Difference between revisions of "John The Baptist"

<p> <b> JOHN THE [[Baptist]] </b> </p> <p> i. John’s Importance, and Sources for his History. </p> <p> ii. Birth, Youth, and Pre-Prophetic Life. </p> <p> iii. The Public Ministry. </p> <p> iv. John’s [[Baptism]] of Jesus and [[Witness]] regarding Him. </p> <p> v. [[Imprisonment]] and Death. </p> <p> vi. John and his Disciples. </p> <p> vii. Our Lord’s [[Estimate]] of John. </p> <p> i. John’s Importance, and Sources for his History.—The significance of John the Baptist for the history of [[Christianity]] is shown by the place given him in the [[Gospel]] records by every one of the four Evangelists. St. Mark describes John’s mission in the very first words of his narrative as ‘the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’ mark (&nbsp;Mark 1:1). St. Luke makes the story of John’s birth the prelude to his wonderful narrative of the greater birth at [[Bethlehem]] (&nbsp;Luke 1:5 ff.). The three Synoptists are agreed in representing his mission as the necessary preparation, in accordance with OT prophecy, for the manifestation of the Christ (&nbsp;Mark 1:2-3, &nbsp;Matthew 3:3, &nbsp;Luke 3:4 ff.), while in all the [[Gospels]] his baptism of Jesus becomes the moment of the Lord’s equipment with the Spirit for His Messianic office (&nbsp;Mark 1:9 ff., &nbsp;Matthew 3:16 f., &nbsp;Luke 3:21 f.; cf. &nbsp;John 1:32 ff.). In the [[Prologue]] to his Gospel the Fourth [[Evangelist]] describes John as ‘a man sent from God,’ who ‘came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him ( <i> i.e. </i> Jesus) might believe’ (&nbsp;John 1:6-7). In accordance with this general sense of John’s great importance for Christ and Christianity is the space devoted to him in the Gospel narratives as a whole. It is true that Lk. alone furnishes any information about him previous to the moment when he suddenly issued from his retirement in the wilderness and began to preach the baptism of repentance in the [[Jordan]] Valley, and true also that in the case of the Fourth Gospel it is difficult often to distinguish between the Evangelist’s statements as a historian and his own subjective exposition. But when we put together all the references to John’s ministry and history and character which we find either in the form of historical narrative, or testimony from the lips of Jesus, or reflexion on the part of an Evangelist, and when we make use besides of one or two sidelights which fall from the book of Acts and the pages of Josephus, we find that for knowledge regarding the Baptist’s mission, his character, his relation to Jesus Christ, and his place in the history of both the old and the new dispensations, we are in no lack of plentiful and trustworthy sources of information. </p> <p> ii. Birth, Youth, and Pre-Prophetic Life </p> <p> The fact that Lk. alone of the Gospels gives an account of John’s earlier life, together with the artistic nature of the narrative and its presumed discrepancy with the representation of the Fourth Gospel in respect of a connexion between John and Jesus previous to the baptism of the latter (cf. &nbsp;Luke 1:36; &nbsp;Luke 1:56 with &nbsp;John 1:31; &nbsp;John 1:33), has frequently been supposed to reduce this exquisite story to the level of pure legend. In view, however, of St. Luke’s claims to historical accuracy (&nbsp;Luke 1:1; &nbsp;Luke 1:4), and of the vindication of these claims at so many points by modern research (cf. W. M. Ramsay, <i> St. Paul the [[Traveller]] </i> , ch. i., <i> Was Christ born at Bethlehem </i> ?; Chase, <i> The Credibility of Acts </i> ), it is impossible to set his narrative aside as if it rested on no basis of historical fact. It is full of poetry, no doubt, but it is the kind of poetry which bursts like a flower from the living stem of actual truth. Any attempt to dissolve the narrative into fictions of a later growth must reckon with the fact that the Evangelist is evidently making use at this point of an early [[Aramaic]] source steeped in the colours of the OT—‘the earliest documentary evidence respecting the origins of Christianity which has come down to us, evidence which may justly be called contemporary’ (Plummer, ‘St. Luke’ in <i> Internat. Crit. Com </i> ., p. 7). This document, which, if it is historical, must have rested in large part upon the authority of the [[Virgin]] Mary, St. Luke, ‘as a faithful collector of evangelic <i> memorabilia </i> , allows to speak for itself, with here and there an editorial touch’ (Bruce, <i> Expositor’s Gr. Test., ad loc </i> .). To appreciate the historical sobriety and manifestly primary character of this early Jewish-Christian source, we have only to compare the first chapter of Lk. with the relative sections of the <i> [[Protevangelium]] Jacobi </i> , and especially with those chapters (22–24) which Harnack calls the <i> Apocryphum Zachariae </i> (see Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, Extra Vol. p. 431). </p> <p> According to Lk., John was the son of Zacharias, a priest of the course of [[Abijah]] (see art. Zacharias), and his wife [[Elisabeth]] who belonged to the family of Aaron (&nbsp;Luke 1:5 ff.). Elisabeth was a kinswoman (not ‘cousin,’ see Plummer, <i> op. cit. </i> p. 25) of the Virgin Mary (&nbsp;John 1:36), who paid her a three months’ visit immediately before the birth of John (&nbsp;Luke 1:56, cf. &nbsp;Luke 1:36; &nbsp;Luke 1:39-40). John was the senior of Jesus by six months (&nbsp;Luke 1:36; &nbsp;Luke 1:57, cf. &nbsp;John 2:6). The name John, properly [[Johanan]] (Ἰωάννης = יוֹהָנָן, cf. Heb. text and LXX [[Septuagint]] of &nbsp;1 Chronicles 3:24, &nbsp;2 Chronicles 28:12), was given to the child by his parents in obedience to a [[Divine]] direction (&nbsp;Luke 1:13), and in spite of the opposition of neighbours and kinsfolk (&nbsp;Luke 1:58-63). </p> <p> [[Regarding]] the place of John’s birth there has been much discussion. Lk. describes the house of [[Zacharias]] as in ‘a city of Judah’ which lay in ‘the hill country’ (&nbsp;Luke 1:39-40). A number of commentators have assumed, without any warrant, that this must have been Hebron, as being a priestly town in that region. Others have suggested that τολις Ἰούδα is a corruption for τολις Ἰούτα (Reland, <i> Pal </i> . [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] p. 870; Robinson, <i> BR </i> P [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ii. 206), so that the Baptist’s birthplace would he [[Jutah]] or Juttah, to the south of [[Hebron]] (Robinson, <i> op. cit., ib </i> ., and i. 495), which is mentioned in Joshua as having been allotted to the priests (21:16). A tradition as early as the [[Crusades]] assigns the honour to <i> [[Ain]] Karim </i> , a village which lay between [[Jerusalem]] and Bethlehem. All this, however, is purely conjectural, and it is best to be content to say that John was born in a town unknown, in the hill country of Judah. See, further, art. Judah. </p> <p> Of the external incidents of John’s childhood and youth Lk. gives no information. All that is told us bears upon his spiritual growth. According to an announcement of the angel Gabriel, he was to be ‘filled with the [[Holy]] Ghost from his mother’s womb’ (&nbsp;Luke 1:15). That a peculiar Divine blessing did rest upon him from the first is implied in the words, ‘the hand of the Lord was upon him’ (&nbsp;Luke 1:66); that this Divine presence made itself manifest in the development of his character is evident when the Evangelist adds, ‘and the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit’ (&nbsp;Luke 1:80). </p> <p> But whatever the outward tenor of John’s way in that priestly house in the hill country of Judah, a great crisis must have come at last, followed by a sudden break in his manner of life. A priest’s son, he would naturally, according to all [[Jewish]] traditions, have stepped into the priestly office, and enjoyed the honours, abundance, and comparative ease that were parts of his birthright. But spiritual instincts and powers which had long been unknown in [[Israel]] began to make themselves felt in the young man’s heart, and this son of a priest went forth into the deserts to be shaped in solitude into a prophet mightier than [[Elijah]] or Isaiah. Of the precise nature of the impulse which first led him to withdraw himself from his fellows, the duration of his stay in the wilderness, and the fashion of his life while there, no Evangelist has anything to tell us. But it is certainly a grotesque mistake to suppose that he left his home and the haunts of men in order to become an Essene (see the excellent remarks of Godet on this point, <i> Com. On Lk </i> . i. p. 117 f.).