Matthew 3:16 - Exposition

And Jesus, when he was baptized . Combining the statements of the synoptists, we may conclude that Jesus went up from the water at once, praying as he went, and that, while he was going up and praying, the heavens opened. Out of ; from '(Revised Version); ἀπό ; for, as it seems, he had not gone fully out of the water. The heavens were opened unto him . So also the Revised Version, but the Revised Version margin, with Westcott and Herr, rightly omits "unto him." The words were inserted because it was thought that Jesus alone saw the manifestation, as indeed we should have supposed if we had had only the account of St. Mark, who reads, "he saw" before "the heavens being rent asunder" (but of. John 1:32-34 ). To our Lord and to the Baptist the appearance was as though the sky really opened (cf. Ezekiel 1:1 ; Acts 7:56 ). The Spirit of God ; recalling Genesis 1:2 . "Messiah now enters on his public office, and for that receives, as true Man, the appropriate gifts. The Spirit by whom men are sub jectively united to God descends upon the Word made Flesh, by whom objectively God is revealed to men" (Bishop Westcott, on John 1:32 ). Like ; as (Revised Version). The comparison is hardly to the gentleness of the descent of a dove, but to a visible appearance in bodily form, as a dove (see parallel passage in Luke). Not, of course, that the Holy Spirit was thus at all incarnate, but that either the appearance of a dove was seen by John's eyes only (cf. especially Theodore of Mopsuestia, in Meyer), or, as is not unlikely (even though the suggestion belongs ultimately to Paulus), a dove really flew down and lighted on the Lord (Luke), and that this, to outsiders merely a curious incident (cf. John 12:29 ), was to our Lord and the Baptist a sign of spiritual blessing. A dove ( περιστερά ); any member of the pigeon tribe; chosen because a symbol of deliverance ( Genesis 8:8 ), of purity (Le John 5:7 ), of harmlessness ( Matthew 10:16 ), and of endearment (So John 6:9 ). There is no evidence (cf. Edersheim, 'Life,' 1:287) that the dove was at this period interpreted by Jews as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The Targum on So John 2:12 paraphrasing "the voice of the turtle-dove ' by "the voice of the Holy Spirit," dates in its present form from the eighth to the tenth century. The dove mentioned (though probably by interpolation) in the account of Polycarp's death, appears to be a symbol of the soul (cf. Bishop Lightfoot). Wichelhaus (as quoted by Kubel) says suggestively, "lamb and dove—no kingdom in the world has these emblems on its escutcheon." And ; omit, with manuscripts. Lighting ; coming (Revised Version), because it is needless to translate a common Greek ( ἐρχόμενον ) by a rare English word. Observe that it refers to the Holy Spirit, not to the dove as such. Upon him .