This passage occurs in the Advent season of the Revised Common Lectionary (Year A), most recently Dec 7, 2025.
Summary: The great fun of this passage is that everything is happening all at once and then over and over again. First, John commands the people to repent, but tells them to do this repeatedly. Then, people are continually getting baptized while at the same time continually confessing. The order of baptism-confession-repentance is not entirely clear. Well, actually, it is clear: They all happen at once. Over and over again. Does this mean baptism happens again and again? I think the baptism of fire does happen again and again, even if the ritual only happens once in our lives.
Key Words:
μετανοιετε ("repent"; 3:2). This verb is in the present tense. This is significant because it implies that the action ought to be on-going. In other words, the action of repentance is not a one time event, but a life-time one. Interestingly, this is the verb that begins the 95 thesis. When Luther read a similar passage in Greek (Jesus himself calling the disciples to repent), he saw that the Latin translation, the common text in the Middle ages, had removed this continuous aspect of the Greek. Jerome had translated "repent" as "do penance." Luther felt something was lost in translation here and so he started the 95 theses, leaning into the continual aspect of the verb: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent" he willed that the whole life is one of repentance."
This brings us to a preaching quandary though if one is preaching on this passage during Advent. Advent used to focus on repentance. The candle and vestments were purple with one pink; now they are blue. The current focus is hope and "blue" is the color. Yet we've kept the same lessons, which seem to focus a great deal on repentance. Perhaps though this present a preaching opportunity: Repentance and hope are always related. You cannot repent if you do not believe a situation can get better.
[Actually, as an additional historical note: The desire to make Advent less stark precedes the 20th century. In the middle ages, the Western church wanted to have Advent echo Lent in terms of fasting and discipline. But the combination of people needing cheer and the particular saints days (Nicholas, Barbara and Lucia) simply didn't allow for a mood of fasting!]
βαπτισμα ("baptism"; 3:7). Originally, this word did not have religious meaning. It simply meant to dip. For your enjoyment, here are the Liddell-Scott Hellenistic meanings of the word. Wow!
I. trans. to dip in water
2. to dip in poison
3. to dip in dye, to dye
4. to draw water
II. intransitive the ship dipped, sank
Try preaching that: Baptism as a dip in poison; as a dip in dye; as a drawing of water from God; as finally, a sinking ship! Didn't some monk once write about Baptism as daily dying and rising?
ἐξομολογούμενοι ("confessing"; 3:7) Latin and Greek have different roots for the word confess. In Latin, the word has a sense of what one says when one is in "fetters", when one is captive. In Greek, the word means "say as one", or attest to what someone else has says. As in, we confess the Apostles Creed. Here the people are together, saying as one, their sins. Two preaching possibilities:
First, the verb is in the present tense as a participle, which means it is happening concurrently with the main verb, in this case, baptize. The image Matthew presents is not that people confess and then go into the waters, but that this outpouring of the Spirit is somehow producing cleaning and confession, all at once. How might one connect baptism, confession and repentance in an on-going manner?
Second, I find Advent (December) a strange month in that people do collectively confess their sins: We are too consumeristic, we are too focused on the self, we eat too much, we don't share enough, etc. Yet we go on doing it all anyway. What is the role of the church in this season of confession and yet non-repentance?
πνευμα ("spirit"; 3:11). The word can mean "breath" as well. What is worth noting, especially as we begin the year of readings from Matthew's Gospel, that the Holy Spirit plays an integral role in Matthew's Gospel. It is not fair to simply say Luke is about the Spirit...In Matthew the Spirit is there too, connected with the birth of Jesus (1:18) and the command to make disciples (20:18).
This word also shows up in this week's Isaiah text (11:2). The "Spirit of the Lord" is upon me. (It is interesting to observe how the NRSV changed this from the Spirit of the lord to the Spirit of the LORD in the updated version!)
Grammar point:
Greek and Hebrew punctuation. Well, they're ain't much! In fact, in the earliest biblical manuscripts there were only capital letters without spaces, even between words. So Mark and Matthew "play" a bit with Isaiah
"A voice cries in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord." The Hebrew, as at least pointed by the Masoretes, more accurately reads:
"A voice cries, "In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord." I.e., get ready to go back from exile on the road through the wilderness. Mark and Matthew take the verse and give it new meaning! A reminder of the freedom that the Spirit gives us to interpret the Word for our context. Or maybe a warning too!
Verse Translation:
Matthew 3:6 και εβαπτιζοντο εν τω Ιορδανη ποταμω υπ αυτου εξομολογομενοι τας ἀμαρτιας αυτων
Sometimes, before you divide and conquer, just try reading the sentence by sticking in vocab you know and see where you get. When it comes to this verse, if you know a bit of Greek, you should be able to get:
And baptize in the Jordan under/by/of him ?? the sins of them
Let's save that nasty participle and look at the first half of the sentence (ie, now divide)
και εβαπτιζοντο εν τω Ιορδανη ποταμω υπ αυτου
The key to translation here is to recognize that baptize is a passive voice verb. This allows you to make sense of "υπ αυτου" which is how Greek tells you who did the action in passive voice:
"And baptized in the river Jordan by him."
Now we nail down our verb a bit more: imperfect, 3rd person:
"And they were continuously being baptized in the river Jordan by him."
So, now onto: εξομολογομενοι τας ἀμαρτιας αυτων
τας ἀμαρτιας αυτων should be clear: Their sins or the sins of them.
However, the participle is a mess here. It turns out it means "confess" It is a middle present participle. Hmm...middle means you can translate it as active.
So: "confessing their sins."
What is the connection of this clause to the rest of the clause? Well, the participle is a circumstantial participle...but what circumstances? Well, the key here is the tense. It is present tense. That means the action is on-going. However, the main verb is in the imperfect. So does this mean the baptizing happened before the confessing? No! The present tense of the participle means that this action happens at the SAME time as the main verb. In other words, the people did not baptize and then confess; or vice verse. What is means is that while they were being baptized, they simultaneously were confessing. So we get:
"And they were continuously being baptized in the river Jordan by him, while they were confessing their sins."
In the wilderness of life, our baptism and confession...and repentance are all related.