* [Note: This theory, put forth by Grätz (Gesch. der Juden, iii. p. 100) and adopted by many since, has been repeated once more in the art. ‘Essence’ in Jewish Encyc., where it is added that the slience of the NT about the Essense ‘is perhaps the best proof that they furnish the new sect [i.e. Christianity] with its main elements as regards personnel and views’—as striking an illustration as could well be discovered of a fallocious use of the argumentum e silentio. On John’s relations to the [[Essenes]] see Lightfoot, Colossians, Dissert. iii.] </p> <p> There was absolutely no resemblance between John, the desert solitary, as he is described to us in the pages of the Gospels (&nbsp;Matthew 3:4 || 11:7ff. || 11:18 ||), and the Essenes with their white garments and their cenobitic establishments, as we come across them in the pages of [[Josephus]] ( <i> BJ </i> ii. viii. 2–13, <i> Ant </i> . xviii. i. 5). All that can be said is that John was an ascetic as the Essenes were, and that in both cases the revolt against prevailing luxury and corruption sprang out of the deep seriousness which marked the more earnest spirits of the time (see Rüegg, art. ‘Johannes der Täufer’ in <i> PR </i> E [Note: RE Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ). John’s withdrawal into the wilderness indicated his disapproval of society as he found it, it signified more especially an absolute break with the prevalent Pharisaic type of piety. But in his case it meant much more than this, much more even than the adoption of severely ascetic habits in the interests of his own spiritual life. It was as one who was conscious that he was set apart for the office of a prophet (cf. &nbsp;Luke 1:14-17; &nbsp;Luke 1:76 ff.), and who felt himself called in particular to take up in Israel a work of reformation similar to that of Elijah (&nbsp;Luke 1:17; cf. &nbsp;Matthew 11:14; &nbsp;Matthew 17:12, &nbsp;John 1:21), that John betook himself to the deserts (&nbsp;Luke 1:80) and there lived the life of one who hides himself from men that he may the better see the face of God. [[Locusts]] and wild honey were his food, while his clothing was a loose cloak (ἔνδυμα) of woven camel’s hair and a leathern girdle about his loins (&nbsp;Matthew 3:4, &nbsp;Mark 1:6; cf. &nbsp;2 Kings 1:8).† [Note: That he ate locusts, as the Bedawin still do, not carob-beans, is now the prevalent opinion of scholars (cf. art. Locust, and in hastings DB, s.v.). Cheyne, however, holds out for carob-beans (Encyc. Bibl., artt. ‘Husks’ and ‘John the Baptist’). See also Expos. Times, xv. [1904] pp. 285, 335, 429, xvi. [1905] p. 382.] </p> <p> How long John remained in ‘the deserts,’ by which is doubtless meant the awful solitudes of the [[Wilderness]] of Judaea, and how he grew into the full sense of the precise nature of his prophetic vocation as the forerunner and herald of the Messiah, we cannot tell. But the Holy Ghost who had been working in him, and the hand of the Lord which had been laid upon him from the first, his own constant brooding over words of ancient prophecy (&nbsp;John 1:23, cf. &nbsp;Matthew 3:3 ||), and a deep intuitive reading of the signs of the times, would gradually bring him to a clear knowledge both of his function as a prophet and of the time when he must begin to exercise it. And so came at last the day of his ‘shewing’ (ἀνάδειξις) unto Israel (&nbsp;Luke 1:80). </p> <p> iii. The Public Ministry.—It was in the 15th year of the reign of [[Tiberius]] [[Caesar]] that the word of God came to John in the wilderness summoning him to enter upon his work as a prophet (&nbsp;Luke 3:1-2). Immediately he obeyed the summons (&nbsp;Luke 3:3). The scene of his ministry, according to Mk., was ‘the wilderness’ (&nbsp;Mark 1:4), according to Mt. ‘the wilderness of Judaea’ (&nbsp;Matthew 3:1), according to Lk. ‘all the country about Jordan’ (&nbsp;Luke 3:3). Probably, as hitherto, the Wilderness of [[Judaea]] continued to be his home—that wild region which stretches westwards from the [[Dead]] Sea and the Jordan to the edge of the central plateau of Palestine; but when he preached he must have done so in some place not too far removed from the haunts of men, while, owing to his practice of baptism (almost certainly by immersion), the Jordan necessarily marked the central line of his activity (&nbsp;Matthew 3:6; &nbsp;Matthew 13:16, &nbsp;Mark 1:5; &nbsp;Mark 1:9). To Jn. we owe the information that he baptized on both sides of the river (&nbsp;John 1:28; &nbsp;John 3:28; &nbsp;John 10:40). John’s work may be considered under two aspects, (1) his preaching, (2) his baptism. </p> <p> <b> 1. John’s Preaching. </b> —According to Mt. the essence of John’s preaching, the text as we might say of all his sermons, was this: ‘Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (&nbsp;Matthew 3:2). The second part of this text was the fundamental part. It shows that John was fully conscious that the long-expected Messianic age was now about to dawn, and that it was his mission to proclaim the fact. By his trumpet-voiced proclamation of this fact he thrilled the nation to its heart and drew forth the multitude into the wilderness to hear him (&nbsp;Matthew 3:5, &nbsp;Luke 3:7; cf. Josephus, <i> Ant </i> . xviii. v. 2)—men from Jerusalem and men from [[Galilee]] (&nbsp;John 1:19; &nbsp;John 1:35 ff.) (civilians and soldiers (&nbsp;Luke 3:10; &nbsp;Luke 3:14), [[Pharisees]] and publicans side by side (&nbsp;Matthew 3:7, &nbsp;Luke 3:12). </p> <p> But while the preacher’s fundamental message was the announcement of the near approach of the Messianic Kingdom, he combined with these glad tidings of good a stern summons to repentance. Repentance, he said, μετάνοια, a change of mind and heart, were indispensable as a preparatory condition for all who would share in the privileges of the new order about to be set up. To the Jewish mind this was an unexpected and unwelcome note in a herald of the Messiah; and John’s utterance of it and strenuous emphasis upon it form one of the marks of his profound originality as a prophet. According to the popular conviction, all Israel would have a lot and a part in the blessings of the Messianic age, and that specifically because of their descent from Abraham. It was recognized that judgments would accompany the appearance of the Christ, but these judgments were to fall upon the Gentiles, while Abraham’s children would be secure and happy in that day of the Lord. The [[Talmud]] explains the cry of the prophetic watchman, ‘The morning cometh, and also the night’ (&nbsp;Isaiah 21:12), by saying, ‘The night is only to the nations of the world, but the morning to Israel’ (Jerus. [Note: Jerusalem.] <i> Taan </i> . 64 <i> a </i> , quoted by Edersheim, <i> Life and Times </i> , i. 271). Not so, said John. [[Repentance]] is the prime requisite for all who would enter the [[Kingdom]] of heaven. Descent from [[Abraham]] counts for nothing (&nbsp;Matthew 3:9). Every fruitless or worthless tree must be hewn down and cast into the fire (&nbsp;Matthew 3:10). The very leaders of the nation themselves, the Pharisees and Sadducees, must bring forth fruit worthy of repentance if they are to escape from the wrath to come (&nbsp;Matthew 3:7-8). </p> <p> <b> 2. John’s Baptism. </b> —Alongside of the spoken word John set that great distinctive symbol of his ministry from which his title ‘the Baptist’ (ὁ Βαπτιστής) was derived. He came not only preaching but baptizing, or rather, so closely was the symbol interwoven with the word, he came ‘preaching the baptism of repentance’ (&nbsp;Mark 1:4, &nbsp;Luke 3:3). To understand John’s baptismal doctrine it is necessary to think of the historical roots out of which it sprang. For though he gave to the rite a depth of meaning it had never had in Israel before, he evidently appealed to ideas on the subject which were already familiar to the Jewish people. In particular, three moments in the preceding history of the religion of Israel appear to be gathered up in the baptism of John as it meets us in the Gospels. </p> <p> ( <i> a </i> ) <i> The theocratic washings of the [[Jews]] </i> (Leviticus 11-15, Numbers 19). That a religious intention underlay those ‘divers washings’ of the ceremonial law is evident (cf. &nbsp;Leviticus 14:32; &nbsp;Leviticus 15:13, &nbsp;Mark 1:44, &nbsp;Luke 2:22; &nbsp;Luke 5:14, &nbsp;John 2:6), while the historical connexion of John’s baptism with them is proved by the fact that in NT times βαπτίζειν had come to be the regular term alike for those ceremonial washings and for the Messianic baptism of the [[Forerunner]] (for detailed proof and reff. on these points see the present writer’s <i> [[Sacraments]] in the NT </i> , p. 56 f.). And yet, though John’s baptism finds its earliest historical roots in the [[Levitical]] washings, it is far from finding its complete explanation there. It was essentially an ethical rite, and thus very different from an outward ceremony to which some value could be attached apart from the moral and spiritual condition of the recipient. In the case of all who came to him John insisted upon repentance; and they ‘were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins’ (&nbsp;Matthew 3:2; &nbsp;Matthew 3:6). </p> <p> ( <i> b </i> ) <i> The Messianic lustration foretold by the prophets </i> .—Long before the time of John, prophetic souls in Israel had seen that for a true cleansing the nation must look to those Messianic days when God should open a fountain for sin and for uncleanness, sprinkling His people with clean water, and putting a new heart and a new spirit within them (&nbsp;Jeremiah 33:8, &nbsp;Ezekiel 36:25-26, Zee 13:1). It was John’s function to declare that those great Messianic promises were now going to receive their fulfilment at the hands of the [[Messiah]] Himself. His baptism, we have said, was a baptism of preparation for the Kingdom, preparation which took the form of repentance and confession. But even more than a baptism of preparation it was a baptism of promise, promise both of the Kingdom and the King, being a promissory symbol of a perfect spiritual cleansing which the Messiah in person should bestow—‘I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me … shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire’ (&nbsp;Matthew 3:11 ||). </p> <p> ( <i> c </i> ) Another historical moment which should not be lost sight of is <i> the proselyte baptism of the Jewish Church </i> . It may now be regarded as certain that the baptism of proselytes had been the rule in Israel long before NT times (see especially Schürer, <i> HJ </i> P [Note: JP History of the Jewish People.] ii. i. 319; Edersheim, <i> Life and Times </i> , ii. 745 ff.); and proselyte baptism helps us to understand the baptism of John in certain of its aspects. When a [[Gentile]] ‘sought shelter under the wings of the Shekinah,’ it was understood that he was utterly renouncing his past. And John insisted on a like renunciation in the case of candidates for his baptism. The danger of the proclamation that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand lay in the fact that multitudes would claim to enter that Kingdom as a matter of course, without being prepared to submit to the necessary conditions. Not so, said John. God does not depend upon Israel alone for the peopling of His Kingdom. He ‘is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham’ (&nbsp;Matthew 3:9). Even a Jew, if he is to be received, must come as a humble penitent who casts himself upon the Divine grace He must come like a stranger and a proselyte renouncing the past, not as one who claims an inalienable right, but as one who seeks by fruits of repentance to flee from the wrath to come (&nbsp;Matthew 3:7-8, &nbsp;Luke 3:7-8). For the baptism of the Coming One is a baptism of judgment. His win-nowing-fan is in His hand; and while He will gather His wheat into the garner, He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (&nbsp;Matthew 3:12, &nbsp;Luke 3:17). On the baptism of John see, further, art. Baptism. </p> <p> iv. John’s Baptism of Jesus and Witness regarding Him.