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Matthew3:1–12

The Mission of John the Baptist

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Matthew 3:1–12 — The Mission of John the Baptist. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de En tais ekeinais hēmerais Iōannēs ho baptistēs paraginetai kēryssōn en tē erēmō tēs Ioudaias

Word by word15 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἘνEnInG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ταῖςtaisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
ἐκείναιςekeinaisthoseG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Plural
ekeinos: that one, those The demonstrative is vague on purpose. Barnes reckons an interval of twenty-five years or more between the close of chapter 2 and this verse; Benson says the phrase must be taken "in a very extensive sense, for that age." The Gospel does not date the forerunner by a regnal year here (Luke 3:1 does that); it simply picks the story up where Nazareth left off.
ἡμέραιςhēmeraisdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Plural
ἸωάννηςIōannēsJohnG2491
√ Ἰωάννης — Joannes (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
βαπτιστὴςbaptistēsBaptistG910
√ Βαπτιστής — a baptizer, as an epithet of Christ's forerunnerNounNominative Masculine Singular
παραγίνεταιparaginetaicameG3854
√ παραγίνομαι — to become near, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
paraginomai: to become near, to appear publicly Present indicative middle or passive, third singular, and the pivot of the verse: after four centuries with no prophet (Henry: "After Malachi there was no prophet until John the Baptist came"), a man steps into public view. The tense puts the reader in the crowd rather than in the archive.
κηρύσσωνkēryssōnpreachingG2784
√ κηρύσσω — to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
kēryssō: to herald, to cry as a public crier The word governs everything John says in this unit. A herald has no message of his own and no authority of his own; he carries another's proclamation, and the proclamation in verse 2 turns out to be about a kingdom. The participle is adverbial: he comes forward heralding, the appearing and the announcing being one act.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἐρήμῳerēmōwildernessG2048
√ ἔρημος — desert, desolate, solitary, wildernessAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
erēmos: desert, desolate, solitary The same word will be quoted from Isaiah in verse 3, which is why the placement matters: the herald's location is itself the fulfillment. Israel's formative history (exodus, law, tabernacle) happened in wilderness, and Gill records the rabbinic saying that the law, the tabernacle, the sanhedrin, the priesthood and the kingdom all came from the wilderness.
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἸουδαίαςIoudaiasof JudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Genitive of location, "of Judea," fixing the wilderness as the southern Jordan valley rather than the Sinai desert.
2

and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai legōn Metanoeite gar hē basileia tōn ouranōn ēngiken

Word by word9 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγωνlegōnsayingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ΜετανοεῖτεMetanoeiteRepentG3340
√ μετανοέω — to think differently or afterwards, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
metanoeō: to think differently, afterwards Present imperative, continuous and plural: a standing order to a whole people, not a single act of grief. Henry reads it as "a total alteration in the mind, a change in the judgment, disposition, and affections," and Gill argues the particular mind being changed is the expectation of a political Messiah. The word is answered in verse 8 by its noun, metanoia, which must show fruit.
γὰρgarforG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
Explanatory gar: the imperative gets a reason, not a threat.
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βασιλείαbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, reign The noun is dynamic: reign before realm. Barnes urges that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" "would be best translated, the reign of God draws near," since a reign, not a territory, is what can approach. That reading makes sense of a kingdom that arrives by a herald and is entered by repentance.
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ouranos: the sky, the heavens Genitive plural: the kingdom belongs to the heavens, defining its origin rather than its address. JFB traces the phrase to Daniel's vision of one like a son of man receiving an everlasting dominion (Daniel 7:13, 14), and says it was "fitted at once both to meet the national expectations and to turn them into the right channel."
ἤγγικενēngikenis nearG1448
√ ἐγγίζω — to make near, iVerbPerfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
engizō: to make near, to approach Perfect active. The whole logic of the Baptist's preaching hangs on this one tense: not a kingdom that may come if enough repent, but a kingdom already arrived, in front of which repentance is the only sane posture. Poole: the kingdom of heaven here "is not to be understood here of the kingdom of glory, but of the kingdom of grace, in all the administrations of it."
3

This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar houtos estin ho rhētheis dia tou prophētou Ēsaiou legontos Phōnē boōntos en tē erēmō Hetoimasate tēn hodon Kyriou poieite eutheias tribous tas autou

Word by word24 · parsed
γάρgarG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
Explanatory gar: verse 3 gives the warrant for verses 1 and 2.
οὗτοςhoutosThisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhohe whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ῥηθεὶςrhētheiswas spoken ofG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ereō: to speak, to say (aorist passive participle) A divine passive: God speaks, the prophet is the pipe. Matthew's formula fixes the authority of the quotation before the quotation is heard, and the aorist locates the speaking at a single past point whose content is only now standing in front of the reader in the person of John.
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
προφήτουprophētouprophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἨσαΐουĒsaiouIsaiahG2268
√ Ἡσαΐας — Hesaias (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
λέγοντοςlegontosG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
ΦωνὴPhōnē[A] voiceG5456
√ φωνή — a tone (articulate, bestial or artificial)NounNominative Feminine Singular
phōnē: a tone, a voice Anarthrous and unattached to a name. The herald is reduced to sound, which is exactly the self-description John gives in John 1:23. Ellicott observes that this passage of Isaiah "had impressed itself on the minds of men" so strongly that both the evangelist and the Baptist reached for it.
βοῶντοςboōntosof one callingG994
√ βοάω — to halloo, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
boaō: to halloo, to cry aloud Present participle: a sustained shout, not an announcement read out once. A relatively uncommon verb (the Verifier counts it in 12 verses), and it is one of the lexemes shared with the Markan and Lukan forms of the same citation.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἐρήμῳerēmōwildernessG2048
√ ἔρημος — desert, desolate, solitary, wildernessAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
ἙτοιμάσατεHetoimasatePrepareG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
hetoimazō: to prepare Aorist imperative active, second plural: do it, decisively, all of you. Barnes and Poole both explain the image from road work before a marching king: "in the march of armies to send messengers, or pioneers, before them to proclaim their approach; to provide for them; to remove obstructions." The command is addressed to the hearers, not to John.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδὸνhodonwayG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ΚυρίουKyrioufor [the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority, Lord Genitive and without the article, matching the Septuagint where the Hebrew reads the divine name. Matthew applies the verse to the one coming after John, which is why this word carries more weight than any other in the quotation: the road being cleared is the road of the LORD.
ποιεῖτεpoieitemakeG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
εὐθείαςeutheiasstraightG2117
√ εὐθύς — straight, iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
euthys: straight Accusative plural, agreeing with the paths: the object of the making. Henry draws the moral inference, "The way of sin and Satan is a crooked way; but to prepare a way for Christ, the paths must be made straight."
τρίβουςtribouspathsG5147
√ τρίβος — akin to , , and the base of G5131 (τράγος), G5134 (τραῦμα))NounAccusative Feminine Plural
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
αὐτοῦautoufor HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
4

