This verse corresponds with the
Gospel of Mark for the first time since
Matthew 3:6, being mirrored by
Mark 1:7 and
8. This verse is also found in Luke at
Luke 3:16; however the context there is somewhat different. In Luke, John is addressing a receptive multitude; in Matthew it is assumed he is still speaking to the
Pharisees and
Sadducees introduced in
Matthew 3:7. Schweizer notes that despite this, the verse is still written as though it is addressing all Israel. Matthew has also entirely skipped the content found in . This is understandable as the response from the crowd is not in keeping with the hostile and unrepentant Pharisees and Sadducees. France notes that the word translated as
after is not chronological, rather it means the one who is a follower or disciple. This links in with the reference to
shoes. At the time the disciple of a Rabbi would be expected to perform menial chores. However shoes, a word perhaps better translated as
sandals, were considered unclean, a tradition that persists in the Middle East today. Thus the disciple would not deal with them, and such a task would be left to the lowest slave. Thus John the Baptist is presenting himself as very lowly indeed. Matthew slightly differs from the wording found in Luke and Mark. In those two gospels, John is not worthy of untying the messiah's sandals, in Matthew he is unworthy of carrying them. John predicts a much stronger form of
baptism by the Holy Spirit and by fire. It is from this verse that the expression "
baptism by fire" comes. Hill notes for many years scholars felt that linking the
Holy Spirit with fire, a symbol of God's wrath, clashed with the portrayal of the Spirit elsewhere in the New Testament, which saw it as a purely loving and helpful force incompatible with a destructive judgement. A number of theories were proposed to address this, some translations dropped the word fire to create a less destructive image. Another option is that
Holy Spirit should actually read
wind, as the same word can be used for wind and spirit in Greek. This would also link it to the next verse. This all changed with the discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls found at
Qumran, near where John the Baptist was said to be preaching. In a number of the texts, the Holy Spirit is linked to God's wrath and judgement leading most scholars to include that the wording here is original and that there were different views of the Holy Spirit circulating in the first century. Nolland notes that many scholars have attempted to use this verse as evidence for the Christian baptism ritual, but he does not believe that Jesus' baptism by fire and holy spirit can be so linked. Whether the more powerful one coming after is a reference to God or Jesus is a matter of debate. After this verse, Jesus immediately enters the narrative, and the corporeal metaphor of carrying his shoes would seem to describe a human figure. On the other hand, this violent imagery contradicts the idea of the Messiah as a bringer of peace. Schnackenburg argues the wording in this passage is deliberately obscure between the two options.
Jerome comments on the Holy Spirit and fire aspect of this passage saying, "Either the Holy Ghost Himself is a fire, as we learn from the Acts, when there sat as it were fire on the tongues of the believers; and thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled who said, I am come to send fire on the earth, I will that it burn. (Luke 12:49.) Or, we are baptized now with the Spirit, hereafter with fire; as the Apostle speaks, Fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. (1 Cor. 3:13.)"
Rabanus Maurus says, "As though he had said, I indeed am mighty to invite to repentance, He to forgive sins; I to preach the kingdom of heaven, He to bestow it; I to baptize with water, He with the Spirit." ==Textual witnesses==