— <b> 1 </b> . The baptism of Jesus by John is recorded in all the Synoptics (&nbsp;Matthew 3:13 ff., &nbsp;Mark 1:9 f., &nbsp;Luke 3:21), but is not mentioned in the Fourth Gospel. The author, however, makes the Baptist refer to the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus in the form of a dove (&nbsp;John 1:32 ff.) as an authenticating sign which he received that He was the Messiah; and this incident is represented by the other three as following immediately upon the baptism, though the first two, and probably the third also, describe the visible sign as bestowed upon Jesus Himself along with the approving voice from heaven (&nbsp;Matthew 3:16, &nbsp;Mark 1:10 f., &nbsp;Luke 3:22). If the scene of the baptism was the same as that of John’s subsequent witness to Jesus recorded in the Fourth Gospel, it took place at ‘Bethany beyond Jordan’ (&nbsp;John 1:28), a site which has been much discussed, but cannot be said to have been certainly identified (see art. Bethabara). </p> <p> It was here, then, in all likelihood, that Jesus met John when He came from Galilee to be baptized of him (&nbsp;Matthew 3:13). At first John was unwilling to perform the rite upon such an applicant, but Jesus insisted. ‘Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness’ (&nbsp;Matthew 3:15). He recognized John’s baptism as an appointment of the Divine righteousness which it was proper that He should accept. If the fitness of that baptism in the case of Jesus is called in question, we must remember that it had an initiatory aspect which would commend it to Him as He saw in it an opportunity of consecrating Himself definitely and openly to the Messianic kingdom and its tasks. But if John’s words of protest (&nbsp;Matthew 3:14) imply that even in the baptism of Christ the cleansing aspect of the rite was in view, was it not proper that the ‘Lamb of God’ (&nbsp;John 1:29; &nbsp;John 1:36), who had no sense of personal guilt, nothing to repent of or confess, should even now begin to bear upon His heart the burden of the sins of others, even as on a coming day He was to bear them ‘in his own body on the tree’ (&nbsp;1 Peter 2:24)? </p> <p> <b> 2 </b> . Of the intercourse of John with Jesus, the Fourth Gospel gives an account which differs widely from that presented in the Synoptics; but apart from the Johannine colouring of the later narrative, the difference is sufficiently explained on the ordinary view that the Synoptists describe the meeting between the two at the time of our Lord’s baptism, while the Fourth Evangelist concerns himself only with John’s subsequent testimony to the now recognized Messiah (cf. &nbsp;John 1:7 f.). There is no real discrepancy between John’s ‘I knew him not,’ reported in the Fourth Gospel (&nbsp;John 1:31), and the representation of Mt. (&nbsp;Matthew 3:13 ff.), that when the Man from [[Nazareth]] presented Himself at the Jordan, John declined at first to baptize Him, on the ground of his own unworthiness in comparison. Even if we suppose that in spite of their kinship and the friendship between their mothers the two had not met before, the fact that John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance and confession seems to imply a personal interview with applicants previous to the performance of the rite—an interview which in the case of Jesus must have revealed to one with the Baptist’s insight the beauty and glory of His character. On the other hand, the ‘I knew him not’ of the last Gospel, as the context shows, only means that John did not know that Jesus was indeed the Messiah until he received the promised sign (&nbsp;John 1:32 f.). </p> <p> It is true that in the Fourth Gospel John is made to bear a witness to Jesus by the banks of the Jordan (&nbsp;John 1:15-36) which finds no parallel in the earlier narratives; but if we follow the ordinary view of students of the chronology of our Lord’s life—that the narrative of the Fourth Evangelist comes in after the forty days of the [[Temptation]] have intervened, and that John now sees Jesus in the light not only of the authenticating sign given at the baptism, but of his own reflexion ever since upon the subject of the character of Jesus and the fulfilment of the Messianic promise—the fulness and explicitness of his testimony upon this later occasion appear perfectly natural. The twice-repeated ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν (&nbsp;John 1:15; &nbsp;John 1:30), it is true, cannot be understood, so far as the Baptist himself is concerned, as referring to pre-existence, though this was probably involved in the thought of the Evangelist. But the designation of Jesus as ‘the Lamb of God’ (&nbsp;John 1:29; &nbsp;John 1:36), and especially the phrase ‘which taketh away the sin of the world’ (&nbsp;John 1:29), reveals a conception of the Saviour’s Messianic functions which is certainly profound, but which, in spite of the objections which have been taken to it, cannot surprise us in the case of one who had brooded like John over the utterances of OT prophecy (cf. especially Isaiah 53). </p> <p> The Fourth Evangelist records a further witness regarding Jesus which John bore to his own disciples on a later occasion, when he was baptizing in aenon (wh. see), near to [[Salim]] (&nbsp;John 3:23 ff.). In this passage the difficulty of discriminating between the original words and facts of history and the Johannine setting and atmosphere is even greater than usual, but the figure of the [[Bridegroom]] ‘that hath the bride’ and the Bridegroom’s friend who rejoices in the other’s joy (&nbsp;John 3:29), and the saying, ‘He must increase, hut I must decrease’ (&nbsp;John 3:30), are so thoroughly in keeping with other utterances of the Baptist recorded in the Synoptics as well as in the Fourth Gospel regarding the relations between the Messiah and himself (&nbsp;Matthew 3:3; &nbsp;Matthew 3:11, &nbsp;John 1:15; &nbsp;John 1:27), that it is difficult to resist the impression of historical reality which they make upon the reader. </p> <p> v. John’s Imprisonment and Death (&nbsp;Matthew 14:3-12, &nbsp;Mark 6:17-29, &nbsp;Luke 3:19-20; cf. Josephus <i> Ant </i> . xviii. v. 1, 2).—According to the Synoptists, the arrest and execution of John were due to the spiteful hatred of [[Herodias]] (wh. see), because he had rebuked Herod for making her his wife in flagrant defiance of the law of Israel (&nbsp;Leviticus 18:16; &nbsp;Leviticus 20:21). Josephus, on the other hand, says that Herod put the prophet to death because he ‘feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it in his power and inclination to raise a rebellion; for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise.’ The two statements, however, are not irreconcilable; and certainly the evidence of Josephus, whose interests as a historian lay altogether in the political direction, is not such as to cast any suspicion on the trustworthiness of the more detailed and more intimate Gospel narrative. It may very well have been the case that, while John’s death was really due to the implacable hate of Herodias, Herod felt that this was hardly an adequate ground, or one that he would care to allege, for the execution of the Baptist, and so made political reasons his excuse. [[Assuredly]] there was nothing of the political revolutionary about John; yet his extraordinary influence over the people and the wild hopes raised among certain classes by his preaching might make it easy for Herod to present a plausible justification of his base deed by representing John as a politically dangerous person. </p> <p> There may seem to be a contradiction within the Evangelic narratives themselves, when we find Mt. saying that Herod would have put John to death but that he feared the multitude (&nbsp;Matthew 14:5), while Mk. alleges that Herod ‘feared John, knowing that he was a righteous man and an holy, and kept him safe … and heard him gladly’ (&nbsp;Mark 6:20). But the contradiction lies in Herod’s character rather than in the testimonies of the two writers, and the words πολλὰ ἡπόρει, ‘he was much perplexed’ (&nbsp;Mark 6:20 WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885), explain adequately enough a moral situation of which we have the final revelation in Herod’s weakly vacillating behaviour, ‘letting I dare not wait upon I would,’ when Herodias through her daughter [[Salome]] (&nbsp;Matthew 14:6, &nbsp;Mark 6:22; cf. Josephus <i> Ant </i> . xviii. v. 4) presented her horrible request. That Herod did not really regard John as a political fanatic is suggested by all that the Gospels tell