John wore a garment of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Iōannēs Autos ho eichen to autou endyma apo kamēlou trichōn kai dermatinēn zōnēn peri tēn autou osphyn de hē autou trophē ēn akrides kai agrion meli

Word by word27 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἸωάννηςIōannēsJohnG2491
√ Ἰωάννης — Joannes (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ΑὐτὸςAutosG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
εἶχενeichenworeG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
echō: to hold, to have (imperfect) The imperfect makes the clothing a practice rather than an event. Everything the verse lists is a renunciation: the garment, the belt and the diet are all the cheapest options available in that country, and Benson notes John chose them "of his own free-will, for he was the only son of a priest."
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
αὐτοῦautouG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἔνδυμαendymaa garmentG1742
√ ἔνδυμα — apparel (especially the outer robe)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἀπὸapoofG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
καμήλουkamēloucamel’sG2574
√ κάμηλος — a "camel"NounGenitive Feminine Singular
τριχῶνtrichōnhairG2359
√ θρίξ — of uncertain derivationNounGenitive Feminine Plural
καὶkaiwithG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δερματίνηνdermatinēn[a] leatherG1193
√ δερμάτινος — made of hideAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
dermatinos: made of hide The one word in the description that is not about poverty but about identity. A hair garment and a leather belt are the recorded dress of Elijah (2 Kings 1:8), and Zechariah 13:4 shows the rough garment had become the prophet's uniform. Ellicott: the dress "was probably deliberately adopted by the Baptist as reviving the outward appearance of Elijah."
ζώνηνzōnēnbeltG2223
√ ζώνη — a beltNounAccusative Feminine Singular
περὶperiaroundG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὀσφὺνosphynwaistG3751
√ ὀσφῦς — the loin (externally), iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
osphys: the loin The belt is worn around the loins, the posture of a man ready to travel or to work. Gill draws the inference: it "shows he was prepared and in a readiness to do the work he was sent about."
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τροφὴtrophēfoodG5160
√ τροφή — nourishment (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Feminine Singular
trophē: nourishment Not brōma (a dish) but trophē (what sustains). Pulpit marks the distinction precisely.
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀκρίδεςakrideslocustsG200
√ ἀκρίς — a locust (as pointed, or as lighting on the top of vegetation)NounNominative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄγριονagrionwildG66
√ ἄγριος — wild (as pertaining to the country), literally (natural) or figuratively (fierce)AdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
agrios: wild, of the open country A rare adjective (the Verifier finds it in 3 verses), and the only ornament in the whole description. The honey is not kept, hived, or produced; it is found. The wilderness feeds the man who preaches in it.
μέλιmelihoneyG3192
√ μέλι — honeyNounNominative Neuter Singular
5

People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region around the Jordan.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote exeporeueto pros auton Hierosolyma kai pasa hē Ioudaia kai hē pasa perichōros tou Iordanou

Word by word15 · parsed
ΤότεToteG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
tote: then Pulpit reads it as nearly consequential, "thereupon": the preaching and the manner of life of verses 1 to 4 were not without effect.
ἐξεπορεύετοexeporeueto[People] went outG1607
√ ἐκπορεύομαι — to depart, be discharged, proceed, projectVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ekporeuomai: to depart, to proceed out Imperfect: the going out kept happening. The grammar is the crowd, sustained over months. Note that this same verb is the Verifier's link to the Lukan and Markan accounts of the same movement.
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτὸνautonhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἹεροσόλυμαHierosolyma[from] JerusalemG2414
√ Ἱεροσόλυμα — Hierosolyma (iNounNominative Neuter Plural
Hierosolyma: Jerusalem The capital comes first in the list and governs the singular verb: the city of the temple walks out into a wilderness to hear a man in camel hair. Benson notes the political heat of the moment, "the Roman yoke began to bear hard upon them," which sharpened the appetite for a deliverer.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πᾶσαpasaallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἸουδαίαIoudaiaJudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounNominative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
πᾶσαpasawholeG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
περίχωροςperichōrosregion aroundG4066
√ περίχωρος — around the region, iAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
perichōros: the region around An adjective used as a noun: the whole circuit of the Jordan valley. Ellicott reckons it takes in stretches of Perea, Samaria, Galilee and Gaulonitis, so the audience is already wider than Judea proper, and wider than the rigorists in verse 7 would have liked.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸορδάνουIordanouJordanG2446
√ Ἰορδάνης — the Jordanes (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
6

Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai exomologoumenoi tas autōn hamartias ebaptizonto hyp’ autou en tō Iordanē potamō

Word by word12 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξομολογούμενοιexomologoumenoiConfessingG1843
√ ἐξομολογέω — to acknowledge or (by implication, of assent) agree fullyVerbPresent Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Plural
exomologeō: to acknowledge, to agree fully Present middle participle running alongside the imperfect main verb: the confessing and the baptizing are one motion. Pulpit cites Josephus for the same phrase in the same period, "confessing their sins and their transgressions of the laws of their country," which shows the wording is ordinary Jewish penitential speech, not a Christian retrojection.
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἁμαρτίαςhamartiassinsG266
√ ἁμαρτία — a sin (properly abstract)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
hamartia: a sin Plural and possessed ("their sins"): not the abstract human condition but a list each person owns. Henry: "Those only are ready to receive Jesus Christ as their righteousness, who are brought with sorrow and shame to own their guilt."
ἐβαπτίζοντοebaptizontothey were baptizedG907
√ βαπτίζω — to immerse, submergeVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
baptizō: to immerse, to submerge Imperfect middle or passive. They are the ones acted on; the agent is named separately in the next words, hyp' autou, by him. Pulpit draws out what that phrase costs: "their baptism was not self-imposed, but an act of submission to his teaching." The same verb returns in verse 11, where John hands it to someone greater.
ὑπ’hyp’byG5259
√ ὑπό — under, iPreposition
The preposition hypo with the genitive marks personal agency: John does it to them.
αὐτοῦautouhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸορδάνῃIordanēJordanG2446
√ Ἰορδάνης — the Jordanes (iNounDative Masculine Singular
ποταμῷpotamōRiverG4215
√ ποταμός — a current, brook or freshet (as drinkable), iNounDative Masculine Singular
potamos: a current, a river The Jordan is named twice in two verses. Gill assembles Talmudic evidence that in this period it was a river one could swim in and sail boats on: the geography is real, not symbolic scenery.
7

