Lecture 13 — John’s baptism

^1:24^ And they who had been sent, were of the Pharisees. [n. 241]

^1:25^ And they asked him, and said to him: why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? [n. 241]

^1:26^ John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but there is one who stands in your midst, whom you do not know. [n. 244]

^1:27^ The same is he who will come after me, who ranks ahead of me: the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten. [n. 247]

^1:28^ These things were done in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. [n. 251]

240. Above, we saw John bear witness to Christ as he was being questioned on matters concerning himself; here, on matters concerning his office.

Four things are set forth:

first, those who question him;

second, their questions: and they asked him;

third, his answer, in which he bore witness: John answered them, saying;

and fourth, the place where all this happened: these things were done in Bethany.

241. His interrogators were Pharisees. Hence he says, and they who had been sent, were of the Pharisees. According to Origen, what is being said from this point on describes a different testimony given by John; and further, those who were sent from the Pharisees are not the same as those priests and Levites sent by the generality of the Jews, but others who were specifically sent by the Pharisees. And according to this it says: and they who had been sent, not by the Jews, as the priests and Levites had been, but were others, were of the Pharisees. So he says about this that because the priests and Levites were educated and respectful, they ask John humbly and respectfully whether he is the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet. But these others, who were from the Pharisees, according to their name are divisive and importunate,and used disdainful language. Thus they asked him, why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?

But according to others, such as Gregory, Chrysostom, and Augustine, these Pharisees are the same priests and Levites who had been sent by the Jews. For there was among the Jews a certain sect which was separated from the others by reason of its external cult; and for this reason its members were called Pharisees, i.e., divided. In this sect there were some priests and Levites, and some of the people. And so, in order that the delegates might possess a greater authority, they sent priests and Levites, who were Pharisees, thus furnishing them with the dignity of a priestly caste and with religious authority.

242. The Evangelist adds, and they who had been sent, were of the Pharisees, to disclose, first, the specific reason of their question about John’s baptizing, which was not why they were sent. It is as though he were saying that they were sent to ask John who he was. But they asked, why do you baptize? They did this because they were from the Pharisees, whose religion was being challenged.

Second, as Gregory says, in order to show with what intention they asked John, who are you? (John 1:19) For the Pharisees, more than all the others, showed themselves crafty and insulting to Christ. Thus they said of him: he casts out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils (Matt 12:24). Further, they consulted with the Herodians on how to trap Jesus in his speech (Matt 22:15). And so in saying that they who had been sent, were of the Pharisees, he shows that they were disrespectful and were questioning him out of envy.

243. Their questions concerned his office of baptizing. Hence he says that they asked him, why then do you baptize?

Here we should note that they are asking not to learn, but to obstruct. For since they saw many people coming to John because of the new rite of baptism, foreign both to the rite of the Pharisees and of the law, they became envious of John and tried all they could to hinder his baptism. But being unable to contain themselves any longer, they reveal their envy and say, why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? As if to say: you should not baptize, since you deny that you are any of those three persons in whom baptism was prefigured, as was said above. In other words, if you are not the Christ, who will possess the fountain by which sins are washed away, nor Elijah, nor the prophet, i.e., Elisha, who made a dry passageway through the Jordan (2 Kgs 2:8), how do you dare baptize?

They are like envious persons who hinder the progress of souls, who say to the seers: see no visions (Isa 30:10).

244. His answer is true: and so he says that John answered, I baptize with water. As if to say: you should not be disturbed, if I, who am not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, baptize; because my baptism is not completive but imperfect.

For the perfection of baptism requires the washing of the body and of the soul; and the body, by its nature, is indeed washed by water, but the soul is washed by the Spirit alone. So, I baptize with water, i.e., I wash the body with something bodily; but another will come who will baptize perfectly, namely, with water and with the Holy Spirit; God and man, who will wash the body with water and the spirit with the Spirit, in such a way that the sanctification of the spirit will be distributed throughout the body. For John indeed baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:5).

245. Then he bears witness to Christ: but there is one who stands in your midst, whom you do not know.

First, in relation to the Jews.

Second, in relation to himself, at the same is he who will come after me, who ranks ahead of me.

246. He relates him to the Jews when he says, but there is one who stands in your midst. As if to say: I have done an incomplete work, but there is another who will complete my work, and he stands in your midst.

This is explained in a number of ways. First, according to Gregory, Chrysostom and Augustine, it refers to the ordinary way Christ lived among men, because according to his human nature he appeared to be like other men: he, being in the form of God, did not account equality with God something to be grasped, rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:6). And according to this he says, there is one who stands in your midst, i.e., in many ways he lived as one of you: I am in your midst (Luke 22:27), whom you do not recognize, i.e., you cannot grasp the fact that God was made man. Likewise, you do not recognize how great he is according to the divine nature which is concealed in him: God is great, and exceeds our knowledge (Job 36:26). And so, as Augustine says, the lantern was lighted, namely, John, so that Christ might be found. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed (Ps 131:17).

It is explained differently by Origen; and in two ways. First, as referring to the divinity of Christ: and according to this, there is one who stands, namely, Christ, in your midst, that is, in the midst of all things; because he, as Word, has filled all from the beginning of creation: I fill heaven and earth (Jer 23:24). Whom you do not know, because he was in the world . . . and the world did not know him (John 1:10). It is explained another way as referring to his causality of human wisdom. But there is one who stands in your midst, i.e., he shines in everyone’s understanding; because whatever light and whatever wisdom exists in men has come to them from participating in the Word. And he says, in your midst, because in the midst of man’s body lies the heart, to which is attributed a certain wisdom and understanding; hence, although the intellect has no bodily organ, yet because the heart is our chief organ, it is the custom to take it for the intellect. So he is said to stand among men because of this likeness, insofar as he enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9). Whom you do not know, because the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:5).

