This verse links up with the Gospel of Markfor the first time since. In Mark this verse is mirrored by and. This verse is also found in Luke at. However the context 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. 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 from. 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.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this verse are:
