Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 3:11 - 3:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
11. ἐν ὕδατι. Either (1) ‘in water,’ the surrounding element is water; or better (2) ‘with water,’ ἐν being used of the instrument as frequently in Hellenistic Greek. Cp. ἐν μαχαιρᾷ ἀπολοῦνται, ch. Mat 26:52. ἐν τίνι αὐτὸ ἀρτύσετε; Mar 9:50. And occasionally in the classical period, as ἐν τόμᾳ σιδάρου, Soph. Tr. 887, ‘by cutting with steel,’ and ἐν κερτομίοις γλώσσαις, Ant. 961, ‘with reviling tongue.’ See Campbell’s Soph. on the last passage. The best supported reading ὕδατι in the parallel passage, Mar 1:8, is in favour of the instrumental sense here, but the other would not be excluded from the mind of a Greek reader.
εἰς, ‘with a view to.’ εἰς with a noun = a final sentence. In order that we may live the changed life.
τὰ ὑποδήματα βαστάσαι. The work of the meanest slaves (a pedibus pueri). John, great prophet as he was, with influence sufficient to make even Herod tremble for his throne, is unworthy to be the meanest slave of the Stronger One—the Son of God.
This figure gives to αὐτὸς its proper force, the ‘Master,’ in contrast with the slave.
ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ. It must be remembered that the matured Christian conception of the Holy Ghost would not be present to the mind of John. Some of his disciples at Ephesus said to St Paul, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost,’ Act 19:2.
πνεῦμα is the Greek representative of Hebr. ruach which meant ‘breath’ or ‘wind.’ This then was the earthly likeness or parable by which the thought of the Holy Spirit was brought home to men. In the O.T. πνεῦμα signifies, (1) Breath (2) Wind (3) Spirit or soul—the invisible and immortal part of a man conceived as breathed into him by God, called πνοὴν ζωῆς, Gen 4:7. (4) The faculty of thought and volition; this is either (α) evil or (β) good, cp. καὶ πνεῦμα Κυρίου ἀπέστη ἀπὸ Σαούλ, καὶ ἔπνιγεν αὐτὸν πνεῦμα πονηρὸν παρὰ Κυρίου. (5) The highest spiritual intelligence; the faculty of insight. (6) The divine Personal Spirit. Of these meanings classical Greek hardly includes more than (1) and (2), but cp. Soph. Œd. Col. 612, where πνεῦμα = ‘feeling,’ and the beautiful cognate expression ἠνεμόεν φρόνημα, ‘wind-swift thought,’ Ant. 354. In the N.T. the sense of ‘wind’ has nearly passed away, except in immediate connection with the figurative application, as Joh 3:8, τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ, κ.τ.λ., but the thought of the wind is never quite lost sight of in the derived meaning, and the verbs used in connection with the various senses of πνεῦμα often recall the original sense of the word; nor could any natural phenomenon more strikingly illustrate the manifestations of the Holy Spirit than the viewless, searching, all-penetrating force of wind, or than the breath of man, which is the essence of life and of speech. In a sense the Holy Spirit not only gives but is the highest life of the soul, and the divine prophetic breath. (Act 4:25.)
It may be further noted that as ruach, the Hebr. equivalent for πνεῦμα, was the only generic term for ‘wind,’ the figurative or parabolic sense would be more vividly present to the Jew than to the Greek, whose language possesses other words for ‘wind,’ e.g. ἄνεμος is often used in the LXX. to translate ruach in this sense.
In the Latin ‘spiritus’ the thought of ‘breathing’ would be retained throughout the derived senses, but not that of ‘wind.’ In English the thought of the Spirit of God and the thought of the movement of air or of breath are kept separate as far as language goes. It is therefore needful to recall the original image. For the literal meaning of a word is often a parable through which the knowledge of the unseen is approached.
πυρί. This metaphor implies: (1) Purification, (2) Fiery zeal or enthusiasm, (3) Enlightenment; all which are gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the ancient hymn by Robert II. of France the third point is brought out:
“Et emitte cælitus
Lucis tuæ radium
Veni lumen cordium.”