John Chrysostom — as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 3:5-6

“For it was wonderful to see such fortitude in a human body; this it was that chiefly attracted the Jews, seeing in him the great Elias. It also contributed to fill them with wonder that the grace of Prophecy had long failed among them, and now seemed to have at length revived. Also the manner of his preaching being other than that of the old prophets had much effect; for now they heard not such things as they were wont to hear, such as wars, and conquests of the king of Babylon, or of Persia; but of Heaven and the Kingdom there, and the punishment of hell.”