A brief Detour
Baptize
It is here in which we need to pause and take a brief detour to explain some terms. John is called the Baptist or the Immerser.
For Jews to be immersed (or baptizein in the language of the Greeks) was meant in the same sense as one might dye a piece of cloth. That is, one dips cloth into a vat of colored dye and when removed that cloth has taken on the characteristics (the color) of the dye.
However, for Jews, the dipping and absorbing of characteristics was also meant in a religious context which revolved around ritual purity. Before a Jew could present his offering at the Temple, he first had to be immersed in a mikveh located near the Temple grounds. This immersion was in obedience to several passages in Leviticus which prescribed this immersion and washing to remedy any of a number of causes for the worshiper who had become ritually impure.
As to the actual immersion process, so far as the ancient documents tell us, a Jew was not dubbed by another person. Rather, it was a self-immersion. Even today there often is a supervisor at a mikveh to make sure that a person is 100% unclothed, has no open wound on him and has submerged every last hair. The supervisor also watches for a few other violations. We do read that John is said to have baptized people, and this is usually taken to mean that he physically immersed the worshippers. But in actuality, his role was probably that of a supervisor.
The term baptizein (baptize) means to “immerse”. Hundreds of years ago within the church the practice of sprinkling began. How sprinkling began is not known. However, David Sterns notes that in the 16th and 17th centuries some in the Church revolted against this substitution of sprinkling for immersion. The first groups to break away called themselves “baptists”.
Kingdom of Heaven
The term the kingdom of heaven has essentially the same meaning and is interchangeable with the phrase the kingdom of God. Some Jews prefer the term the kingdom of heaven because they do not want to use the word “God” due to the taboo of saying His name. This began around 300 B.C. Jews who are more strict and who live in the Holy Land tend to avoid using the term “God” in any context.
It is noteworthy that Matthew is the one Gospel writer who almost exclusively uses the term the kingdom of Heaven instead of the kingdom of God. For the other three Gospel writers, it is the reverse. This could be that Matthew was a very religious and pious Holy Land Jew.
Verse 4: Verse four says that John wore a garment of camel’s hard and a leather belt around his waist.
In 2 Kings 1:8, we read this about Elijah the prophet.
“He was a hairy man,” they answered him, “with a leather belt around his waist.” He said, “It was Elijah the Tishbite.” (2 Kings 1:8)
Since Matthew seeks to connect Elijah and John together, with John essentially the new Elijah, it can be no coincidence that John’s appearance was described as hairy and with a leather belt, just as Elijah’s was.
Eating locusts and honey was not the Jews’ regular diet. It was survival food.
Certain kinds of locusts were considered kosher food for Jews (for more details, please see Leviticus 11). It may not sound appetizing to us, but the Hebrews were not and are not the only culture which finds eating certain insects to be an acceptable addition to their diet.
What is the wild honey which John lives off of? It is probably bee honey taken from colonies of bees. Bees often make their hives in trees, hallows of trees, carcasses of dead animals, etc. In other words, John ate honey which was not cultivated by humans.
It was believed that man-made hives and bee husbandry was a relatively late development. However, in the last ten years, an archeological dig in northern Israel uncovered a large cache of man-made beehives. They are dated to around 900 B.C. (just after the time of King Solomon). These are by far the oldest beehives ever discovered anywhere in the world.
John the Baptist lived a life not connected to regular Jewish society. He wore the outfit of an ancient prophet, most likely to identify him with that profession. One thing to ask ourselves is what was the attraction of John the baptist to people from Jerusalem and Judea who wanted to be baptized by him. Their purpose was to confess their sins. This was not symbolic to identify with Jesus (as Jesus had not begun His ministry). He seems likely that many people in Jerusalem and Judea thought that John was indeed the prophesied return of Elijah. He looked like Elijah, dressed like him and acted like him.
It has been long known (and can be gleaned from the New Testament) that common every day Jews in that era felt so oppressed by Rome that they were certain they had to be living in the prophesied End Times. And since the Prophet Malachi said the Elijah would come before the Day of the LORD (meaning that Elijah would re-appear in the End Times), then it makes sense that John would be seen as Elijah, whether he confessed this or not. In fact when directly confronted about it as recorded in John 1:21, John the Baptist said he was not Elijah. This may be a similar response likened on to when Jesus was asked if He was the Messiah, He was elusive. Whatever answer John gave, it did not matter to most people. They were convince he was the second coming of Elijah.
It is difficult to understand exactly why the people came to be immersed if it was not to see Elijah. It does not help much to read the other Gospel accounts on this matter because they each give the meaning for folks wanting John’s baptism as something a little different. One says it was for the forgiveness of sins; another says it was for repenting. Matthew says in one verse it was for confession and in another for repenting. John the Baptist is also quoted as saying it was for avoiding God’s wrath. This is probably why the next verse states the religious authorities from Jerusalem came to investigate. If this was indeed Elijah or just another holy man who wanted to gain a following, they needed to know.
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