John Calvin Commentary Matthew 3:7

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" — Matthew 3:7 (ASV)

And when he saw many of the Pharisees. It is related here by Matthew and Luke that John did not merely preach repentance in a general manner, but that he also applied his discourse to individuals. And, in fact, the manner of teaching will be very unprofitable if instructors do not judiciously inquire what the specific situation demands and what pertains to individuals. Nothing can be more unequal in this respect than a constant equality.²⁶¹

For this reason, we are told, John addressed the Pharisees and Sadducees with greater severity: because he saw that their hypocrisy and swelling pride rendered them liable to be more severely censured than the common people. To comprehend his design more fully, we must understand that none are more foolish than hypocrites, who deceive themselves and others with an outward mask of holiness. While God thunders on all sides against the whole world, they construct a refuge for themselves in their own deceitful imagination; for they are convinced that they have nothing to do with the judgment of God.

Does anyone suppose that John acted improperly in treating them with such harshness at the first interview? I reply: They were not unknown to him,²⁶² and the knowledge he had of them was derived not from acquaintance or experience but, on the contrary, from a secret revelation of the Spirit. It was therefore necessary that he should not spare them, so that they might not return home more inflated with pride.

Is it again objected that they ought not to have been terrified by such severity of reproof, because they made a profession in baptism that they would afterwards be different people from what they had formerly been? The reply is still easy. Those whose habits of uttering falsehood to God and of deceiving themselves lead them to present hypocrisy and pretense instead of reality, ought to be urged with greater sharpness than other people to true repentance. There is an astonishing stubbornness, as I have said, in hypocrites; and until they have been flayed by violence, they obstinately keep their skin.

²⁶¹ “Et n' y a rien plus inegal en cest endroit, que de vouloir garder tousjours une mesme egalite.” — “And nothing is more unequal, in this respect, than to wish to maintain always one uniform equality..” — “And nothing is more unequal, in this respect, than to wish to maintain always one uniform equality.

²⁶² “Je res ond uil co oissoit bien quelles gens c’estoyent.” — “I reply, that he knew well what sort of people they were.”.” — “I reply, that he knew well what sort of people they were.”