_4:1; Act_7:56; Isa_64:1.
αὐτῷ does not refer to the Baptist (Beza, Heumann, Bleek, Kern, Krabbe, de Wette, Baur), since Mat_3:16 begins a new portion of the history, in which John is no longer the subject. It refers to Jesus, and is the dative of purpose. To Him the heavens open; for it was on Him that the Spirit was to descend. Comp. Vulgate.
εἶδε ] Who? not John, but Jesus, without ἐπʼ αὐτόν standing for ἘΦʼ ΑὙΤΌΝ (Kuinoel); Kühner, II. 1, p. 489 f.; Bleek on the passage. The Gospel according to the Hebrews clearly referred ΕἾΔΕ to Jesus, with which Mar_1:10 also decidedly agrees.[385]
ὡσεὶ περιστεράν ] The element of comparison is interpreted by modern writers not as referring to the shape of the visibly descending Spirit, but to the manner of descent, where partly the swiftness (Fritzsche), partly the soft, gentle movement (Bleek) and activity (Neander), and the like, have been imagined as referred to. But as all the four evangelists have precisely the same comparison (Mar_1:10; Luk_3:22; Joh_1:32), which, as a mere representation of the manner of the descent, would be just as unessential as it would be an indefinite and ambiguous comparison; as, farther, Luke expressly says the Spirit descended, σωματικῷ εἴδει ὡσεὶ περιστερά , where, by the latter words, the σωματ . εἴδει is defined more precisely (comp. the Gospel according to the Hebrews in Epiphanius, Haer. xxx. 13 : εἴδε , namely, Jesus, τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ ἅγιον ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς κατελθούσης ; also Justin, c. Tr. 88),—so that interpretation appears as a groundless attempt to lessen the miraculous element, and only the old explanation (Origen and the Fathers in Suicer, Thes. s.v. περιστερά , Euth. Zigabenus, Erasmus, Luther), that the form of a dove actually appeared, can be received as the correct one. So also Paulus (who, however, thought of a real dove which accidentally appeared at the time!), de Wette, Kuhn (L. J. I. p. 319), Theile (zur Biogr. Jesu, p. 48), Keim, Hilgenfeld, who compares 4 Esdr. Mat_5:26. The symbolic element of this divine σημεῖον (see remarks after Mat_3:17) rests just in its appearance in the form of a dove, which descends.
[384] In the Gospel according to the Hebrews: περιέλαμψεν τὸν τόπον φῶς μέγα . Justin. κατελθόντος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ πῦρ ἀνήφθη ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ .
[385] Schmidt in the Jahrb. f. D. Th. 1869, p. 655, erroneously says: If Jesus were the subject, ἐφʼ αὑτόν must necessarily have been put. See Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 97 f. [E. T. 111 f.].