us as to the way in which he treated him while he lay in prison; by the personal audiences he granted him (&nbsp;Mark 6:20), and by the fact that he allowed him to have intercourse with his disciples (&nbsp;Matthew 11:2, &nbsp;Luke 7:18-19), and through them to exchange messages with Jesus (&nbsp;Matthew 11:2-6, &nbsp;Luke 7:19-23). </p> <p> The message which John sent to Jesus has often been regarded as exceedingly strange on the part of one who had previously borne so signal a witness that Jesus was the Christ, and it has even been suggested that he sent his messengers not because there was any wavering of his own faith, but for the sake of his disciples, to whom he wished some confirmation of the Messiahship of Jesus to be given (see Bebb in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible ii. 680a). But the more simple explanation is also the one which is truer to human nature. The depression wrought by imprisonment on one accustomed to the freedom of the wilderness, together with his disappointment at the seeming delay of Jesus to assert His power and authority as the Christ of Israel, had resulted in an hour of the power of darkness in the soul of the great prophet, when he began to wonder whether after all he had not made a great mistake. That in spite of his doubts he had not lost his faith in Jesus is shown by the very fact that it was to Jesus Himself that he applied to have these doubts removed, as well as by that message of encouragement and ‘strong consolation’ which the Bridegroom sent back to His sorely tried friend: ‘Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me’ (&nbsp;Matthew 11:6, &nbsp;Luke 7:23). </p> <p> From Josephus we learn that the [[Castle]] of [[Machaerus]] (wh. see) was the scene of the Baptist’s imprisonment ( <i> Ant </i> . xviii. v. 1, 2). Machaerus was a powerful stronghold, at once a fortress and a palace ( <i> BJ </i> vii. vi. 1–3; cf. Pliny, <i> Hist. [[Nat]] </i> . v. xvi. 72), situated on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea (G. A. Smith, <i> HGH </i> L [Note: [[Historical]] Geog. of Holy Land.] p. 569 f.). Within these gloomy walls, then, the death of John took place, one of ‘those awful tragedies for which nature has provided here so sympathetic a theatre’ ( <i> op. cit. in loc </i> .). Of this tragedy St. Mark has furnished us with the fullest account (&nbsp;Mark 6:21-29) in a narrative which is not more thrilling in its dramatic vividness than it is instinct with the elements of what might almost be described as self-evidencing moral and historical truth. </p> <p> vi. John and his Disciples.—Besides the crowds that came to him to be baptized, John appears to have drawn around him a circle of closer followers, who are referred to in all the Gospels as his ‘disciples’ (&nbsp;Matthew 9:14 [|| &nbsp;Mark 2:18, &nbsp;Luke 5:33] &nbsp;Luke 11:2 [|| &nbsp;Luke 7:18-19], &nbsp;Mark 6:29, &nbsp;Luke 11:1, &nbsp;John 1:35; &nbsp;John 1:37; &nbsp;John 3:25; &nbsp;John 4:1; cf. &nbsp;Acts 18:25; &nbsp;Acts 19:1 ff.). It appears that, unlike Jesus, he enjoined regular fasts upon his disciples (&nbsp;Matthew 9:14 ||), and that he also gave them forms of prayer (&nbsp;Luke 11:1) which they were in the habit of employing frequently (&nbsp;Luke 5:33). Possibly he utilized them as assistants in the work of baptizing, for which he could hardly have sufficed personally when his movement was at its height. </p> <p> It was from the circle of these disciples of the Baptist that the disciples of Jesus were immediately drawn (&nbsp;John 1:28-51), and that not only with John’s full consent, but through his own express witness both in public (&nbsp;John 1:19 ff., &nbsp;John 1:29 ff.) and in private (&nbsp;John 1:35 f.) to the superior worth of Jesus and to his own function as the mere herald and forerunner of the latter. And yet he did not, as we might have expected, decline, after Christ’s baptism, to stand any longer to others in the relation of a master to his disciples. [[Perfectly]] loyal as he was to Him whom he recognized as the Messiah, he evidently felt, as Jesus also did previous to John’s imprisonment (&nbsp;John 3:22; &nbsp;John 3:24; &nbsp;John 4:1-2), that there was still need for a work of preparation, and room therefore for a discipleship to the Forerunner. But when his disciples grew jealous of the rapidly growing popularity of Jesus, and came to him with their complaint, he proclaimed to them once more the true relation between that Other and himself,—‘He must increase, but I must decrease,’—and reminded them how he had said from the first that he was not the Christ, but was sent before Him (&nbsp;John 3:28; cf. &nbsp;Matthew 3:11 ||). </p> <p> The fidelity of John’s disciples to their master is shown by their holding together and continuing to observe his prescriptions after he was cast into prison (cf. &nbsp;Matthew 4:12 || with &nbsp;Matthew 9:14 ||), by their attendance upon him during his captivity (&nbsp;Matthew 11:2 ff., &nbsp;Luke 7:18-19 ff.), and by their loving and reverent treatment of his corpse (&nbsp;Mark 6:29). The vital impression he made upon them, and the self-propagating power of the baptism of repentance in the absence of a higher teaching, is proved by the fact that more than 20 years afterwards, and in the far-off city of Ephesus, St. Paul found certain disciples, including no less a personage than Apollos, the [[Alexandrian]] Jew, who knew no other baptism than that of John (&nbsp;Acts 19:1 ff; cf. &nbsp;Acts 18:24 ff.). Before the growing light of Christianity John’s baptism as a baptism of preparation for the Messiah soon vanished away, but the traces of his memory and influence are found lingering long afterwards in the name, doctrines, and practices of the Hemerobaptists, who claimed John as one of themselves ( <i> Clem. Hom </i> . ii. 23; cf. [[Hegesippus]] in Euseb. <i> Historia Ecclesiastica </i> iv. 22; Justin Martyr, <i> Dial. c. Tryph </i> . On the relation of the [[Hemerobaptists]] to John, see Lightfoot, <i> Colossians </i> , p. 402 ff.). </p> <p> vii. Our Lord’s estimate of John.—The task of appreciating the character and activity of John the Baptist is rendered easy for us by the frequent utterances of Jesus Himself. If the worth of praise is to be measured by the lips from which it falls, no mortal man was ever praised so greatly as he whom Jesus described as ‘a burning and a shining light’ (&nbsp;John 5:35), as one who was ‘much more than a prophet’ (&nbsp;Matthew 11:9 Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885, &nbsp;Luke 7:26), as the Elijah who by his coming was to ‘restore all things’ (&nbsp;Matthew 11:14; &nbsp;Matthew 17:10 ff., &nbsp;Mark 9:11 ff.); and of whom He said: ‘Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist’ (&nbsp;Matthew 11:11; see the whole passage, and cf. &nbsp;Luke 7:24 ff.). That John had his limitations Jesus made clear (&nbsp;Mark 2:18 ff.), but He attributed these not to any personal shortcomings, but to the fact that he belonged to the time of preparation, and so stood by a dispensational necessity outside of the realized Kingdom of God (&nbsp;Matthew 11:11 b, &nbsp;Luke 7:28 b). </p> <p> Again and again Jesus revealed His sense of the Divine value that attached to the baptism of John. He showed it when He insisted on submitting to that baptism Himself, and by the words He used on the occasion (&nbsp;Matthew 3:15). He showed it when He asked the question, ‘The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?’ (&nbsp;Matthew 21:25 ||), a question to which His own answer was self-evident, and which St. Luke answers for us when he says that ‘all the people when they heard, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected for themselves the counsel of God, being not baptized of him, &nbsp;Luke 7:29 f.). And may we not say that in His words to a certain [[Pharisee]] (&nbsp;John 3:1) about the necessity of a birth ‘of water and the Spirit’ (&nbsp;John 3:5), He was indicating once more the deep religious value of John’s water-baptism, while insisting at the same time on the indispensableness of that spiritual birth which comes only from above (&nbsp;John 3:3)? Time after time, too, even to the closing days of His ministry, words which Jesus let fall reveal to us that He carried about with Him continually the thought of His predecessor’s career, and perceived the bearing of its lessons upon His own ministry and earthly lot and fate (see &nbsp;Matthew 9:15 ff. &nbsp;Matthew 11:12 ff., &nbsp;Matthew 11:18 f., &nbsp;Matthew 17:9 ff., &nbsp;Matthew 21:32, &nbsp;Luke 16:16). And, finally, after His resurrection, we find that as He had justified John at the first by taking up his baptism of preparation, so now He crowns the work of the Forerunner by instituting the baptism of the Kingdom itself (&nbsp;Matthew 28:19). John had adopted the rite as the distinctive symbol of his reforming activity and the gateway into the sphere of Messianic preparation. Jesus transformed it into a sacrament of the [[Christian]] Church—at once the token of the gospel of forgiveness and the sign and seal of discipleship to Himself. </p> <p> Literature.—Relative sections in works on Life of Christ by Neander, Keim, Renan, Weiss, Beyschlag, and Edersheim; Ewald, <i> H </i> I [Note: I History of Israel.] vi. 160–200; Reynolds, <i> John the Baptist </i> ; Feather, <i> John the Baptist </i> ; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, artt. ‘John the Baptist,’ ‘Baptism,’ and vol. ii. 610f.; <i> PR </i> E [Note: RE Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , art. ‘Johannes der Taufer’; Haupt, <i> [[Johannes]] der Täufer </i> ; Bornemann, <i> Die Taufe [[Christi]] church Johannes </i> ; Seeley, <i> Ecce Homo </i> , ch. i.; <i> Expos. Times </i> , xiii. [1902] 483f. XV. [1903] 5ff.: <i> Expositor </i> , i. v. [1877] 11ff., 98 ff., viii. [1878] 23 ff., <i> iii </i> . i. [1885] 267 ff., v. i. [1895] 201 ff., vi. [1897] 139 ff., vii. [1898] 187ff.; Wilkinson, <i> A Johannine Document in the First [[Chapter]] of St. Luke’s Gospel </i> ; the earlier sections of Althaus, <i> Die Heilsbedeutung der Taufe </i> . </p> <p> J. C. Lambert. </p>

