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“At That Time John the Baptizer Appeared on the Scene”
1 At that time John the Baptizer appeared on the scene, proclaiming a very important message in the Judean wilderness.
2 “Repent,” he declared, “for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near!”
3 This man, you see, was the one who had been spoken about through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one shouting in the wilderness:
‘ᵖPrepare the way for the LORD!
Make your crooked paths straight for him!’ ”+
4 Now, John himself would typically wear a garment made of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. His food, meanwhile, consisted of locusts and wild honey.
5 At that time people from Jerusalem and all Judea and the entire region along the Jordan kept going out to him
6 and were being baptized in the Jordan River by him, openly acknowledging their sins.
7 When John noticed many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the site where he was baptizing, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned ᵖyou to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Produce fruit that proves your repentance, therefore,
9 and don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have our father, Abraham.’ For I tell ᵖyou this: God has power to raise up children for Abraham out of these very stones!
10 Even now the axe is poised right at the root of the trees! Every tree not producing good fruit, therefore, is about to be cut down and thrown into the fire!
11 Though I have been baptizing ᵖyou with+ water concerning repentance, the one who is coming after me is far more powerful than I, and I am not fit to carry even his sandals. He will baptize ᵖyou with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. The chaff, however, he will burn in the unquenchable fire.”
“This Is My Dearly Loved Son”
13 At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River to John, so that he could be baptized by him.
14 John, though, tried hard to stop him. “I need to be baptized,” he said, “by ˢyou, and yet you are coming to me?”
15 “Let it be so now,” Jesus said to him in reply, “for such is right with regard to us, to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John yielded to him.
16 After Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water, and something amazing happened: The heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming toward him.
17 Suddenly there came from the heavens a voice: “This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am very pleased.”