But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Idōn pollous tōn Pharisaiōn kai Saddoukaiōn erchomenous epi autou to baptisma eipen autois Gennēmata echidnōn tis hypedeixen hymin phygein apo tēs mellousēs orgēs

Word by word24 · parsed
δὲdeBut whenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἸδὼνIdōn[John] sawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
horaō: to see, to attend to Aorist participle: one look was enough. Matthew alone names the two parties (Luke reports the same words to the crowds), and Pulpit notes the single article governing both nouns, which groups Pharisee and Sadducee together as one class: typical Jews, over against the multitudes.
πολλοὺςpollousmanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαίωνPharisaiōnPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΣαδδουκαίωνSaddoukaiōnSadduceesG4523
√ Σαδδουκαῖος — a Sadducæan (iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἐρχομένουςerchomenouscomingG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐπὶepitoG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouhis [place of]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
βάπτισμαbaptismabaptismG908
√ βάπτισμα — baptism (technically or figuratively)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
baptisma: baptism They come epi the baptism, upon or for it. Pulpit judges from the preposition that they came not merely to watch but with the purpose of receiving it, which is what makes John's greeting so violent: the rite was for people confessing sins, and confession is the one thing a party built on its own righteousness cannot make.
εἶπενeipenhe saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisto themG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΓεννήματαGennēmata[You] broodG1081
√ γέννημα — offspringNounVocative Neuter Plural
gennēma: offspring Vocative neuter plural, a rare word (the Verifier counts it in 8 verses) and always in Matthew a term of judgment. Jesus will use the identical insult twice more, at 12:34 and 23:33, so the forerunner's verdict and the Lord's verdict on the religious leadership are verbally the same verdict.
ἐχιδνῶνechidnōnof vipersG2191
√ ἔχιδνα — an adder or other poisonous snake (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Plural
echidna: an adder, a poisonous snake Rarer still (5 verses). Pulpit suggests it "may have directly implied that they belonged in a true sense to the seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15)." That is an inference, not a statement of the text, but it is the natural force of calling men the brood of a snake.
τίςtiswhoG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ὑπέδειξενhypedeixenwarnedG5263
√ ὑποδείκνυμι — to exhibit under the eyes, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
hypodeiknymi: to exhibit under the eyes See the divergence: the verb is about showing, not alarming. John is not asking for information; Pulpit paraphrases the tone, "Whoever can have told you of your danger?"
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
φυγεῖνphygeinto fleeG5343
√ φεύγω — to run away (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῆςtēstheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
μελλούσηςmellousēscomingG3195
√ μέλλω — to intend, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Feminine Singular
mellō: to be about to Present participle, feminine genitive, agreeing with wrath. The word holds the whole unit's clock: the kingdom has drawn near (v. 2), the axe already lies (v. 10), the wrath is on its way.
ὀργῆςorgēswrathG3709
√ ὀργή — properly, desire (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
orgē: a reaching forth of the mind, wrath Cambridge defines it in two steps: "(1) the divine attitude towards sin, and as a result (2) the divine judgment upon sin." JFB adds that it arises "out of the essential and eternal opposition of His nature to all moral evil," which keeps it from being temper.
8

Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

poiēsate karpon oun axion tēs metanoias

Word by word6 · parsed
ποιήσατεpoiēsateProduceG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
poieō: to make or do Aorist imperative. Set against the present imperative of verse 2 (keep changing your mind), the aorist here demands a decisive act that proves the ongoing one. Barnes reads the sting: "Do not bring your cunning and dissimulation to this work; do not carry your hypocrisy into your professed repentance."
καρπὸνkarponfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
οὖνounthenG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
oun: accordingly, therefore The inference runs straight from the vipers of verse 7: if you are here fleeing wrath, then show it.
ἄξιονaxionin keeping withG514
√ ἄξιος — deserving, comparable or suitable (as if drawing praise)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
axios: deserving, comparable, of like weight The image is a balance. Fruit is placed in one pan and the professed repentance in the other, and the two must weigh the same. This is the exact point where John's preaching becomes unbearable to a party whose standing rests on descent and observance rather than on produce.
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
μετανοίαςmetanoiasrepentanceG3341
√ μετάνοια — (subjectively) compunction (for guilt, including reformation)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
metanoia: compunction, change of mind The noun of the verb in verse 2, and the article may be generic or may mean "your repentance" (so the Revised Version margin, noted by Pulpit). Either way it presses the question the next verse answers: what exactly do you think you are trading on?
9

And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai mē doxēte legein en heautois echomen ton Abraam Patera gar legō hymin hoti ek tōn toutōn lithōn ho Theos dynatai egeirai tekna tō Abraam

Word by word25 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μὴmē{do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
δόξητεdoxētepresumeG1380
√ δοκέω — compare the base of G1166 (δεικνύω)) of the same meaningVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
dokeō: to think, to seem Aorist subjunctive under a prohibition. John forbids the thought before it becomes speech, which is why the next clause reports what they say "in themselves." Benson translates the force as "Presume not to say, or, Say not confidently, within yourselves."
λέγεινlegeinto sayG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
ἐνentoG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἑαυτοῖςheautoisyourselvesG1438
√ ἑαυτοῦ — him- (her-, it-, them-, also (in conjunction with the personal pronoun of the other persons) my-, thy-, our-, your-) self (selves), etcReflexive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἔχομενechomenWe haveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Plural
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ἈβραάμAbraamAbrahamG11
√ Ἀβραάμ — Abraham, the Hebrew patriarchNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ΠατέραPatera[as our] fatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
patēr: a father Accusative, in predicate position: "we have Abraham as father." Ellicott measures what the claim was worth: "We have Abraham as our father was to the Jew all and more than all that civis Romanus sum was to the Romans." Pulpit notes the wording brings out "the protecting influence of Abraham as still available," which is exactly the security John removes.
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἐκekout ofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
τούτωνtoutōntheseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Masculine Plural
λίθωνlithōnstonesG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Masculine Plural
lithos: a stone Genitive plural after ek, with the demonstrative "these": Ellicott says the words were "obviously dramatised by gesture, pointing to the pebbles on the banks of the Jordan", and JFB pictures the speaker pointing "to the pebbles of the bare clay hills that lay around". Gill argues the same, against the older reading of the stones as Gentiles present in the crowd. Cambridge adds that stones are "the furthest removed from life of created things," which is the point: God's raw material for an heir can be the least promising thing in view.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΘεὸςTheosGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounNominative Masculine Singular
δύναταιdynataicanG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
dynamai: to be able, to be possible Present indicative: not a hypothetical but a standing capacity. Pulpit reads it as both physical power and moral right.
ἐγεῖραιegeirairaise upG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
egeirō: to waken, to raise Aorist infinitive. The resurrection overtone is not accidental in a chapter that ends with a harvest and a fire. He who raised offspring from bodies as good as dead (Romans 4:19) is not dependent on any living lineage.
τέκναteknachildrenG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
teknon: a child, as produced The offer and the threat in one word: children for Abraham will exist either way, and the question is only whether these hearers are among them. Gill and Ellicott both run the line forward to Galatians 3:29, where being Christ's is what makes a person Abraham's seed.
τῷtōforG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἈβραάμAbraamAbrahamG11
√ Ἀβραάμ — Abraham, the Hebrew patriarchNounDative Masculine Singular
10