<p> the forerunner of the Messiah, was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and was born about six months before our Saviour. His birth was foretold by an angel, sent purposely to deliver this joyful message, when his mother [[Elizabeth]] was barren, and both his parents far advanced in years. The same divine messenger foretold that he should be great in the sight of the Lord: that he should be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb; that he should prepare the way of the Lord by turning many of the Jews to the knowledge of God; and that he should be the greatest of all the prophets, &nbsp;Luke 1:5-15 . Of the early part of the Baptist's life we have but little information. It is only observed that "he grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel," &nbsp;Luke 1:80 . Though consecrated from the womb to the ministerial office, John did not enter upon it in the heat of youth, but after several years spent in solitude and a course of self-denial. </p> <p> The prophetical descriptions of the Baptist in the Old [[Testament]] are various and striking. That by Isaiah is: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, [[Prepare]] ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God," &nbsp;Isaiah 40:3 . Malachi has the following prediction: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse," &nbsp;Malachi 4:5 . That this was meant of the Baptist, we have the testimony of our Lord himself, who declared, "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is [[Elias]] who was to come," &nbsp;Matthew 11:14 . The appearance and manners of the Baptist, when he first came out into the world, excited general attention. His clothing was of camel's hair, bound round him with a leathern girdle, and his food consisted of locusts and wild honey, &nbsp;Matthew 3:4 . The message which he declared was authoritative: "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" and the impression produced by his faithful reproofs and admonitions was powerful and extensive, and in a great number of instances lasting. Most of the first followers of our Lord appear to have been awakened to seriousness and religious inquiry by John's ministry. His character was so eminent, that many of the Jews thought him to be the Messiah; but he plainly declared that he was not that honoured person. Nevertheless, he was at first unacquainted with the person of Jesus Christ; only the Holy Ghost had told him that he on whom he should see the Holy Spirit descend and rest was the Messiah. When Jesus Christ presented himself to receive baptism from him, this sign was vouchsafed; and from that time he bore his testimony to Jesus, as the Christ. </p> <p> Herod Antipas, having married his brother Philip's wife while [[Philip]] was still living, occasioned great scandal. John the Baptist, with his usual liberty and vigour, reproved Herod to his face; and told him that it was not lawful for him to have his brother's wife, while his brother was yet alive. Herod, incensed at this freedom, ordered him into custody, in the castle of Machoerus; and he was ultimately put to death. ( See [[Antipas]] . ) Thus fell this honoured prophet, a martyr to ministerial faithfulness. Other prophets testified of Christ; he pointed to him as already come. Others saw him afar off; he beheld the advancing glories of his ministry eclipsing his own, and rejoiced to "decrease" while his [[Master]] "increased." His ministry stands as a type of the true character of evangelical repentance: it goes before Christ and prepares his way; it is humbling, but not despairing; for it points to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." </p> <p> The Jews had such an opinion of this prophet's sanctity, that they ascribed the overthrow of Herod's army, which he had sent against his father-in- law, Aretas, to the just judgment of God for putting John the Baptist to death. The death of John the Baptist happened, as is believed, about the end of the thirty-first year of the vulgar era, or in the beginning of the thirty-second. </p> <p> The baptism of John was much more perfect than that of the Jews, but less perfect than that of Jesus Christ. "It was," says St. Chrysostom, "as it were, a bridge, which, from the baptism of the Jews, made a way to that of our Saviour, and was more exalted than the first, but inferior to the second. That of St. John promised what that of Jesus Christ executed. [[Notwithstanding]] St. John did not enjoin his disciples to continue the baptism of repentance, which was of his institution, after his death, because, after the manifestation of the Messiah, and the establishment of the Holy Ghost, it became of no use; yet there were many of his followers who still administered it, and several years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, did not so much as know that there was any other baptism than that of John. Of this number was Apollos, a learned and zealous man, who was of Alexandria, and came to [[Ephesus]] twenty years after the resurrection of our Saviour, &nbsp;Acts 18:25 . And when St. Paul came after [[Apollos]] to the same city, there were still many Ephesians who had received no other baptism, and were not yet informed that the Holy Ghost was received by baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, &nbsp;Acts 19:1 . The Jews are said by the [[Apostle]] Paul to have been "baptized unto Moses," at the time when they followed him through the Red Sea, as the servant of God sent to be their leader. Those who went out to John "were baptized unto John's baptism;" that is, into the expectation of the person whom John announced, and into repentance of those sins which John condemned. [[Christians]] are "baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," because in this expression is implied that whole system of truth which the disciples of Christ believe; into the name of the Father, the one true and living God whom Christians profess to serve; of the Son, that divine person revealed in the New Testament whom the Father sent to be the [[Saviour]] of the world; of the Holy Ghost, the divine person also revealed there as the Comforter, the Sanctifier, and the Guide of Christians. </p> <p> JOHN THE EVANGELIST was a native of Bethsaida, in Galilee, son of [[Zebedee]] and Salome, by profession a fisherman. Some have thought that he was a disciple of John the Baptist before he attended Jesus Christ. He was brother to James the greater. It is believed that St. John was the youngest of the Apostles. Tillemont is of opinion that he was twenty-five or twenty-six years of age when he began to follow Jesus. Our Saviour had a particular friendship for him; and he describes himself by the name of "that disciple whom Jesus loved." St. John was one of the four [[Apostles]] to whom our Lord delivered his predictions relative to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the approaching calamities of the Jewish nation, &nbsp;Mark 13:3 . St. Peter, St. James, and St. John were chosen to accompany our Saviour on several occasions, when the other Apostles were not permitted to be present. When Christ restored the daughter of [[Jairus]] to life, &nbsp;Mark 5:37; &nbsp;Luke 8:51; when he was transfigured on the mount, &nbsp;Matthew 17:1-2; &nbsp;Mark 9:2; &nbsp;Luke 9:28; and when he endured his agony in the garden, &nbsp;Matthew 26:36-37; &nbsp;Mark 14:32-33; St. Peter, St. James, and St. John were his only attendants. That St. John was treated by Christ with greater familiarity than the other Apostles, is evident from St. Peter desiring him to ask Christ who should betray him, when he himself did not dare to propose the question, &nbsp;John 13:24 . He seems to have been the only Apostle present at the crucifixion, and to him Jesus, just as he was expiring upon the cross, gave the strongest proof of his confidence and regard, by consigning to him the care of his mother, &nbsp;John 19:26-27 . As St. John had been witness to the death of our Saviour, by seeing the blood and water issue from his side, which a soldier had pierced, &nbsp;John 19:34-35 , so he was one of the first made acquainted with his resurrection. Without any hesitation, he believed this great event, though "as yet he knew not the Scripture, that Christ was to rise from the dead," &nbsp;John 20:9 . He was also one of those to whom our Saviour appeared at the sea of Galilee; and he was afterward, with the other ten Apostles, a witness of his ascension into heaven, &nbsp;Mark 16:19; &nbsp;Luke 24:51 . St. John continued to preach the Gospel for some time at Jerusalem: he was imprisoned by the sanhedrim, first with Peter only, &nbsp;Acts 4:1 , &c, and afterward with the other Apostles, &nbsp;Acts 5:17-18 . Some time after this second release, he and St. Peter were sent by the other Apostles to the Samaritans, whom Philip the deacon had converted to the Gospel, that through them they might receive the Holy Ghost, &nbsp;Acts 8:14-15 . St. John informs us, in his Revelations, that he was banished to Patmos, an island in the AEgean Sea, &nbsp;Revelation 1:9 . </p> <p> This banishment of the Apostle to the isle of [[Patmos]] is mentioned by many of the early ecclesiastical writers; all of whom, except [[Epiphanius]] in the fourth century, agree in attributing it to Domitian. Epiphanius says that John was banished by command of Claudius; but this deserves the less