1) “And John was clothed with camel’s hair,” (kai en ho loannes endedumenos trichas kamelou) “And John was dressed, or having been clothed, with camel’s hair clothing,” or was wearing clothes made of camel’s hair, a Bedouin’s dress. The material is firm and turns the rain on both garments and tents.

2) “And with a girdle of a skin about his loins;” (kai zonen dermatinen peri ten osphun autou) “And with a leather or animal skin girdle around his loins,” as also described Mat 3:4; Mat 11:8-9. Such is still worn in the Middle East.

3) “And he did eat locusts and wild honey;” (kai esthon akridas kai meli agrion) “And was continually eating locusts and wild honey,” as a daily diet, or for his daily food, not at banquet tables. This describes John’s simple way of life, as he secured his food from the wilds of woods and fields, even from bees and locust insects, high in protein, and some believe the term locusts refers to the lotus bean on a specie of the thorn bush.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(6) And John was clothed. . . .See Note on Mat. 3:4.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather belt about his loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey.’

John comes in the wilderness (compare 1Ki 19:4; 1Ki 19:8-9; 1Ki 19:15) and wears camel’s hair with a wide leather belt around his waist and loins and eats locusts and wild honey. The hairy garment and leather belt indicated that John was a prophet similar to Elijah. Compare with this how in 2Ki 1:8 Elijah ‘was a man wearing hair and with a leather belt about his loins’; and see also Zec 13:4 for mention of the ‘hairy cloak’ of the prophet. Locusts (see Lev 11:22) and wild honey were typical wilderness food. John was a man of the wilderness.

The members of the Qumran community had also fled into the wilderness as they separated themselves from an Israel that they saw as tainted and condemned, and John may well have had contact with them. But his message was essentially his own, and different from theirs, and there is no real reason, apart from the fact that both were in the wilderness, for connecting him with them. Nor did he seek to form his own separated community. He sent men and women back to live in society and to live out his teachings there.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

John’s appearance and message of Christ:

v. 6. And John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a girdle of skins about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

v. 7. and preached, saying, There cometh One mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

v. 8. I indeed have baptized you with water; but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

The appearance of John did much to call attention to his message, especially as the people of Judea were familiar with the description which the Old Testament gives of the great prophet Elijah, 2Ki 1:8. His one garment was woven of camel’s hair, by no means a stylish and comfortable garment, since he was seeking neither luxury nor easy living. A rough girdle of leather held the garment in place about the loins. His food was in full harmony with his clothing: an edible form of locust, Lev 11:22, and the wild honey found in the clefts of rocks or sweated out of certain trees growing in the wilderness. This mode of life he did not merely affect for the sake of making an impression. This was the clothing which he always wore; it was the food which he had always eaten, the customary meal. And now it appears that the message of the prophet, followed by baptism unto forgiveness, was all preparatory to the most characteristic’ preaching, that concerning Jesus. He, that one man, that is stronger, that has more power than I, is coming after me, is even now ready to be revealed before you. So great is the difference and contrast between them that John does not even feel himself worthy to perform a service for Him which a slave might covet. He is not worthy to stoop down before this greater Man unloosened the straps of His sandals. That was true, unaffected humility, such as is found in all those that really are serving the Lord. See 1Ti 1:15. The work of this Man that was thus expected could be summarized in a short sentence: He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And this in contrast to the mere baptism with water, which John was sent to do. That is a feature, the most significant part of Christ’s ministry and work for mankind, the baptism with, the communication of, the Holy Ghost, Joh 20:20. There may not always be evidence of His presence in extraordinary manifestations, as in the early days of the Church, but the Holy Spirit lives, by the gift of Christ, in the hearts of all that have come to faith. And the evidence of His presence is never entirely wanting, if the Christian but make diligent use of the means of grace, through which alone the Spirit is communicated to them at the present time, especially the Word of the Gospel and the Lord’s Supper. There will be a growth in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Savior; there will be cheerfulness in the midst of the various distresses and tribulations of these latter days; there will be, above all, the greater willingness to serve Him in His kingdom, in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

Ver. 6. And John was clothed, &c. ] Elias also was a rough hairy man. Those worthies, of “whom the world was not worthy, wandered about in sheep’s skins and goat’s skins,” Heb 11:37 ; but they were like the ark, goat’s hair without, but pure gold within; or like Brutus’ staff, Cuius intus solidum aurum corneo velabatur eortiee. (Plutarch.) Buchanan seldom cared for a better outside than a rug gown girt close about him, yet his inside was most rich.

