of which its inhabitants endeavored to throw their townsman, Jesus Christ. Luke iv. 29. It is now a large village of three thousand inhabitants, and contains a convent and two churches. The prophets. There is no place in the prophets still extant, where this precise saying occurs. The prophets, however, represented the coming One as a suffering and despised, as well as a triumphant Messiah. Is. liii. To be a Nazarene was to bear an unhonored name. The guileless Nathanael could ask, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" The reputation of the place was bad. The idea then is, that, according to the tenor of those predictions usually supposed to refer to Christ, he became an inhabitant of a proverbially mean place, dwelt in humble life, and was despised and rejected by men.

"It was undoubtedly a part of the plan of Providence to draw the Saviour from humble human circumstances, in order to render his divine authority the more conspicuous and unquestionable. It was thus made to appear that his words of wisdom could not have been learned from man, and that he must have been from God. He probably received little or no education during his early years; for the Jews asked,' How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?' Schools and instruction were not then universal as they are now, and Joseph was probably too poor to afford to his children a privilege which could be purchased only by the rich."

CHAP. III.

1-12. For the parallel passages in the other Gospels see Mark i. 1-8; Luke iii. 1-18.

1. After the lapse of twenty-five or thirty years from the events recorded in the last chapter, the curtain is again drawn aside, and we behold a new scene. Jesus grown to manhood, and John, a new character, whose parentage and remarkable birth are related by Luke, now appear upon the stage of action the Messiah and his Forerunner. In those days. A common introduction to Scriptural narration, used with considerable latitude of meaning. "At this period," or "about this time," not immediately after the events of the last chapter, but while Jesus lived at Nazareth. John the Baptist. Or, the Baptizer. So called, because it was peculiarly his office to baptize; and in order to distinguish him from the Evangelist and Apostle of the same name. John's mission was to prepare men for the ministry of Jesus, to call public attention to him as the Christ, and to furnish evidence of the justice of his claims by the fulfilment of prophecy. For an account of the origin of John, see Luke, chap. i. Matthew was writing to those who were already acquainted with the events of the age. Hence he leaves much to be explained by a reference to other sources. Preaching. Or, proclaiming, or crying or announcing as a herald, for so the word implies in the original. It suggests the idea that he delivered his message with great publicity, earnest

ness, and authority. The substance of the proclamation is recorded in the following verses. The wilderness of Judea. A tract lying on the river Jordan and the Dead Sea, east of Jerusalem. The words "wilderness" and "desert are not to be taken in the Bible as always meaning regions totally without cultivation or inhabitants, but those thinly peopled, and comparatively barren; generally devoted to grazing. In Josh, xv. 61, 62, a wilderness is represented as having "six cities with their villages." Judea was the southern portion of Palestine. 2. The following words are to be understood as containing the burden of his preaching, the general outline of his addresses, which were adapted to different times, places, and persons. Luke iii. 11-18.- Repent ye. Rather, Reform yourselves. The exhortation involved in itself more than mere sorrow for sin. It implied not only regret for the past, but amendment for the future not only that the wound was to be probed, but healed. The reason why John seized upon this theme was, that the Jews had unfitted themselves by their worldliness and vices for the reception of the great coming Teacher. The professed believers in religion needed first to be renewed in holiness. Judgment must begin at the house of God. The Jewish people had suffered the fire of heaven to go out upon the altars of their hearts, and were cold, skeptical, and corrupt. Hence the key note of the Baptist's desert cry, the first blast of his trumpet echoing over the moral wilderness of Judea, was, REFORMATION. Jesus prolonged the note which John had struck. It has continued to resound to this

day, and must for ever, in a sinful world. It is the great theme for men and nations. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Or, better, the reign of God draws near. This is the persuasive for immediate repentance and reformation, that the Messiah was now coming. The kingdom of heaven, of God, of Christ, phrases suggested, perhaps, by Dan. ii. 44, vii. 13, 14, all refer to the same thing, the reign of the Messiah, or, in more modern phraseology, the Christian Religion, which came to rule over the hearts and lives of men, and bring them to an obedience to the moral Governor of the world, and thus establish a moral kingdom. For this spiritual reign Reformation was requisite; a far different preparation from that which the Jews contemplated; whose hearts, at the approach of the long expected Deliverer, savored more of ambition, revenge, and avarice, than of sentiments of good-will to man or piety to God, expecting, as they did, a temporal King, and not the Prince of Peace. So now the Gospel demands penitent hearts, and reformed lives, for its subjects. As an old writer says, "Thus must the way be made for Christ into every heart. Never will he enter that soul where the herald of repentance hath not been before him."