The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hē axinē ēdē de keitai pros tēn rhizan tōn dendrōn oun pan dendron mē poioun kalon karpon ekkoptetai kai balletai eis pyr

Word by word22 · parsed
ἡhēTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἀξίνηaxinēaxeG513
√ ἀξίνη — compare G4486 (ῥήγνυμι))NounNominative Feminine Singular
axinē: an axe The subject of the sentence, placed before its verb and holding the whole image: not a pruning hook, which is what would be used on a tree meant to survive. Ellicott sets the two instruments against each other: corrective judgments "were as the pruning of the branches (John 15:2). Now the axe was laid to the root."
ἤδηēdēvvvG2235
√ ἤδη — even nowAdverb
δὲdevvvG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
κεῖταιkeitailies readyG2749
√ κεῖμαι — to lie outstretched (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
keimai: to lie outstretched Present indicative. This is the tense that carries the unit: nothing is being fetched. Compare verse 12, where the winnowing fork is not merely lying but already in the hand, which Pulpit reads as a deliberate escalation.
πρὸςprosatG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ῥίζανrhizanrootG4491
√ ῥίζα — a "root" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
rhiza: a root The axe is at the root, not at the branches, and the root is precisely what these hearers had appealed to one verse earlier. Gill reads it as the covenant standing of the nation itself: the blow falls "not to some of the branches only, to lop them off, to take away from the Jews some particular privileges", but at the root of all of them, "civil and ecclesiastical".
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
δένδρωνdendrōntreesG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounGenitive Neuter Plural
οὖνounandG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
πᾶνpaneveryG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
Emphatic "every" (pan): Pulpit notes the sweep includes even the noblest tree, which is the point against verse 9.
δένδρονdendrontreeG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounNominative Neuter Singular
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ποιοῦνpoiounthat does not produceG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Neuter Singular
poieō: to make or do (present participle) The same verb commanded in verse 8. The tree that does not make fruit is judged by the exact standard laid on the hearers: not by what it is descended from, but by what it produces.
καλὸνkalongoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
kalos: good, fair, worthy Not merely edible but fine. Cambridge notes the agricultural realism: "The Oriental values trees only as productive of fruit, all others are cut down as cumberers of the ground."
καρπὸνkarponfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐκκόπτεταιekkoptetaiwill be cut downG1581
√ ἐκκόπτω — to exscindVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ekkoptō: to cut out, to excise Present indicative middle or passive. The prefix matters: this is removal at the stump, matching the axe at the root rather than at the limbs. Henry's summary is the whole verse: "If not fit for fruit, they are fit for fuel."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
βάλλεταιballetaithrownG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
πῦρpyr[the] fireG4442
√ πῦρ — "fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
11

I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Egō men baptizō hymas en hydati eis metanoian ho de opisō mou erchomenos estin ischyroteros mou hou ta hypodēmata eimi ouk hikanos bastasai autos baptisei hymas en Hagiō Pneumati kai pyri

Word by word31 · parsed
ἘγὼEgōIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 1st Person Singular
egō: I The pronoun is unnecessary in Greek and therefore emphatic, but the emphasis is self-diminishing: I, over against him. Ellicott notes the "I" is stressed "as also the baptism with water, as contrasted with that which was to follow."
μὲνmenG3303
√ μέν — properly, indicative of affirmation or concession (in fact)Conjunction
βαπτίζωbaptizōbaptizeG907
√ βαπτίζω — to immerse, submergeVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thou
ἐνenwithG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ὕδατιhydatiwaterG5204
√ ὕδωρ — water (as if rainy) literally or figurativelyNounDative Neuter Singular
εἰςeisforG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
eis: to or into, of purpose or result See the divergence: the whole question of whether John's baptism looked forward to repentance or rested on it sits in this two-letter word, and the brief's voices split.
μετάνοιανmetanoianrepentanceG3341
√ μετάνοια — (subjectively) compunction (for guilt, including reformation)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὀπίσωopisōafterG3694
√ ὀπίσω — to the back, iPreposition
μουmoumeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ἐρχόμενοςerchomenoswill comeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
erchomai: to come Present participle with the article, "the one coming." Pulpit notes the phrase "would recall the thought of the Coming One, a common designation of Messiah" (compare Matthew 11:3; 21:9). It is a title, not a description of traffic on the road.
ἐστινestin[One]G1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἰσχυρότερόςischyroterosmore powerfulG2478
√ ἰσχυρός — forcible (literally or figuratively)AdjectiveNominative Masculine SingularComparative
ischyros: forcible, strong Comparative, "mightier than I." Pulpit specifies the axis: not mightier "in authority (the next clause), nor in honour," but "in inherent strength and power." Ellicott reads the strength as double-edged, "stronger both to save and to punish; at once the Deliverer and the Judge," which verse 12 then illustrates with one instrument that does both.
μούmouthan IG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
οὗhouwhoseG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounGenitive Masculine Singular
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὑποδήματαhypodēmatasandalsG5266
√ ὑπόδημα — something bound under the feet, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
εἰμὶeimiI amG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
οὐκouknotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἱκανὸςhikanosworthyG2425
√ ἱκανός — competent (as if coming in season), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
hikanos: competent, sufficient See the divergence. This is the pivot of John's whole self-understanding in the unit: the herald measures himself against the one he announces and reports a shortfall, not a modest one.
βαστάσαιbastasaito carryG941
√ βαστάζω — to lift, literally or figuratively (endure, declare, sustain, receive, etcVerbAorist Infinitive Active
αὐτὸςautosHeG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
βαπτίσειbaptiseiwill baptizeG907
√ βαπτίζω — to immerse, submergeVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
baptizō: to immerse Future indicative active, third singular, with the emphatic autos: "He himself." The same verb John has been using in the present of himself is handed forward. JFB stresses the pronoun: it is he who shall baptize, "to the exclusion of all others".
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
ἐνenwithG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἉγίῳHagiō[the] HolyG40
√ ἅγιος — sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated)AdjectiveDative Neuter Singular
ΠνεύματιPneumatiSpiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounDative Neuter Singular
pneuma: a current of air, spirit Dative with en, qualified by Ἁγίῳ (G40). Cambridge issues a sober caution against reading later dogma into the Baptist's mouth: "The matured Christian conception of the Holy Ghost would not be present to the mind of John," citing the disciples at Ephesus in Acts 19:2.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πυρίpyriwith fireG4442
√ πῦρ — "fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)NounDative Neuter Singular
pyr: fire Governed by the same single en as the Spirit, with no second preposition. Pulpit builds an argument on that: by not placing fire "under the government of another preposition (which would have necessitated the conception of it as a distinct element)," the sentence implies "that it is only another aspect of one and the same baptism." The reading of that fire is where the brief's voices divide most sharply (see the flagged thread).
12