He did eat locusts ] Good meat (to those there at least) though coarse, and easily come by. Tartarians eat the carrion carcases of horses, camels, asses, cats, dogs, yea, when they stink, and are full of magots, and hold them as dainty as we do venison.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Mar 1:6 describes John’s way of life as in Mt., standing for , and for .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

camel’s hair. Not a skin, but a garment woven with camel’s hair. Compare 2Ki 1:8.

about. Greek. peri. App-104.

locusts. See note on Mat 3:4.

wild honey. Plentiful then, and now.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

clothed: 2Ki 1:8, Zec 13:4, Mat 3:4

eat: Lev 11:22

Reciprocal: Luk 7:33 – came

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

6

See the comments at Mat 3:4 for explanation of this verse.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

[Clothed with camel’s hair.] In the Talmudists it would be read camel’s wool; “He hath not a garment besides a woolen one; to add wool (or hair) of camels, and wool of hares: wool of sheep, and wool of camels, which they mix; etc.” And a little after, “If he make a garment of camel’s hair; and weave in it but one thread of linen, it is forbidden, as things of different kinds.”

There is one that thinks that those garments of Adam concerning which it is said (Genesis_3), that God made for them coats of skins; were of camel’s hair; “In the law of R. Meir they found written garments of light. R. Isaac saith that they were like those thin linen garments which come from Bethshan. R. Samuel Bar Nachman saith they were of the wool (or hair) of camels; and the wool of hares.”

We cannot pass that by without observation, that it is said, “That in the law of R. Meir they found written garments of light; for garments of skins.” The like to which is that, In the law of R. Meir they found it written, instead of Behold, it was very good, And behold death is a good thing Where by the law of R. Meir seems to be understood some volume of the law, in the margin of which, or in some papers put in, that Rabbin had writ his critical toys and his foolish pieces of wit upon the law, or some such trifling commentary of his own upon it.

[Eating locusts.] They who had not nobler provision hunted after locusts for food. The Gemarists feign that there are eight hundred kinds of them, namely, of such as are clean. That lexicographer certainly would be very acute who could describe all these kinds particularly by their names.

“The Rabbins deliver: He that hunts locusts, wasps (a kind of locusts ), hornets, and flies, on the sabbath, is guilty”…the Gemara, a little after; “He that hunts locusts in the time of the dew (on the sabbath) is not guilty.” The Gloss there writes thus; “The locusts in the time of the dew are purblind, so that if you hunt them at that time they stop their pace.” The Gemara goes on, “Eliezer Ben Mabbai saith, ‘If they go in flocks he is not guilty.’ ” The Gloss writes, “If they flock together in troops, and be, as it were, ready to be taken, he is not guilty who hunts them even in the time of heat.”

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mar 1:6. Locusts. See on Mat 3:4, and accompanying cut.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

This verse acquaints us with the strictness and austerity of St. John’s life in the wilderness; which is laid down in two things; in his mean and frugal apparel, and in his sober and temperate diet.

His apparel was rough and hairy, and his girdle of leather; as Elijah his forerunner was clad before him, 2Ki 1:8.

His diet was coarse and ordinary, locusts and wild honey; that is, such plain and ordinary food as the wilderness afforded.

His example teaches us, That the ministers of the gospel are not to effect either bravery in apparel, or delicacy in diet; but both by their habit and diet set an example of gravity and sobriety before their people; being in these, as well as in other things, an example unto their flocks.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Verse 6

The ordinary food and clothing of the more destitute classes of society.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

Okay, the clothes I can put up with but never the diet! John, how could you set such a disgusting example for us? This diet sounds like the diet my doctor wants me to follow – low fat, low salt and low sugar. I often comment that the doctor has me on a Styrofoam and water diet, but that is rather exaggerating it to me.

Life Application Bible states that John chose this sort of clothing to separate from the religious leaders of the day. I would challenge this line of thought and suggest that he was wearing what he could afford to wear. Many of God’s servants dress a little less than the norm due to lack of money to dress as their followers would have them dress.

