Apparent Contradictions in the Bible
Answer: By Jack Burdue
1. Why would Jesus feel that he needed to be baptized if he was the son of God, without sin, and already saved?
Answer to question 1. In Matthew 3:15 after John had told Jesus that "I have need to be baptized of thee", Jesus' reply is "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness". The inference is that John's baptism, though not mentioned in the Old Testament, was approved and even commanded by God. And though Jesus had no need of forgiveness, still he had to be obedient to all of God's commandments, even baptism, in order to fulfill all righteousness.
2. Who baptized Jesus? Matthew and Mark say John the Baptist. Luke doesn't say, but makes it clear that it couldn't have been John the Baptist because, according to Luke, who supposedly wrote a chronological report, J the B was already in prison when Jesus was baptized. I don't think that John's gospel mentions the baptism of Jesus at all.
Answer to question 2. In Luke 3:2 we find "the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness". This is John the Baptist. Now it is true that due to his hard preaching he is imprisoned in verse 20. I don't think that chronological order can be assumed verse by verse. Jesus after all is baptized in verse 21 "when all the people were baptized". It seems that Luke is trying to clarify that Jesus was baptized at the time that John was baptizing and not after he was imprisoned. The scripture cannot contradict and based on your other 2 citations, this seems to be the only logical explanation.