1. Matt 3:15 was the intended verse not Matt 13:15 my fat fingers and this notebook computer doesn't always mesh well.

2. In response to your original statement:
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[color:"FF0000"]What would have happened if Jesus had not been baptised? (sic)[/color]
My reply was that Jesus had to be baptized because it was a requirement of God to Israel, as Christ, Jesus was to fulfill all that was required of Israel. So he had to be baptized. There was no other option.

3. Your comment here:
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[color:"FF0000"]The reason for Jesus' baptism is not that it is a model for his disciples to be water baptised, as is so often supposed. The reason was that Jesus, unlike Job, was willing to be thought a sinner when he was not, and for that received divine approval. This willingness was to recur throughout His ministry, and to the ultimate extent possible, on the cross, where the ultimate 'reward' for the Christ was to be won. Jesus' baptism was an inkling of what was to follow. If there is example in this for the saints, it is to be willing to endure false accusation, to 'carry one's cross', which comes to all who would follow Jesus. [/color]

Is totally out of left field, where you appear to be getting most of your hermeneutics, unless you were trying for the allegorical/gnostic version of exegesis?

Main point: Jesus had to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness to suggest otherwise is to ignore what the Bible clearly teaches.

Peter

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. Augustine of Hippo