Matthew 3:14,15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But John forbad him, &c.— But John excused himself. See the note on John 1:31. Doddridge and others have it, Would have hindered or prevented him, saying, I have need to be baptized of you, and do you come to me? But Jesus was, in his own person, to pass through and sanctify all states; and, although the last stage wherein holiness and virtue attain their higher purity was his reserved province with regard to others, yet he himself began in the first; so that there was no kind or degree of moral goodness wherein he did not excel. He was, if I may so speak, at the heart of every form in the school of holiness and virtue. He had in all things the pre-eminence, as his apostle declares. To this end he practised the virtues of every rank and condition. He accordingly appeared among the penitents at Jordan; and when John objected to his superior character, incompatible, as he thought, with such condescension, Jesus replied, Let it be so for the present, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness; δικαιοσυνη justice; which, taken in general, as it commonly is in Scripture, signifies a combination of all the virtues, and is used as a compendious name for all duty; because, to give each thing its due, and treat it according to its desert, which is the office of justice, comprehends the whole of religion and morality. All justice is a Graecism for "all kinds of justice." So we have in the next chapter all sickness and all disease, according to the original; that is to say, all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. See more in Dr. Heylin's Discourse concerning Justice, p. 31. The editors of the Prussian Testament define all righteousness by "whatever befits us, and is suitable to our employment and profession." To fulfil righteousness, and to fulfil the law, says Wetstein, is "to fulfil those things which the law enjoins, and which are esteemed just and laudable.