마태복음 3

John the Baptist prepares the way

¹In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea with a message. ²“Repent,” he proclaimed, “because the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ³John is the one the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said, “A voice is calling out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, straighten the roads he will travel.’” ⁴John himself dressed in clothing woven from camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁵Crowds kept coming out to him from Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from all the country along the Jordan. ⁶They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan River.

⁷But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You family of snakes! Who warned you to run from the coming wrath? ⁸So produce fruit that shows your repentance is real. ⁹Do not imagine you can comfort yourselves by saying, ‘Abraham is our father.’ I tell you, God is able to make children for Abraham out of these stones. ¹⁰The ax is already set against the root of the trees. Any tree that fails to bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹I baptize you with water for repentance. But one who comes after me is mightier than I am, and I am not fit even to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.^{a 12}He has his winnowing fork in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with a fire that cannot be put out.”

The baptism of Jesus

¹³Then Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴John tried to stop him. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “and yet you come to me?” ¹⁵But Jesus answered, “Allow it for now. This is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.”^b Then John let him be baptized. ¹⁶Jesus was baptized, and he came straight up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens opened, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and settling on him. ¹⁷And a voice spoke from heaven: “This is my dearly loved Son, and I delight in him.”^c