His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hou to ptyon en tē autou cheiri kai diakathariei tēn autou halōna kai synaxei ton autou siton eis tēn apothēkēn de katakausei to achyron asbestō pyri

Word by word26 · parsed
οὗhouHisG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounGenitive Masculine Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
πτύονptyonwinnowing fork [is]G4425
√ πτύον — a winnowing-fork (as scattering like spittle)NounNominative Neuter Singular
ptyon: a winnowing fork The subject of a verbless clause: "of whom the winnowing fork is in his hand." Pulpit marks the escalation over verse 10: there the axe was lying ready, here the instrument is already held. JFB reads the fork as the preaching of the gospel itself, "even now beginning," whose effect is to separate the solid from the worthless.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
The threefold autou across the verse (his hand, his floor, his wheat) is noted by Pulpit as "personal agency, sphere, ownership." Nothing in the harvest belongs to the workers.
χειρὶcheirihandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διακαθαριεῖdiakatharieito clearG1245
√ διακαθαρίζω — to cleanse perfectly, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
diakatharizō: to cleanse perfectly Future active, and the first of two futures that answer the present tenses of verses 10 and 12. The cleansing is thorough by the force of the prefix: not a tidying of the floor but its complete separation into two heaps.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἅλωναhalōnathreshing floorG257
√ ἅλων — a threshing-floor (as rolled hard), iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνάξειsynaxeito gatherG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
synagō: to lead together, to gather The same verb, with the same barn, recurs in the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:30), where the separation is deferred to the harvest at the end of the age.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
σῖτονsitonwheatG4621
√ σῖτος — grain, especially wheatNounAccusative Masculine Singular
sitos: grain, especially wheat JFB reads the wheat as Christ's "true-hearted saints; so called for their solid worth," and Henry contrasts it with chaff, "light and empty, useless and worthless, carried about with every wind." The image is weight: what has substance stays when the wind blows.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἀποθήκηνapothēkēnbarnG596
√ ἀποθήκη — a repository, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
apothēkē: a repository, a barn A rare word (6 verses). Pulpit notes that granaries in that country were commonly subterranean vaults, so the picture is of grain hidden away and safe from marauders, not of a wooden barn.
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
κατακαύσειkatakauseiHe will burn upG2618
√ κατακαίω — to burn down (to the ground), iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
katakaiō: to burn down, to burn up utterly Future active, and the verb is complete: burn down to the ground. Pulpit sets it against Exodus 3:2, where the bush burned and was not consumed. Set beside asbestos in the next breath, the two words pull against each other, and JFB names the tension rather than dissolving it.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἄχυρονachyronchaffG892
√ ἄχυρον — chaff (as diffusive)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
achyron: chaff Pulpit notes that in that agriculture the word takes in the straw as well, everything but the actual grain, and quotes Jeremiah 23:28, "What is the chaff to the wheat?" Ellicott observes that the Old Testament imagery of chaff rests in its scattering (Job 21:18; Psalm 1:4; Isaiah 17:13; Hosea 13:3), and that the new feature here is the burning.
ἀσβέστῳasbestōwith unquenchableG762
√ ἄσβεστος — not extinguished, iAdjectiveDative Neuter Singular
πυρὶpyrifireG4442
√ πῦρ — "fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)NounDative Neuter Singular

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A voice, and nothing else — 3:1-3

The unit opens on a verb in the present tense. παραγίνεται (G3854) is "cometh," and Ellicott names the effect: "Literally, with the vividness of the historic present, cometh." Pulpit adds the idiomatic sense, to "come forward publicly," to make one's public appearance. So the silence Henry describes ("After Malachi there was no prophet until John the Baptist came") is broken not by a report but by an entrance. What he does is κηρύσσων (G2784), which Cambridge glosses "heralding, a word appropriate to the thought of the proclamation of a King," and Benson traces to those who "make proclamation in the streets or camps." A herald owns nothing he says.

⚙ Matthew then does something that constrains every later reading: he identifies the man with a sentence. In verse 3 John is not said to resemble Isaiah's voice; he is said to be it. Pulpit puts the grammar exactly: the phrase means "not a mere reference found in Isaiah, but the absolute content of the prophet's words," so that the thing God uttered through the prophet is identified with a living man. The aorist passive ῥηθεὶς (G2046) with dia makes God the speaker and Isaiah the channel. And the quoted noun is bare: Φωνὴ, a voice. Cambridge: "The message is more than the messenger, the prophet's personality is lost in the prophetic voice." Poole, meanwhile, will not let us forget that Isaiah 40:3 had a first, historical reference, "judged literally, but typically, to concern Cyrus and Darius," which the evangelists then confirm "to have a special relation also to John the Baptist."

ii. Camel hair, and a city walking out to a river — 3:4-6

Verse 4 shifts into the imperfect: εἶχεν and ἦν, he used to have, it used to be. Pulpit marks the contrast with the present estin of verse 3, and the effect is that the dress is habit while the identity is fact. The habit is legible. Ellicott: the dress "was probably deliberately adopted by the Baptist as reviving the outward appearance of Elijah", the man of 2 Kings 1:8 who wore hair and a leather belt. JFB says the whole picture, "this dress and diet, with the shrill cry in the wilderness, would recall the stern days of Elijah." Poole, sensibly, calls the arguments over the weave "great and insignificant."

