Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 3:17

"and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." — Matthew 3:17 (ASV)

A voice from heaven — As far as the record indicates, the words were heard, just as the sign was seen, by our Lord and the Baptist only. It was a testimony for them, not for the multitude. The precise force of the latter clause, in whom I was well pleased, points (speaking in human terms) more to a definite divine act or thought from the past than to a continuous, ever-present acceptance. The one who stood there was the beloved Son, in whom the Father was well-pleased “in the beginning.”

For the Baptist, this came as the answer to all his questions. This was none other than the King to whom the words had been spoken: “Thou art my Son” (Psalms 2:7). He was to the Eternal Father what Isaac was to Abraham (the very term “beloved son” is used in the Greek of Genesis 22:2, where the English version has “only”), the one upon whom the mind of the Father rested with infinite contentment. We may also venture to believe that the voice came as a confirmation to the human consciousness of the Son of Man. He previously had the sense that God was His Father, as seen in Luke 2:49. Now, however, with an intensity never before felt—and followed, as subsequent events show, by a complete change in His life and actions—the conviction came to His human soul that He is the Son, the beloved.

Here, as elsewhere, it is instructive to note the legendary additions that have gathered around the simple narrative of the Gospels. Justin (Dial. c., Tryph. p. 316) adds that “a fire was kindled in Jordan.” An Ebionite Gospel added to the words from heaven, “This day have I begotten thee,” and further adds that “a great light shone around the place.” John saw it and said, “Who are you, Lord?” And again a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Then John fell down and said, “I beseech you, O Lord, baptize me.” But He forbade him, saying, “Permit it, for in this way it is fitting for all things to be fulfilled.”

A more important and difficult question is what change was actually brought about in our Lord’s human nature by this descent of the Spirit. The words of the Baptist, “He does not give the Spirit by measure to Him” (John 3:34), imply the bestowal of a real gift. The words that follow, “He was led by the Spirit” (Matthew 4:1) and “The Spirit drives Him” (Mark 1:12), show in part the nature of the change. We may venture to think of new gifts, new powers, a new intuition , and a new constraint, so to speak. This constraint brought the human will, which was already in harmony with the divine, into a fuller consciousness of that harmony and into more intense activity. Above all, it brought a new intensity of prayer, expressing itself in Him, as it did later in His people, in the cry, “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). There also we may think of the Spirit as “making intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered.”