1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2And saying, “Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.
3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight’”.
4And John had clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and for food, he ate locusts and wild honey.
5Then many people from Jerusalem, Judaea, and all the region round around the Jordan, went out to him;
6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by John in the Jordan.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8Bring forth fruit befitting (that reflect your) repentance;
9And do not think that you can say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able to raise up children unto Abraham from these very stones.
10And now also the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to cut the root of the trees; and every tree which does not produce good fruit will be hewn (cut) down, and thrown into the fire.
11I, indeed, baptize you with water those who repent of their sins; but He Who comes after me is greater than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire;
12His fan (winnowing fork) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the granary (barn); but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
13Then came Jesus from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
14But John tried to dissuade Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized of You, and do You come to me?”
15And Jesus replied, “Permit it to be so now; for it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” So, then John consented to baptize Him.
16And as soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water; and, at that moment, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him;
17And a voice from heaven was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. The second occurrence of “He” in verse 16 could refer to Jesus or to John the Baptist (the first occurrence of “He” in verse 16 clearly refers to Jesus). There is disagreement among the translations, and likely among the Bible scholars, on this point. In this version, the deep purple font is applied to this pronoun to signify that could refer to either entity. Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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