Note 1 — Chapter I · RELATIONS BETWEEN JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST.

It being thus inadmissible to suppose between the appearance of John and the baptism of Jesus, that is, between verses 12 and 13 of the 3rd chapter of Matthew, the long interval which is in every case indispensable, nothing remains but to insert it between the close of the second and the beginning of the third chapter, namely, between the settlement of the parents of Jesus at Nazareth and the appearance of the Baptist. To this end we may presume, with Paulus, that Matthew has here introduced a fragment from a history of the Baptist, narrating many particulars of his life immediately preceding his public agency, and very properly proceeding with the words, in those days, ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, which connecting phrase Matthew, although he omitted that to which it referred, has nevertheless retained1; or we may, with Süskind, apply the words, not to the settlement, but to the subsequent residence of Jesus at Nazareth;2 or better still, ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, like the corresponding Hebrew expression, ‏בַּיָמִים הַהֵם‎ e.g., Exod. ii. 11, is probably to be interpreted as relating indeed to the establishment at Nazareth, but so that an event happening thirty years afterwards may yet be said, speaking indefinitely, to occur in those days.3 In neither case do we learn from Matthew concerning the time of John’s appearance more than the very vague information, that it took place in the interval between the infancy and manhood of Jesus.