credit; because there was no persecution of the Christians in the time of that emperor, and his edicts against the Jews did not extend to the provinces. Sir Isaac Newton was of opinion that John was banished to Patmos in the time of Nero; but even the authority of this great man is not of sufficient weight against the unanimous voice of antiquity. Dr. Lardner has examined and answered his arguments with equal candour and learning. It is not known at what time John went into Asia Minor. Lardner thought that it was about the year 66. It is certain that he lived in Asia Minor the latter part of his life, and principally at Ephesus. He planted churches at Smyrna, Pergamos, and many other places; and by his activity and success in propagating the Gospel, he is supposed to have incurred the displeasure of Domitian, who banished him to Patmos at the end of his reign. He himself tells us that he "was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ;" and Irenaeus, speaking of the vision which he had there, says, "It is not very long ago that it was seen, being but a little before our time, at the latter end of Domitian's reign." On the succession of [[Nerva]] to the empire in the year 96, John returned to Ephesus, where he died at an advanced age in the third year of Trajan's reign, A.D. 100. An opinion has prevailed, that he was, by order of Domitian, thrown into a caldron of boiling oil at Rome, and came out unhurt; but this account rests almost entirely on the authority of Tertullian, and seems to deserve little credit. </p> <p> <strong> 2. </strong> The genuineness of St. John's Gospel has always been unanimously admitted by the Christian church. It is universally agreed that St. John published his Gospel in Asia; and that, when he wrote it, he had seen the other three Gospels. It is, therefore, not only valuable in itself, but also a tacit confirmation of the other three; with none of which it disagrees in any material point. The time of its publication is placed by some rather before, and by others considerably after, the destruction of Jerusalem. If we accede to the opinion of those who contend for the year 97, this late date, exclusive of the authorities which support it, seems favoured by the contents and design of the Gospel itself. The immediate design of St. John in writing his Gospel, as we are assured by Irenaeus, Jerom, and others, was to refute the Cerinthians, Ebionites, and other heretics, whose tenets, though they branched out into a variety of subjects, all originated from erroneous opinions concerning the person of Christ, and the creation of the world. These points had been scarcely touched upon by the other evangelists; though they had faithfully recorded all the leading facts of our Saviour's life, and his admirable precepts for the regulation of our conduct. St. John, therefore, undertook, perhaps at the request of the true believers in Asia, to write what [[Clement]] of [[Alexandria]] called a <em> spiritual </em> Gospel; and, accordingly, we find in it more of doctrine, and less of historical narrative, than in any of the others. It is also to be remembered, that this book, which contains so much additional information relative to the doctrines of Christianity, and which may be considered as a standard of faith for all ages, was written by that Apostle who is known to have enjoyed, in a greater degree than the rest, the affection and confidence of the divine Author of our religion; and to whom was given a special revelation concerning the state of the Christian church in all succeeding generations. </p> <p> We have three epistles by this Apostle. Some critics have thought that all these epistles were written during St. John's exile in Patmos; the first, to the [[Ephesian]] church; the others to individuals; and that they were sent alone with the Gospel, which the Apostle is supposed also to have written in Patmos. Thus Hug observes, in his "Introduction:" If St. John sent his Gospel to the continent, an epistle to the community was requisite, commending and dedicating it to them. Other evangelists, who deposited their works in the place of their residence, personally superintended them, and delivered them personally; consequently they did not require a written document to accompany them. An epistle was therefore requisite, and, as we have abundantly proved the first of John's epistles to be inseparable from the Gospel, its contents demonstrate it to be an accompanying writing, and a dedication of the Gospel. It went consequently to Ephesus. We can particularly corroborate this by the following observation: John, in the Apocalypse, has individually distinguished each of the Christian communities, which lay the nearest within his circle and his superintendence, by criteria, taken from their faults or their virtues. The church at Ephesus he there describes by the following traits: It was thronged with men who arrogated to themselves the ministry and apostolical authority, and were impostors, ψευδεις . But in particular he feelingly reproaches it because its "first love was cooled," την αγαπην σου την πρωτην αφηκας . The circumstance of impostors and false teachers happens in more churches. But decreasing love is an exclusive criterion and failing, which the Apostle reprimands in no other community. According to his judgment, want of love was the characteristic fault of the Ephesians: but this epistle is from beginning to the end occupied with admonitions to love, with recommendations of its value, with corrections of those who are guilty of this fault, &nbsp;1 John 2:5; &nbsp;1 John 2:9-11; &nbsp;1 John 2:15; &nbsp;1 John 3:1; &nbsp;1 John 3:11-12; &nbsp;1 John 3:14-18; &nbsp;1 John 3:23; &nbsp;1 John 4:7-10; &nbsp;1 John 4:12; &nbsp;1 John 4:16-21; &nbsp;1 John 5:1-3 . [[Must]] not we therefore declare, if we compare the opinion of the Apostle respecting the Ephesians with this epistle, that, from its peculiar tenor, it is not so strikingly adapted to any community in the first instance as to this? </p> <p> The second epistle is directed to a female, who is not named, but only designated by the honourable mention, εκλεκτη κυρια , "the elect lady." The two chief positions, which are discussed in the first epistle, constitute the contents of this brief address. He again alludes to the words of our Saviour, "A new commandment," &c, as in &nbsp;1 John 2:7 , and recommends love, which is manifested by observance of the commandments. After this he warns her against false teachers, who deny that Jesus entered into the world as the Christ, or Messiah, and forbids an intercourse with them. At the end, he hopes soon to see her himself, and complains of the want of writing materials. The whole is a short syllabus of the first epistle, or it is the first in a renewed form. The words also are the same. It is still full of the former epistle: nor are they separated from each other as to time. The female appears before his mind in the circumstances and dangers of the society, in instructing and admonishing which he had just been employed. If we may judge from local circumstances, she also lived at Ephesus. But as for the author, his residence was in none of the Ionian or Asiatic cities, where the want of writing materials is not conceivable: he was still therefore in the place of his exile. The other circumstances noticed in it, are probably the following: the sons of the εκλεκτη κυρια had visited John, &nbsp;2 John 1:4 . The sister of this matron wishing to show to him an equal respect and sympathy in his fate, sent her sons likewise to visit the Apostle. While the latter were with the Apostle, there was an opportunity of sending to the continent, &nbsp;2 John 1:13 , namely, of despatching the two epistles and the Gospel. </p> <p> The third epistle is written to Caius. The author consoles himself with the hope, as in the former epistle, of soon coming himself, &nbsp;3 John 1:14 . He still experiences the same want of writing materials, &nbsp;3 John 1:13 . Consequently, he was still living in the same miserable place: also, if we may judge from his hopes, the time was not very different. The residence of [[Caius]] is determined by the following criteria: The most general of them is the danger of being misled by false teachers, &nbsp;3 John 1:3-4 . That which leads us nearer to the point, is the circumstance of John sometimes sending messages thither, and receiving accounts from thence, &nbsp;3 John 1:5-8 , that he supposes his opinions to be so well known and acknowledged in this society, that he could appeal to them, as judges respecting them, &nbsp;3 John 1:12 , and that, finally, he had many particular friends among them, 3 </p> <p> &nbsp;John 1:15 . The whole of this is applicable to a considerable place, where the Apostle had resided for a long time; and in the second epoch of his life, it is particularly applicable to Ephesus. He had lately written to the community, of which Caius was a member, εγραψα τη εκκλησια , "I wrote to the church," &nbsp;3 John 1:9 . If this is to be referred to the first epistle, (for we are not aware of any other to a community,) then certainly Ephesus is the place to which the third epistle was also directed, and was the place where Caius resided. From hence, the rest contains its own explanation. John had sent his first epistle thither; it was the accompanying writing to the Gospel, and with it he also sent the Gospel. Who was better qualified to promulgate the Gospel among the believers than Caius, especially if it was to be published at Ephesus? </p> <p> The above view is ingenious, and in its leading parts satisfactory; but the argument from the Apostle's supposed want of "writing materials," is founded upon a very forced construction of the texts. There seems, however, no reason to doubt of the close connection, in point of time, between the epistles and the Gospel; and, that being remembered, the train of thought in the mind of the Apostle sufficiently explains the peculiar character of the latter. </p>

