When Jesus comes to be baptized by John (3:13–17), John demurs, indicating that Jesus should baptize him. Jesus’s reply is intriguing: he must be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (3:15). Of all the Gospel writers, Matthew uses the noun “righteousness” (Greek dikaiosynē) most frequently (seven times in Matthew as compared with once in Luke and twice in John). The use of “righteousness” here likely evokes covenant faithfulness more broadly, not simply torah obedience, since how Jesus’s baptism would fulfill the law is not obvious. In addition, in some instances Matthew uses dikaiosynē to refer to God’s eschatological act of righting all things (e.g., the pairing of G…