Then the traffic reverses. ἐξεπορεύετο (G1607) is imperfect and singular though whole provinces are its subject; Pulpit explains the singular as Hebrew-like, the writer thinking first of Jerusalem. Benson catches what the direction means: the people "were under the necessity of going out of the city, and travelling to him into the desert: but Jesus, of his own accord, went to his hearers." Poole and Gill both refuse to press the double "all": it is "significative no further then many." What they do at the river is told with a participle riding on an imperfect: ἐξομολογούμενοι, confessing out loud, which Ellicott says "always implies public utterance," while ἐβαπτίζοντο keeps repeating. Gill reads the preposition and the river as immersion, "which in the primary sense of it signifies to dip or plunge"; Benson, Poole and Barnes hold the mode is not essential. The brief's own voices disagree, and we leave the disagreement standing.

iii. The axe is already lying there — 3:7-10

One aorist participle, Ἰδὼν, and the tone changes. JFB reads the greeting as a charge against both parties at once: "Mutually and entirely antagonistic as were their religious principles and spirit, the stern prophet charges both alike with being the poisoners of the nation's religious principles." Cambridge corrects the rendering, "offspring or brood of vipers," and Pulpit presses that the venom "is due to their very nature." The verb John uses next is not really "warned": ὑπέδειξεν (G5263) is to place a thing under the eyes, and Pulpit notes it elsewhere carries "no thought of warning, nor of secrecy, but of teaching." Who pointed this out to you? The wrath, meanwhile, is a present participle, μελλούσης: already on its way. JFB will not let it be purely future, since "as a merited sentence it lies on the sinner already."

⚙ Verse 9 removes the last handhold. Benson records how heavy that handhold was: "It is almost incredible how great the presumption of the Jews was, on this their relation to Abraham." John's answer is a pun the Greek cannot carry. Cambridge asks, "May there not be a play on the words banim (children) abanim (stones)?" We mark that as a Hebrew or Aramaic conjecture behind a Greek text, not a fact of the text in front of us. What is in the text is ἐγεῖραι (G1453), to raise up, and JFB draws the horizon: what John meant to indicate was "the calling of the Gentiles", people then "stone-dead in their sins", brought "into the room of unbelieving and disinherited Israel". Then verse 10, where the decisive word is the tense. κεῖται is present: the axe is not being fetched, it lies at the root. Ellicott: "Judgments that were only partial or corrective were as the pruning of the branches (John 15:2). Now the axe was laid to the root, and the alternative was preservation or destruction." Poole, weighing whether this means the judgment common to all unbelievers or "the particular destruction of this nation of the Jews", answers with admirable restraint, and lands on the national reading: "I shall not determine, though I rather judge the latter probable."

iv. The stronger one, and the fork already in his hand — 3:11-12

John's last words in this unit are almost entirely about someone else. The pronoun Ἐγὼ is emphatic only in order to be diminished: I, water; he, Spirit and fire. Barnes explains the self-abasement in concrete terms: "To unloose and bind on sandals, on such occasions, was formerly the business of the lowest servants," and Pulpit sharpens it further, since most slaves in Jewish households were Gentiles, so the comparison sets John below the meanest slave. Geneva turns this into a rule for readers: "We may neither dwell upon the signs which God has ordained as means to lead us into our salvation, neither upon those that minister them: but we must climb up to the matter itself, that is to say, to Christ."

⚙ The two futures of verse 12, διακαθαριεῖ and συνάξει, are set against a present state: the fork is in his hand. Pulpit notes the escalation over verse 10, where "the instrument was only lying ready to be taken up." Ellicott reconstructs the scene, "the large winnowing fan driving on them the full force of the strong current of air, leaving the wheat in the middle, while the chaff is driven to the outskirts," and observes that in the Old Testament imagery the chaff is scattered, while here it is burned. Henry reads the floor as the visible church: "True believers are as wheat, substantial, useful, and valuable; hypocrites are as chaff, light and empty." Whether the fire of verse 11 is the same fire as verse 12 divides the brief's own voices: JFB says the Spirit's fire is purifying and calls the judgment reading "exceedingly unnatural," naming Origen, Neander, Meyer, De Wette and Lange as holding it; Barnes leans the other way, reading the fire poured on the wicked as judgment, "that is, with judgment and wrath." We flag the division rather than resolving it.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Every authority in this chapter is held by someone who does not own it. John is a Φωνὴ, a voice with no name inside the quotation. His clothing is borrowed from a prophet four centuries dead. His rite is applied not to pagans seeking entry but to Israelites already inside, which is exactly what JFB says startled the crowds: "this baptism of Jews themselves was quite new and strange to them." And his one boast is a denial: he is not ἱκανὸς, not competent, to carry another man's sandals.

Read that way, the unit is an argument about where standing comes from. The Pharisee and Sadducee arrive holding a title deed ("We have Abraham as father"), and John answers that God can manufacture heirs out of gravel, which is to say the deed was never the thing. The tenses do the rest of the work. The kingdom has drawn near (perfect). The wrath is coming (present participle). The axe lies at the root (present). The fork is in his hand (present). Nothing in this passage is scheduled; it is all already in position, waiting only for the one who will use it. What is demanded in response is correspondingly small and correspondingly total: change your mind, and make one piece of fruit that weighs the same as the change you claim.

We are not persuaded that the fire of verse 11 must be either purifying or destroying. The unit refuses to separate them: the same coming one holds the fork that gathers and the fire that burns, and the tool that saves the wheat is the tool that exposes the chaff. If that is right, then the terror and the mercy here are not two messages but one instrument, and the only question the passage leaves open is which side of the fork you are on.

Not a verse, a reading offered for testing: the axe does not need to be fetched, and the fork is not being sharpened; both are already in position, and only the fruit is still undecided.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

"Brood of vipers": the forerunner's verdict becomes the Lord's verbal / quotation: confirmed

John's vocative Γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν (G1081 + G2191) is not a stray insult. The Verifier finds both lexemes shared with Matthew 12:34 and Matthew 23:33, and both are rare: gennēma appears in 8 verses, echidna in only 5. In both later passages the speaker is Jesus, and the addressees are the same party. JFB notes the reuse precisely: "In Mt 12:34; 23:33, this strong language of the Baptist is anew applied by the faithful and true Witness to the Pharisees specifically." Cambridge corrects the rendering to "offspring" or "brood," which is what makes the phrase a statement about parentage rather than about a generation, and Pulpit suggests the implied parent is the serpent of Genesis 3:15. ⚙ The structural point is that the herald's judgment and the King's judgment on the religious leadership are, word for word, the same judgment.