In a fourth way, it is explained as referring to the prophetic foretelling of the Messiah. In this sense the answer is directed chiefly to the Pharisees, who continually searched the writings of the Old Testament in which the Messiah was foretold; and yet they did not recognize him. And according to this it says, there is one who stands in your midst i.e., in the Sacred Scriptures which you are always considering: search the Scriptures (John 5:39); whom you do not know, because your heart is hardened by unbelief, and your eyes blinded, so that you do not recognize as present the person you believe is to come.

247. Then John compares Christ to himself: the same is he who will come after me.

First, he states the superiority of Christ as compared to himself.

Second, he shows the greatness of this superiority: the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten.

248. He shows the superiority of Christ in comparison to himself both in preaching and in dignity. Now, as to the order of preaching, John was the first to become known. Thus he says, the same is he who will come after me, to preach, to baptize and to die, because, as was said: you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way (Luke 1:76). John preceded Christ as the imperfect the perfect, and as the disposition the form; for as is said, the spiritual is not first, but the animal (1 Cor 15:46). For the entire life of John was a preparation for Christ; so he said above, **I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness **(John 1:23). But Christ preceded John and all of us as the perfect precedes the imperfect and the exemplar precedes the copy: if any one wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matt 16:24); Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example (1 Pet 2:21).

Then he compares Christ to himself as to dignity, saying, who ranks ahead of me, i.e., he has been placed above me and is above me in dignity, because as he says, **he must increase, but I must decrease **(John 3:30).

249. He touches on the greatness of his superiority when he says, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten. As if to say: you must not suppose that he ranks ahead of me in dignity in the way that one man is placed ahead of another, rather he is ranked so far above me that I am nothing in comparison to him. And this is clear from the fact that it is he the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten, which is the least service that can be done for men.

It is clear from this that John had made great progress in the knowledge of God, so far that from the consideration of God’s infinite greatness, he completely lowered himself and said that he himself was nothing. So did Abraham, when he recognized God, and it is said, I will speak to my Lord, although I am but dust and ashes (Gen 18:27). Thus did Job say, when he had seen the Lord: now I see you, and so I reprove myself, and do penance in dust and ashes (Job 42:5). Isaiah also said, after he had seen the glory of God, before him all the nations are as if they are not (Isa 40:17). And this is the literal explanation.

250. This is also explained mystically. Gregory explains it so that the sandal, made from the hides of dead animals, indicates our mortal human nature, which Christ assumed: I will stretch out my sandal to Edom (Ps 59:10). The strap of Christ’s sandal is the union of his divinity and humanity, which neither John nor anyone can unfasten or fully investigate, since it is this which made God man and made man God. And so he says, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten, i.e., to explain the mystery of the incarnation perfectly and fully. For John and other preachers unfasten the strap of Christ’s sandal in some way, although imperfectly.

It is explained in another way by recalling that it was ordered in the old law that when a man died without children, his brother was obligated to marry the wife of the dead man and raise up children from her as his brother’s. And if he refused to marry her, then a close relative of the dead man, if willing to marry her, was to remove the sandals of the dead man as a sign of this willingness and marry her; and his home was then to be called the home of the man whose sandals were removed (Deut 25:5). And so according to this he says, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten, i.e., I am not worthy to have the bride, that is, the Church, to which Christ has a right. As if to say: I am not worthy to be called the bridegroom of the Church, which is consecrated to Christ in the baptism of the Spirit; but I baptize only in water. Thus it is said: he who has the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:29).

251. The place where these events happened is mentioned when he says, these things were done in Bethany, beyond the Jordan.

A question arises on this: since Bethany is on the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem (John 11:1; Matt 26:6), how can he say that these things happened beyond the Jordan, which is quite far from Jerusalem?

Origen and Chrysostom answer that it should be called Bethabora, not Bethany, which is a village on the far side of the Jordan; and that the reading ‘Bethany’ is due to a copyist’s error. However, since both the Greek and Latin versions have Bethany, one should rather say that there are two places called Bethany: one is near Jerusalem on the side of the Mount of Olives, and the other is on the far side of the Jordan where John was baptizing.

252. The fact that he mentions the place has both a literal and a mystical reason. The literal reason, according to Chrysostom, is that John wrote this Gospel for certain ones, perhaps still alive, who would recall the time and who saw the place where these things happened. And so, to lead us to a greater certitude, he makes them witnesses of the things they had seen.

The mystical reason is that these places are appropriate for baptism. For in saying Bethany, which is interpreted as house of obedience, he indicates that one must come to be baptized through obedience to the faith. To bring all the nations to have obedience to the faith (Rom 1:5). But if the name of the place is Bethabora, which is interpreted as house of preparation, it signifies that a man is prepared for eternal life through baptism.

There is also a mystery in the fact that this happened on the far side of the Jordan. For Jordan is interpreted as the ‘descent of them;’ and according to Origen it signifies Christ, who descended from heaven, as he himself says, I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me (John 6:38). From whence it is said: I am like a river of the Dorix (Sir 24:41). Through him, however, everyone coming into this world is made clean, according to: he who has washed us from our sins in his own blood (Rev 1:5).

Further, the river Jordan aptly signifies baptism. For it is the border line between those who received their inheritance from Moses on one side of the Jordan, and those who received it from Josue on the other side. Thus baptism is a kind of border between Jews and gentiles, who journey to this place to wash themselves by coming to Christ so that they might put off the debasement of sin. For just as the Jews had to cross the Jordan to enter the promised land, so one must pass through baptism to enter into the heavenly land. And he says, beyond the Jordan, to show that John preached the baptism of repentance even to those who trangressed the law and sinners; and so the Lord also says, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt 9:13).