<p> <strong> JOHN THE BAPTIST </strong> . The single narrative of John’s birth and circumcision (&nbsp; Luke 1:1-80 ) states that, as the child of promise (&nbsp; Luke 1:13 ), he was born in ‘a city of Judah’ (&nbsp; Luke 1:39 ), when his parents were old (&nbsp; Luke 1:7 ). They were both of priestly descent (&nbsp; Luke 1:5 ), and his mother was a kinswoman of the mother of Jesus (&nbsp; Luke 1:36 ). John was a [[Nazirite]] from his birth (&nbsp; Luke 1:15 ); he developed self-reliance in his lonely home, and learnt the secret of spiritual strength as he communed with God in the solitudes of the desert (&nbsp; Luke 1:80 ). In the Judæan wilderness the wild waste which lies to the west of the Dead Sea this Elijah-like prophet (&nbsp; Luke 1:17 ) ‘on rough food throve’; but, notwithstanding his ascetic affinities with the Essenes, he was not a vegetarian, his diet consisting of edible locusts (&nbsp; Leviticus 11:22 ) as well as the vegetable honey which exudes from fig-trees and palms (&nbsp; Matthew 3:4 ). For this and for other reasons as, <em> e.g. </em> , his zeal as a social reformer, John cannot be called an Essene (Graetz). It was not from these ‘Pharisees in the superlative degree’ (Schürer) that the last of the prophets learnt his message. His familiarity with the OT is proved by his frequent use of its picturesque language (&nbsp; Luke 3:17 , cf. &nbsp; Amos 9:9 , &nbsp; Isaiah 66:24; &nbsp; John 1:23 , cf. &nbsp; Isaiah 40:3; &nbsp; John 1:29 , cf. &nbsp; Isaiah 53:7 , &nbsp; Exodus 29:38; &nbsp; Exodus 12:3 ), but he heard God’s voice in nature as well as in His word: as he brooded on the signs of the times, the barren trees of the desert, fit only for burning, and the vipers fleeing before the flaming scrub, became emblems of the nation’s peril and lent colour to his warnings of impending wrath (cf. G. A. Smith, <em> HGHL </em> <em> [Note: GHL Historical [[Geography]] of Holy Land.] </em> p. 495). </p> <p> In the wilderness ‘the word of God came unto John’ (&nbsp;Luke 3:2 ). The phrase implies (&nbsp; 1 Samuel 15:10 etc.) that, after more than three centuries of silence, the voice of a prophet was to be heard in the land, and the Synoptic Gospels (&nbsp; Matthew 3:1-12 , &nbsp; Mark 1:1-8 , &nbsp; Luke 3:1-20 ) tell of the stirring effects of his preaching in ever-widening circles (&nbsp; Matthew 3:5 ), and give a summary of his message. It is probable that, in the course of his successful six months’ ministry, John moved northwards along the then more thickly populated valley of the Jordan, proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom to the crowds that flocked to hear him from ‘the whole region circumjacent to Jordan’ (&nbsp; Luke 3:3 ); once at least (&nbsp; John 10:40 ) he crossed the river (cf. Sanday, <em> [[Sacred]] Sites of the Gospel </em> , p. 35 f.; Warfield, <em> Expositor </em> , iii. [1885] i. p. 267 ff.; and see Bethany, Salim). ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (&nbsp; Matthew 3:2 ) was the Baptist’s theme, but on his lips the proclamation became a warning that neither descent from Abraham nor Pharisaic legalism would constitute a title to the blessings of the Messianic age, and that it is vain for a nation to plead privilege when its sins have made it ripe for judgment. There is a [[Pauline]] ring in the stern reminder that Abraham’s spiritual seed may spring from the stones of paganism (&nbsp; Luke 3:8 , but also &nbsp; Matthew 3:9 , cf. &nbsp; Romans 4:16; &nbsp; Romans 9:7 , &nbsp; Galatians 4:28 ). On the universality of the coming judgment is based John’s call to repentance addressed to all men without respect of persons. The axe already ‘laid to the root of the trees’ (&nbsp; Luke 3:9 ) will spare those bringing forth good fruit, and not those growing in favoured enclosures. Soldiers, publicans, and inquirers of different classes are taught how practical and how varied are the good works in which the ‘fruits’ of repentance are seen (&nbsp; Luke 3:8 ff.). </p> <p> The baptism of John was the declaration unto all men, by means of a symbolic action, that the condition of entrance into God’s Kingdom is the putting away of sin. It was a ‘repentance-baptism,’ and its purpose was ‘remission of sins’ (&nbsp;Mark 1:4 ) [Weiss regards this statement as a Christianized version of John’s baptism, but [[Bruce]] ( <em> EGT </em> <em> [Note: Expositor’s Greek Testament.] </em> <em> , in loc. </em> ) agrees with Holtzmann that forgiveness is implied ‘if men really repented’]. John’s baptism was no copying of Essene rites, and it had a deeper ethical significance than the ‘divers washings’ of the ceremonial law. It has close and suggestive affinities with the prophet’s teaching in regard to spiritual cleansing (&nbsp; Isaiah 1:16 , &nbsp; Ezekiel 36:25 , &nbsp; Zechariah 13:1 ), the truth expressed in their metaphorical language being translated by him into a striking symbolic act; but John’s baptism has most definite connexion with the baptism of proselytes, which was the rule in Israel before his days (Schürer, <em> HJP </em> <em> [Note: JP History of the Jewish People.] </em> ii. 322 f.). John sought ‘to make men “proselytes of righteousness” in a new and higher order. He came, as Jesus once said, “in the way of righteousness”; and the righteousness he wished men to possess … did not consist in mere obedience to the law of a carnal commandment, but in repentance towards God and deliberate self-consecration to His kingdom’ (Lambert, <em> The Sacraments in the NT </em> , p. 62). When Jesus was baptized of John (&nbsp; Matthew 3:13 ff., &nbsp; Mark 1:9 ff., &nbsp; Luke 3:21 f.), He did not come confessing sin as did all other men (&nbsp; Matthew 3:6 ); the act marked His consecration to His Messianic work, and His identification of Himself with sinners. It was part of His fulfilment of all righteousness (&nbsp; Matthew 3:15 ), and was followed by His anointing with the Holy Spirit. John knew that his baptism was to prepare the way for the coming of a ‘mightier’ than he, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit (&nbsp; Mark 1:8 ). But after [[Pentecost]] there were disciples who had not advanced beyond the Baptist’s point of view, and were unaware that the Holy Spirit had been poured out (&nbsp; Acts 18:25; &nbsp; Acts 19:3 f.). </p> <p> The narrative in &nbsp;John 1:15-34 assumes as well known the Synoptic account of John’s activity as evangelist and baptizer (&nbsp; John 1:25 f.). From what John heard and saw at the baptism of Jesus, and from intercourse with Jesus, he had learnt that his mission was not only to announce the Messiah’s coming, and to prepare His way by calling men to repent, but also to point Him out to men. </p> <p> Many critics regard the words, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’ (&nbsp;John 1:29 ), as inconsistent with John’s later question, ‘Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?’ (&nbsp; Matthew 11:3 ); but if John learnt from Jesus what was His ideal of the Messiah’s work, it may well be, as Garvie says, ‘that Jesus for a time at least raised John’s mind to the height of His own insight; that when the influence of Jesus was withdrawn, John relapsed to his own familiar modes of thought; and that the answer of Jesus by the two disciples … was a kindly reminder’ of an earlier conversation ( <em> Expositor </em> , vi. [1902] v. 375). </p> <p> This heightened sense of the glory of Jesus was accompanied by a deepening humility in John’s estimate of his own function as the Messiah’s forerunner. In his last testimony to Jesus (&nbsp;John 3:29 ) ‘the friend of the bridegroom’ is said to have rejoiced greatly as he heard the welcome tidings that men were coming to Jesus (v. 26). It was a high eulogy when Jesus said, ‘John hath borne witness unto the truth’ (&nbsp; John 5:33 ); but it also implied the high claim that the lowlier members of the Church, which is His bride, enjoy greater spiritual privileges than he who, in spite of his own disclaimer (&nbsp; John 1:21 ), was truly the Elijah foretold by Malachi (&nbsp; Matthew 11:14; cf. &nbsp; Malachi 4:5 ), the herald of the day of which he saw only the dawn. It was not John’s fault that in the early Church there were some who attached undue importance to his teaching and failed to recognize the unique glory of Jesus the Light to whom he bore faithful witness (&nbsp; John 1:7 f.). </p> <p> The Synoptic narrative of the imprisonment and murder of John yields incidental evidence of his greatness as a prophet. There were some who accounted for the mighty works of Jesus by saying ‘John the Baptist is risen from the dead’ (&nbsp;Mark 6:14 ). </p> <p> Josephus ( <em> Ant </em> . XVIII. v. 2) makes the preaching of John the cause of his execution, and says nothing of his reproof of Antipas for his adultery with his brother’s wife (&nbsp; Mark 6:18 ). Some historians ( <em> e.g. </em> Ranke) arbitrarily use Josephus as their main source, to the disparagement of the Gospels. But Sollertinsky ( <em> JThSt </em> <em> [Note: ThSt Journal of Theological Studies.] </em> i. 507) has shown that when the person of Antipas is concerned, ‘we are bound to consider the historian’s statements with the greatest care.’ Schürer (op. <em> cit. </em> ). who holds that the real occasion of John’s imprisonment was Herod’s fear of political trouble, nevertheless allows that there is no real inconsistency between the statement of Josephus and the further assertion of the [[Evangelists]] that John had roused the anger of Herod, and still more of Herodias, by his stern rebuke. </p> <p> The last mention of John in the Gospels (&nbsp;Matthew 21:26 , &nbsp; Mark 11:32 , &nbsp; Luke 20:6 ) shows that Herod had good cause to fear the popular temper. John’s influence must have been permanent as well as wide-spread when the chief priests were afraid of being stoned if they slighted him. After the transfiguration our Lord alluded to the sufferings of John, as He endeavoured to teach His disciples the lesson of His cross: ‘I say unto you that Elijah is come, and they have also done unto him whatsoever they listed’ (&nbsp; Mark 9:13 ). </p> <p> J. G. Tasker. </p>

