Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 3:1

"And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying," — Matthew 3:1 (ASV)

MATTHEW CHAPTER 3

In those days. The days referred to here cannot be those mentioned in the preceding chapter, for John was only six months older than Christ. Perhaps Matthew intended to extend his narrative to the whole time that Jesus lived at Nazareth; and the meaning is, "in those days while Jesus still lived at Nazareth." John began to preach. It is not probable that John began to baptize or preach long before the Savior began His ministry; and, consequently, from the time mentioned at the close of the second chapter to that mentioned in the beginning of the third, an interval of twenty-five or more years elapsed.

John the Baptist. Or, John the baptizer—so called from his principal office, that of baptizing. Baptism, or the application of water, was a rite well known to the Jews, and practiced when they admitted proselytes to their religion from heathenism.—Lightfoot.

Preaching. The word translated to preach means to proclaim in the manner of a public crier; to make proclamation. The discourses recorded in the New Testament are mostly brief, sometimes a single sentence. They were public proclamations of some great truth. Such appear to have been the discourses of John, calling people to repentance.

In the wilderness of Judea. This region was situated along the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, east of Jerusalem.

The word translated wilderness does not mean, as it does for us, a place of boundless forests entirely destitute of inhabitants; but rather a mountainous, rough, and thinly-settled land, covered to a considerable extent with forests and rocks, and better suited for pasture than for cultivation. There were inhabitants in these places, and even villages, but these were the comparatively unsettled portions of the area (1 Samuel 25:1–2). In the time of Joshua, there were six cities in what was then called a wilderness (Joshua 15:61–62).