3. Prophet Esaias, i. e. Isaiah xl. 3. The Evangelist quotes from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament; hence there is a slight variation from our translation, which was made from the Hebrew. Isaiah undoubtedly spoke with reference to the return from the Babylonish captivity. Matthew applies the passage to the Forerunner of the Messiah. The voice, &c. The office

of John was to act as a voice for the coming Word, a herald of the great Teacher. The succeeding imagery is drawn from oriental customs, a knowledge of which is often required to understand the Scriptures. When monarchs journeyed, or marched on military expeditions, they despatched pioneers forward to level eminences, fill up valleys, and make a straight road. The Jews were called upon to prepare for the Messiah's advent, clearing their hearts of those prejudices and sins, which would impede his progress and success as a moral conqueror. As the greatest blessings were expected under the Redeemer's reign, John bids the Jews make ready for his coming by repenting of and forsaking those sins, which would prove the worst stumblingblocks in his way, the most serious impediments to the cordial reception of a pure religion. -The Lord, i. e. Jehovah. No argument in support of Jesus being identical with Jehovah can be drawn from this passage. For the original application of the prophet's words was only to an exhibition of God's power in the restoration of the Jews, not to an actual personal appearance of the Deity. So in like manner, according to the Evangelist's application, Jehovah came to his chosen people in Jesus Christ, not personally and literally, but in the spirit and gifts which he bestowed upon his beloved Son.

4. Raiment of camel's hair, &c. This description is thrown in, perhaps, to show the similarity between John and Elijah, or to remind the Jews that the herald of Christ did not come in that rich dress and equipage, which they would sup

pose appropriate to one who came to announce so splendid a king; but, on the contrary, dressed in the garments, and subsisting on the food, of the poorest class of his countrymen. He was not 66 a man clothed in soft raiment," but apparelled like one of the old prophets. 2 Kings i. 8; Zech. xiii. 4. Raiment is an ancient word for clothing. Camels are not only very valuable for carrying burdens over the vast deserts of the east, but their milk and flesh are eaten, and garments are made of the hair, which, though coarse and shaggy, is manufactured into a rough, cheap cloth, for the common people. The hair is shed annually.

-A leathern girdle. This was a very important part of the oriental dress, as it confined the flowing cloak or robe, which would otherwise be inconvenient, if suffered to hang loosely about the body. The girdle was also used as a purse. The modern dervises, or Turkish priests, are clothed like the ancient prophets. His meat, &c. Meat, in old English, stands for food in general, whether animal or vegetable. Locusts were allowed as an article of food by the law of Moses. Lev. xi. 22. They have been in use for this purpose, both in ancient and modern times, in the east. "We saw," says Niebuhr, in his Travels, "an Arab who had gathered a sack full in order to dry them, and keep them for his winter provisions." Wild honey. The honey which was found in the cavities of trees and the clefts of rocks may have been so denominated. Ps. lxxxi. 16. Palestine was described as a land flowing with milk and honey.' Or it may have been not the honey made by the bee, but honey-dew, a

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locusts and wild honey.

sweet substance exuding from the leaves of palm, date, and olive trees. 1 Sam. xiv. 25, 26. Oriental travellers speak of the abundance of honey in Arabia and Palestine. The dress and diet of the Baptist indicated no uncommon rigor and severity, but rather simplicity and poverty. His mode of life affords no countenance or approbation to the recluse and hermit.

5. The Jews, galled by the Roman yoke, looked with impatience for the Messiah, from whom they expected deliverance and universal rule over the rest of the world. Curiosity, impatience, and ambition, together with the striking air and bold address of John, probably drew thousands to the Jordan. Jerusalem. The inhabitants of the city. This was the Jewish metropolis, situated about forty miles east of the Mediterranean, in a region of high hills. The wonderful events of which it has been the scene, both in ancient and modern times, render it the most remarkable city on the globe. All Judea. Not literally every one, but vast crowds; the country went as one man. It is an important rule in the interpretation of Scripture, as well as other writings, that universal propositions should be qualified and limited by the circumstances in which they occur. The Bible is written in the free, figurative, diversified language of common life, and by no means in a literal, technical, philosophical dialect. Judea lay between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. -All the region round about Jordan. Should be, the country along the Jordan on both sides of the river. This stream rises in the Antilibanus mountains, and flowing southerly through Lake

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Merom and the Sea of Galilee, after a course of one hundred and twenty or thirty miles, empties into the Dead Sea. It forms the eastern boundary of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. Its average width is from sixty to eighty feet, and its depth about ten or twelve, though it varies according to the season of the year. John had two stations, at least, on the Jordan; Bethabara, or Bethany, and Enon, and perhaps more.

6. Baptized of him, i. e. by him. Baptism was well known among the Jews before John's day, as is evident from Matthew's familiar way of introducing the mention of it. It was employed to initiate heathen proselytes into the Jewish religion, according to the testimony of the Jewish books called Talmuds, which consisted of the writings and traditions of the Rabbins. How administered is nowhere said; whether by immersion or sprinkling is of little consequence, so it was done with water and the heart was right. It was a new thing, however, to baptize Jews. John by that means intimated to them, that, though they were the covenant people of God, they had so far become like heathen, that, before they could be prepared for the Messiah's kingdom, they must pass through the same ceremony as proselytes. - In Jordan. the Jordan. The definite article should be uniformly placed before this word. Confessing their sins. One that truly repents of his sins will be ready to confess them to God, and, so far as is proper, to men. John required of his converts a confession of their sins, either in general or particular, as an indication of true contrition and a fitness to be baptized. Jam. v. 16; 1 John i. 9.

In