Matthew 3:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Were baptized of him— There were two kinds of baptism in use among the Jews; one was that of the priests at their consecration, Leviticus 8:6.; the other was that of the heathens proselyted to the Jewish religion. It was therefore no unheard-of rite which the Messiah's harbinger made use of. His countrymen were well acquainted both with the thing itself, and with its signification: they knew that it denoted some great change, either in the opinions or practices of those who submitted to it, and implied a promise of acceptance with God, on the part of him who administered it. They had also been led by a passage in their sacred books, Zechariah 13:1 to expect that either the Messiah himself, or some of his attendants, would baptize; as is evident from the question which the messengers of the Sanhedrim put to the Baptist, John 1:25. Why baptizest thou, then, if thou be not that Christ? &c. They must have known, therefore, that John's baptism represented purification both of heart and life as necessary even to Jews themselves, before they could become the subjects of so holya prince as the Messiah; and that it was a solemn obligation, binding those who received it to lead such lives. Hence, as Dr. Whitby observes, they are mistaken who think John's baptism the same in kind with that which Christ afterwards instituted for the admission of disciples into his church. The difference between the two was considerable: First, John did not baptize either in the name of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost. Secondly, They who were baptized with John's baptism, did not profess their faith in the Messiah, as actually come, neither did they receive his baptism in testimony of their entertaining that belief; for, after having administered it, he exhorted his disciples to believe on him who was tocome. Therefore his baptism could not initiate men into the Christian church. See Acts 19:4-5. Thirdly, John's was the baptism of repentance, whereby all who had a sense of their sins, and professed repentance, were promised pardon, and exhorted to believe in the Messiah, who was soon to appear; or it was a washing with water, to shew the Jews that they might be cleansed both from their prejudices and vices, in order to their becoming fit members of the Messiah's kingdom. Accordingly we read, that they who were baptized, confessed their sins. If those who were baptized had committed any great crime or scandalous offence, they were to make a public and open confession of it, as appears from Acts 19:18. Otherwise this confession implies only a general acknowledgement that they were sinners; that they repented of their sins, and were resolved to forsake them. See Whitby, Macknight, and Beausobre and Lenfant.