Taken to task once because I wore a sweater and cowboy boots instead of a suit with my nice shirt and tie, I often attempt to dress as best I can but I do not take the opinions of the religious leaders of how I dress. I wear that which I can afford and do not attempt to make myself something I am not – as many seem to do.

Locust and wild honey! Everyone knows honey is not to be eaten unless it is prepared properly and out of a plastic container! Locust is even worse. Years ago the Midwest was pleasured with a super abundance of grasshoppers. They were thick as a cloud at times in the air and as you drove down the highway you could hear the crunching under the wheels. The cars were literally covered with the dead grasshoppers. I can’t imagine too many Americans wanting to eat one of those things much less have them for a steady diet.

The authorities relate that the locust blow into Israel on a fairly regular basis and that they are eaten by many. There are many ways to prepare them for eating including roasted, salted, fried in butter, and raw. Our taste in America is much different than many other peoples of the world.

While in the Navy I served as a Shore Patrolman from time to time. When in Hong Kong our area to cover was rather out of the way and in the middle of a market. I could not believe what people were actually willing to pay for to take home and eat. The hamburger at the end of the shift was much appreciated, though I wondered what might have been in it.

A. T. Robertson relates that the people of this area even today collect wild honey and sell it for a living.

I have read that there was a plant that had an edible meat on it that they think might have been what Mark had in mind, though the accounts of yearly migrations of locust make me think the footed finger food might be the more likely.One might wonder at the attire and diet of John, and one might wonder if it were not the result of his total rejection of the world system of his time, and a total reliance upon the Lord for provision. After all, the Lord promises provision of needs to the birds of the air, but that involves living in nests in trees and eating bugs and worms.

There is one story that must be shared. When teaching we were on a very limited support and many times our budget for food was quite small. We ate what we could afford and enjoyed timely gifts from the Lord. One year we were allowed to glean a potato field and those small red potatoes were so great when fried. Later in the year someone donated cases and cases of eggs to the school. For weeks we had eggs three meals a day. The question was not what do you want for dinner; it was how would you like your eggs.

All of this calls up the point of what do we really need to survive this life. Do we need the cars the appliances, the houses, the clothes and all that other stuff, or could we do with a considerable amount less? Might we consider John’s lifestyle and wonder at our own and even maybe reconsider our own a little while?

Camel’s hair and skins: What can be said of this? Not too much. He wore camel skins and skins around his waist. Kind of like a caveman. Hope I did not just make the same mistake GEICO made 🙂

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

This description of John would have identified him as a typical "holy man" of the ancient East who lived in the desert. His clothing was woven camel’s hair held in place with a leather belt (cf. 2Ki 1:8; cf. Mal 4:5-6). This is how prophets typically dressed (cf. Zec 13:4). His diet consisted of dried locusts and the honey of wild bees. This was clean food for the Jews (cf. Lev 11:21-22). John may have been a lifelong Nazirite, or he may simply have lived an ascetic life out of devotion to God (Luk 1:15). His personal appearance and behavior encouraged the Jews who came to him to abandon self-indulgent living in preparation for Messiah’s appearing.

"A careful comparison of the Qumran Covenanters with John the Baptist . . . reveals differences so extensive as to make the possibility of contact unimportant." [Note: Ibid., p. 48.]

"At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, a proclamation, a rite, and a ministry as startling as that of Elijah had been. In many respects, indeed, the two messengers and their times bore singular likeness. It was to a society secure, prosperous, and luxurious, yet in imminent danger of perishing from hidden, festering disease; and to a religious community which presented the appearance of hopeless perversion, and yet contained the germs of a possible regeneration, that both Elijah and John the Baptist came. Both suddenly appeared to threaten terrible judgment, but also to open unthought-of possibilities of good. And, as if to deepen still more the impression of this contrast, both appeared in a manner unexpected, and even antithetic to the habits of their contemporaries. John came suddenly out of the wilderness of Jueaea [sic], as Elijah from the wilds of Gilead; John bore the same strange ascetic appearance as his predecessor; the message of John was the counterpart of that of Elijah; his baptism that of Elijah’s novel rite on Mount Carmel. And, as if to make complete the parallelism, with all of memory and hope which it awakened, even the more minute details surrounding the life of Elijah found their counterpart in that of John." [Note: Edersheim, 1:255.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)