Matthew 12:34 · Matthew 23:33

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1081 γέννημα (in 8 vv) and G2191 ἔχιδνα (in 5 vv) across Matthew 3:7, 12:34 and 23:33. Both are rare, both New Testament, and the collocation occurs nowhere else, so the verbal link is scored within the Greek lexicon.

The threshing floor and the unquenchable fire verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17 share ἅλων (G257, threshing floor), a lexeme the Verifier finds in only two verses of the whole New Testament, together with πῦρ (G4442). The two verses are the synoptic record of one saying, and the rarity of halōn is what makes the verbal identity measurable rather than merely thematic. Barnes describes the floor from the field: "a space of ground 30 or 40 paces in diameter, and made smooth by rolling it or treading it hard," set on high ground "for the convenience of winnowing the grain by the wind." ⚙ Note what the shared vocabulary does not settle: the referent of the floor. Gill reads it as the land of Israel under imminent Roman judgment, Henry and JFB as the visible church awaiting the last day, Pulpit as the world or the universe. The words are fixed; the scope is argued.

Luke 3:17

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G257 ἅλων (in 2 vv, the rarest in this unit) and G4442 πῦρ (in 69 vv). Greek to Greek, New Testament only; the near-unique threshing-floor lexeme carries the verbal tier.

The barn and the burning: John's threat becomes Jesus' parable verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier links Matthew 3:12 to Matthew 13:30 by ἀποθήκη (G596, barn or repository, in 6 verses) and συνάγω (G4863, to gather together). In John's preaching the gathering into the barn and the burning are stated flatly as what the coming one will do; in the parable of the wheat and the tares the same two verbs and the same barn reappear, now with a delay built in and an explicit deferral to the harvest at the end of the age. JFB reads the barn of 3:12 straight through the parable: it is "the kingdom of their Father, as this garner or barn is beautifully explained by our Lord in the parable of the wheat and the tares." ⚙ The verbal overlap lets us watch one image being kept and re-timed: John says the fork is in his hand now, and the parable answers the obvious objection, that the field still looks mixed.

Matthew 13:30

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G596 ἀποθήκη (in 6 vv, rare), G4863 συνάγω (in 59 vv), G2046 ἐρέω (in 96 vv). Greek to Greek within Matthew; the rare barn lexeme plus the shared gathering verb supports a verbal link, though this is reuse of an image by the same author, not a quotation formula.

"A voice in the wilderness": an explicit citation that cannot be scored as verbal structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew 3:3 quotes Isaiah 40:3 by name, with the formula "spoken through the prophet Isaiah," and Mark 1:3 and Luke 3:4 carry the same quotation. The Verifier's measurable evidence lies on the Greek side only: Matthew 3:3 shares ἔρημος (G2048), ὁδός (G3598) and βοάω (G994, in 12 verses) with both Mark 1:3 and Luke 3:4. JFB notes the weight the early church put on this text: "This prediction is quoted in all the four Gospels, showing that it was regarded as a great outstanding one." ⚙ Two honest qualifications. First, the link to Isaiah cannot be tiered verbal here, because shared Strong's numbers do not cross between the Hebrew and Greek lexicons; the citation is explicit and undisputed, but the scoring instrument cannot measure it. Second, Pulpit records a real difference in the punctuation: "The Hebrew probably joins in the wilderness with prepare ye, but St. Matthew with crying," and Benson reports Bishop Lowth's translation on the Hebrew side. So the quotation is certain and its phrasing is disputed at one seam.

Isaiah 40:3 · Mark 1:3 · Luke 3:4

basis: Verifier (Greek side): Mark 1:3 and Luke 3:4 share G2048 ἔρημος (in 48 vv), G3598 ὁδός (in 99 vv), G994 βοάω (in 12 vv) with Matthew 3:3. The Isaiah 40:3 link is an explicit named citation, but a verbal tier cannot be scored across Testaments because Hebrew and Greek Strong's lexemes do not correspond; tiered structural for that reason, not because the citation is doubted.

Camel hair and a leather belt: the Elijah figure typological

Matthew 3:4 and Mark 1:6 share κάμηλος (G2574, in 6 verses) and Ἰωάννης, a real Greek to Greek verbal overlap in the description. The weight of the description, however, is figural. 2 Kings 1:8 describes Elijah as a hairy man girt with a girdle of leather, Zechariah 13:4 shows the rough garment as a prophet's mark, and Malachi 4:5 promises Elijah before the day of the LORD. Ellicott, Benson, JFB, Gill and Pulpit all read the dress as deliberate: Benson notes John came "in whose spirit and power he came," citing Malachi 4:5 and Luke 1:17. ⚙ We tier this typological rather than verbal because the load-bearing connection runs from a Greek text to Hebrew texts, where shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed, and because the identification rests on a figural reading of clothing, not on a quotation. The reading is ancient and widely held, not novel.

Mark 1:6 · 2 Kings 1:8 · Malachi 4:5

basis: Verifier (Greek side only): Mark 1:6 shares G2574 κάμηλος (in 6 vv) and G2491 Ἰωάννης (in 132 vv) with Matthew 3:4. The Elijah identification (2 Kings 1:8; Malachi 4:5) is figural and cross-Testament, so no shared-lexeme basis exists for it; recorded as typological, ancient and widely held, on the testimony of Ellicott, Benson, JFB, Gill and Pulpit.

Baptized with fire: a link the sources contest flagged: verify source

The second element of verse 11, πυρί (G4442), governed by the same single preposition as the Spirit, is routinely connected to the tongues as of fire at Pentecost (Acts 2:3) and to the refiner's fire of Malachi 3:2. Benson makes the Pentecost link explicitly: "this promise was fulfilled, even with a visible appearance, as of fire, on the day of pentecost." Pulpit connects the fire to Malachi 3:2 and argues that the absence of a second preposition shows "it is only another aspect of one and the same baptism." But the brief's own voices divide hard. JFB calls the reading of fire as judgment on the impenitent "exceedingly unnatural," and names Origen, Neander, Meyer, De Wette and Lange as holding it; Barnes takes the judgment reading as probable, "the rest of mankind, the wicked, with fire"; Poole offers both readings side by side without choosing. ⚙ We record the connection and flag it: the identification of this fire with Pentecost, or with Malachi's refining, or with final wrath, is an interpretive judgment on which the named public-domain commentators do not agree, and no verbal basis is available across the Greek and Hebrew lexicons for the Malachi half.

Acts 2:3 · Malachi 3:2

basis: No computed shared-lexeme basis: Malachi 3:2 is Hebrew (cross-Testament, unscoreable), and the Acts 2:3 connection is an interpretive identification rather than a quotation. Flagged because the brief's own named voices contradict one another on the referent of the fire (JFB against Barnes, with Poole giving both and Origen, Neander, Meyer, De Wette and Lange cited by JFB as holding the view he rejects).

