Matthew 3:16 is the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 in the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

. Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 has just been baptized by John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

 and in this verse the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...

 comes to him like a dove.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went

up straightway out of the water: and,

lo, the heavens were opened unto him,

and he saw the Spirit of God descending

like a dove, and lighting upon him:

The World English Bible

World English Bible

The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...

 translates the passage as:

Jesus, when he was baptized, went up

directly from the water: and behold,

the heavens were opened to him. He

saw the Spirit of God descending

as a dove, and coming on him.

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 3:16

Gundry notes the emphasis the author of Matthew gives to how quickly Jesus gets out of water of the Jordan. An emphasis not found in Mark or Luke. Gundry believes this is because the baptism would traditionally have been followed by a confessing of sin

Sin

In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...

s and the author of Matthew wanted to be clear that Jesus, who had no sins, did not undergo this part of the ritual.

France notes that the "heavens were opened" echoes Ezekiel 1:1. France feels that this might thus represent the return of the gift of prophecy to the earth. Hill notes that some early manuscripts have "opened up to him" rather than just "opened up." This makes the event a more private one, and helps explain why the crowds depicted as watching the baptism in Luke do not become aware of Jesus' status.

The dove

Dove

Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...

 imagery in this passage, and in the corresponding verse in Luke, is a well known one. Based on this verse the dove has long been a symbol for the Holy Spirit in Christian art

Christian art

Christian art is sacred art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity, though other definitions are possible. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of...

. France notes that the wording in Matthew is vague, the Spirit could be descending in the shape of a dove or it could be descending in the manner of the dove. Luke is explicit that it is in the shape of a dove, and most readers accept this meaning.

This is the only event where the Spirit is described as taking such a form. There was a wide array of symbolism attached to the dove at the time the gospel was written. Albright and Mann note that in Hosea 7:11 and 11:11 the dove is a symbol for the nation of Israel. Clarke feels that this verse links to both Genesis 1:2, with the image of God hovering over the water, and to Genesis 8 where Noah

Noah

Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...

 sends a dove out over the water to search for land. Clarke feels the symbolism of the dove was thus one of creation with Jesus' baptism symbolically the rebirth of the world. In the Greco-Roman world the dove was at the time seen as a symbol of lust, as it was the symbol of Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

. It was also, however, a symbol of purity due to its whiteness and the belief that it was without bile

Bile

Bile or gall is a bitter-tasting, dark green to yellowish brown fluid, produced by the liver of most vertebrates, that aids the process of digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In many species, bile is stored in the gallbladder and upon eating is discharged into the duodenum...

.

The spirit "coming on him" may be a reference to a series of prophecies in Isaiah

Isaiah

Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...

 (11:2, 42:1, 61:1) where the spirit is described as being placed on God's chosen one. France notes that this doesn't mean the Holy Spirit has been absent from Jesus beforehand, as Matthew 1

Matthew 1

Matthew 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It contains two distinct sections. The first lists the genealogy of Jesus's legal father Joseph from Abraham...

makes clear it has been present since his conception.