Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 3:1

1 IN those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,

That is, in the 15th. year of Tiberius Caesar (as Luke expo[illegible: 1 letter]nds it, Luk. 3.1.) when Iohn the Baptist, and Christ also were about thirty years of Age. Luk. 3.23. for there was no great Difference betwixt the Age of Christ, and Iohn, as may be learned from Luk. 1.31.41.57. In those days while Ioseph and Mary, and our blessed Lord dwelt in Nazareth, see Exod. 2.11. This Phrase in those days is the same with in those years. It is an ordinary thing in the Hebrew to confound the Words signifying a day, and a year, and the Greeks did the same, as appears by the seventy Interpreters. 1 Sam. 1.3.7. The Evangelists pass over with a great deal of Silence our Saviours Minority, only mentioning Luk. 2.42. his Disputing with the Doctors in the Temple. [came Iohn the Baptist] Iohn the Son of Zacharias, Luk. 3.2. called the Baptist; either, because he baptized Christ, or because by him God instituted the Ordinance of Baptisme, which before that time the Iews used in the Admission of their Proselytes, [Preaching] according to his Commi[illegible: 2 letters]ion, Luk. 3.2. where it is said. The word of the Lord came to him [in the Wilderness of Iudea] some parts of Iudea, where Houses and Inhabitants were very few: None must think that the History of the second Chapter, is continued in this, there was a distance of twenty eight or twenty nine years. The Evangelist designing not to satisfie mens Curiosity, but only to give us that part of Christs story, which might be Profitable to us to know.

Marginal references: Mar. 1.4. Luk. 3.2.