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The way that is prepared is the Lord's own road ancient/widely-held

⚙ The quoted command of verse 3 is to prepare the way of Κυρίου (G2962), anarthrous, standing where the Hebrew of Isaiah 40:3 has the divine name. Matthew applies that verse to the ministry of a man whose entire function is to go in front of someone else, and verse 11 names that someone as the one coming after John who is mightier than he. Ellicott states the plain sense of the Baptist's own words: "He that cometh after me. The words as spoken by the Baptist could only refer to the expected Christ, the Lord, whose way he had been sent to prepare." JFB reads the herald's office the same way, calling the predicted forerunner "the connecting link between the old and the new economies," and Poole says John "was sent before this great King in Zion, now coming forth to show himself." The identification is not an inference we are adding; it is the structure of Matthew's citation, and it is how John 1:23 and Acts 13:25 report the Baptist describing himself.

Isaiah 40:3 · John 1:23 · Acts 13:25

He will baptize: the rite handed over to its owner ancient/widely-held

⚙ Verse 11 performs a transfer. John holds the verb βαπτίζω in the present tense and in water; he then puts the same verb in the future, βαπτίσει, in the hands of another, and in the Holy Spirit and fire. Gill draws out John's own account of the limit: he can administer the outward ordinance, but "the inward grace and increase of it, together with the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, I cannot confer." JFB puts the same thing as the Baptist's spirit: "I administer but the outward symbol of purification; His it is, as His sole prerogative, to dispense the inward reality." Geneva turns it into an instruction for the reader: do not dwell on the signs or on those who minister them, "but we must climb up to the matter itself, that is to say, to Christ, who inwardly works that effectually, which is outwardly signified to us." Henry adds the New Testament fulfilment: "It is Christ who baptizes with the Holy Ghost," pointing to Acts 2:4 and Acts 11:16. Pulpit notes that the transfer of the image of baptism to the giving of the Spirit was already prepared by Joel 2:28 and Ezekiel 36:25-27, where washing and the gift of the Spirit stand together.

Acts 2:4 · Acts 11:16 · Ezekiel 36:25-27

Stones into children: the gospel to the nations, in seed ancient/widely-held

⚙ Verse 9 denies that descent secures anything and asserts that God can raise τέκνα for Abraham out of λίθων. Ellicott judges the words "remarkable as containing the germs of all the teaching of our Lord, and of St. Paul, and of St. John, as to the calling of the Gentiles, and the universality of God's kingdom." JFB reads the same sentence as pointing directly at the Gentiles, "at that time stone-dead in their sins," being brought "into the room of unbelieving and disinherited Israel," and cites Matthew 21:43 and Romans 11:20, 30. Gill grounds the outcome in Galatians 3:29: those made children of Abraham this way are those who belong to Christ. Pulpit adds the exegetical caution we accept, that the stones are most likely literal stones at John's feet rather than Gentiles standing nearby, so the link to the nations is a consequence of the principle, not a gloss on the noun. ⚙ Our own reading: the sentence is Christological because the only mechanism by which stones become Abraham's children is the one verse 11 names, a baptism the speaker cannot administer.

Galatians 3:29 · Romans 4:17 · Matthew 21:43

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The base text is the Berean Standard Bible with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; parse labels quoted in the notes (aorist, perfect, imperfect, present participle, vocative, middle or passive) are taken from that interlinear and not inferred. Where the interlinear supplies no gloss for a word (the conjunctions at 3:1.0, 3:3.0, 3:4.0 and the untranslated articles) we have left the note light or absent rather than invent content for a function word.

Tenses BSB smooths. Three places matter and are recorded in the divergences: 3:1 παραγίνεται is present ("cometh"), rendered "came"; 3:2 ἤγγικεν is perfect ("has drawn near"), rendered "is near"; 3:10 ἐκκόπτεται and βάλλεται are present indicative, rendered as futures ("will be cut down and thrown"). The BSB renderings are defensible idiomatic English in each case; we note them because the unit's whole argument runs on tense.

Textual variants noted by the sources. At 3:8 the plural "fruits" of the Authorized Version follows a reading imported from Luke; JFB says "the true reading clearly is fruit," and BSB agrees. At 3:7 Pulpit reports that autou after "baptism" is omitted in the critical text, and that the Gospel according to the Hebrews claimed the Pharisees and Sadducees were in fact baptized. At 3:4 Pulpit records an Old Latin variant at the Markan parallel reading "a camel's hide" rather than cloth of camel's hair, and an Ebionite reading enkrides (cakes) for akrides (locusts). None of these changes the sense we have given.

What is genuinely uncertain here. (1) The mode of baptism at 3:6: Gill argues immersion from the preposition and the river; Benson, Poole and Barnes argue the mode is not essential. (2) The referent of the fire at 3:11: JFB, Poole and Pulpit read it as the Spirit's purifying operation and JFB explicitly rejects the judgment reading held by Origen, Neander, Meyer, De Wette and Lange; Barnes thinks the judgment reading probable. Our thread on that link is tiered "flagged: verify source" for exactly this reason. (3) The scope of the judgment at 3:10 and 3:12: the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth by Rome (Gill, and Poole, who will not determine but "rather judge the latter probable"), the final judgment (JFB, Henry, Barnes), or both in sequence, which is Benson's explicit position (a prediction "1st" of the Roman destruction and "2dly" of the end of all who reject the gospel). (4) The force of ἀσβέστῳ at 3:12: Pulpit argues from usage that "unquenchable" speaks to duration and excludes amelioration, without itself deciding between everlasting punishment and annihilation. We have not decided it either.

Conjecture marked as conjecture. Cambridge's suggested wordplay at 3:9 between banim (children) and abanim (stones) is a Semitic pun proposed behind a Greek text; Cambridge itself phrases it as a question. It is recorded, not asserted.

Cross-Testament scoring. Threads whose refs mix Testaments carry no shared Strong's basis, because Hebrew and Greek lexeme numbers do not correspond. That limitation is about the measuring instrument, not about the strength of the connection: Matthew 3:3 quotes Isaiah 40:3 by name and the citation is not in doubt.

Capped sources. Several commentary entries in the brief were truncated (notably Pulpit on 3:1, Barnes on 3:4 and 3:6, Gill on 3:7, Benson on 3:6, JFB on 3:1). Every quotation used here is anchored inside the text actually supplied; nothing has been quoted from a truncated tail or reconstructed from memory.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)