<p> Son of Zacharias (of the course of Abijah, &nbsp;1 Chronicles 24:10) and Elisabeth (of the daughters of Aaron), who both "walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Elisabeth was related to the Virgin Mary; but [[Scripture]] does not state the exact relationship; the Greek in &nbsp;Luke 1:36 (sungenees ), which our Bible renders "cousin," means any "relation" or "kinswoman," whether by marriage or birth. It is noteworthy that Jesus, of the [[Melchizedek]] order of priesthood, was related to but not descended from the Aaronic priests. Zacharias was old, and Elisabeth barren, when, as he was burning incense at the golden altar, [[Gabriel]] announced the answer to his prayers (not directly for a son, but, as Israel's representative, for Messiah the Hope of Israel) in the coming birth of a son, the appointed forerunner of Messiah; John (Jehovah's gift) was to he his name, because his supernatural birth was a pledge of the Lord's grace, long looked for, now visiting again His people to their joy (Luke 1). </p> <p> John was to be "great in the sight of the Lord" (contrast Baruch, &nbsp;Jeremiah 45:5). He should be in himself a pattern of that self denial which accords best with his subject of preaching, legal repentance, "drinking no strong drink, but filled with the Holy Spirit (see the same contrast, &nbsp;Ephesians 5:18, the minister's enthusiasm ought to be not from artificial stimulant but from the Spirit's unction) from the mother's womb," a [[Nazarite]] (&nbsp;Numbers 6:1-21). Like the great prophet reformer (compare &nbsp;1 Kings 18:36-37) Elijah in "spirit. and power" of preaching, though not in miracles (&nbsp;John 10:41), he should turn the degenerate "children to the Lord and to" their righteous "fathers, and the heart of the fathers to the children," their past mutual alienation being due to the children's apostasy; fulfilling &nbsp;Malachi 4:4-6; bringing "Moses' law" to their remembrance, "lest [[Jehovah]] at His coming should smite the earth with a curse." Thus John should "make ready a people for the Lord." Zacharias for unbelief in withholding credit without a sign was punished with dumbness as the sign until the event came to pass. </p> <p> In the hill country, where Elisabeth had retired, her cousin Mary saluted her, and the babe leaped in Elisabeth's womb. His birth was six months before our Lord's. At his circumcision on the eighth day Zacharias gave his name John; and his returning faith was rewarded with returning speech, of which his first use was to pour forth a thanksgiving hymn, in which he makes it his son's chief honour that he should be "prophet of the Highest, going before the Lord's face to prepare His ways" as His harbinger. John had the special honour of being the subject off prophecy ages before, and of being associated in close juxtaposition with Messiah Himself. John "waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts until the day of his showing unto Israel" (&nbsp;Luke 1:80). Meanwhile God's interposition in the wonders of his birth caused "all the people to be in expectation, musing in their hearts whether he were the Christ" (&nbsp;Luke 3:15). The thinly-populated region adjoining the hill country of [[Judea]] was his haunt; there communion alone with God prepared him for his work. </p> <p> At 30, when "the word of God came to" him (&nbsp;Luke 3:2), he went forth, his very appearance a sign of the unworldliness and legal repentance. which he preached; his raiment a camel's hair garment secured with leather girdle (&nbsp;2 Kings 1:8) as Elijah's; his food that supplied by the desert, locusts (&nbsp;Leviticus 11:22) and wild honey (&nbsp;Psalms 81:16). All classes, Pharisees, Sadducees, the people, publicans, and soldiers, flocked to him from every quarter, Jerusalem, Judea, and the, region round Jordan (&nbsp;Matthew 3:5; Luke 3). The leading sects he denounced as a "generation of vipers" (compare &nbsp;Genesis 3:15, the serpent's "seed"), warning them that descent from Abraham would not avail with out doing Abraham's works (compare &nbsp;John 8:39), and telling all practically and discriminatingly that the repentance needed required a renunciation of their several besetting sins; and that whereas, on their confession, he baptized with water baptism, the Mightier One would come baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire (&nbsp;Matthew 3:11-12). (See [[Baptism]] .) </p> <p> When the ecclesiastical authorities sent priests and [[Levites]] from Jerusalem to ask, Who art thou? John replied, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord" (&nbsp;John 1:19-23). The natural wilderness symbolized the moral (&nbsp;Isaiah 32:15), wherein was no highway for the Lord and for righteousness. The hills of pride and the valleys of degradation must be brought to the one holy level before the Lord (Isaiah 40). John was the forerunner of the reigning Messiah (&nbsp;Matthew 3:2; &nbsp;Malachi 3:1), but through the nation's rejection of Him that reign was deferred (compare &nbsp;Numbers 14:34 with &nbsp;Matthew 23:37-39). John baptized Jesus and though knowing Him before as a man and his kinsman, yet then first knew His divine Messiahship by the Spirit's visible descent (&nbsp;John 1:30-34). (See [[Jesus]] ; BAPTISM.) John thence forth witnessed to Jesus, desiring to "decrease that He might increase." By his testimony at [[Bethany]] (so oldest manuscripts for Bethabara) beyond Jordan, "Behold the Lamb of God," he led two of his disciples to Him, Andrew and John the apostle and evangelist (&nbsp;John 1:35 ff; &nbsp;John 3:23-36; &nbsp;John 4:1-2; &nbsp;Acts 19:3). </p> <p> Yet John never formally joined Jesus; for he was one of the greatest among the Old Testament prophets, but not strictly in the New Testament kingdom, the least in which, as to spiritual privileges, was greater than he (&nbsp;Luke 7:28). His standing was the last of Old Testament prophets, preparatory to the gospel. He taught fasting and prayers, rather in the spirit and therefore with the forms of, the old dispensation which the new would supersede, its new spirit creating its appropriate new forms (&nbsp;Luke 5:33-38; &nbsp;Luke 11:1). Herod Antipas beheaded him in the fortress Machaerus E. of the Dead Sea, to gratify Herodias' spite for John's faithfulness in denouncing her adultery, and in slavish adherence to his reckless oath to give Herodias' daughter Salome, for dancing on his birthday, whatever she might ask. (See [[Herod]] ANTIPAS.) </p> <p> From the prison John had sent two (the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts read &nbsp;Matthew 11:2 "by," dia , for duo , two) disciples to Jesus to elicit from Himself a profession of His Messiahship, for their confirmation in the faith. (See [[Jesus]] .) Jesus at once confirmed them and comforted John himself (who probably had expected to see Jesus more openly vindicating righteousness, as foretold &nbsp;Malachi 3:2-5; &nbsp;Malachi 4:1-3), by an appeal to His miracles and preaching, the very credentials promised in &nbsp;Isaiah 35:5; &nbsp;Isaiah 61:1. Jesus at the same time attested John's unshaken firmness, appealing to His hearers' own knowledge of him (Matthew 11). No reed shaken by the wind, no courtier in soft raiment, was John. But whether it was the ascetical forerunner, or the social Lord Himself, that preached, that generation was dissatisfied, with John because he was too self denying, with Jesus because He would not commend their self-righteous fastings: "we have piped unto you (unto John) and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you (unto Jesus) and ye have not lamented." </p> <p> Of John as of Jesus they said, he hath a devil. John fell just before the third [[Passover]] of Christ's ministry; his disciples buried him Self denial, humility, wherewith he disclaimed Messiahship and said he was not worthy to unloose His shoes' latchet, zeal for the Lord's honour, and holy faithfulness at all costs, were his prominent graces. ''(On The "Elias Who Shall Yet Come," See Elijah'' , end.) John's ministry extended at its close into [[Peraea]] at the S.E. end of the lake of Galilee. When the herald was silenced the Master took up the message (&nbsp;Mark 1:14) in the same quarter. John's labours there so impressed Herod that, "he feared and observed him, and when he heard him did many things, and heard him gladly"; but would not do the one thing needed, give up his adulterous paramour, his brother Philip's wife. </p> <p> Elijah was translated in a chariot of fire; but John died a felon's death, for the forerunner was to be as his Lord. The worthless [[Ahab]] reappears in Herod with similar germs of good struggling with evil. Herodias answers to the cruel Jezebel. As Ahab in spite of himself respected Elijah, so Herod John; but in both cases the bad woman counteracted the good. John in prison fell into the same dejection concerning the failure of the Messianic kingdom, because it did not come in outward manifestation, as Elijah under the juniper. In both cases God came in the still small voice, not the earthquake and fire (&nbsp;Matthew 12:15-21). </p>

<p> ( Ἰωάνης , <i> ''''' Iōánēs ''''' </i> ): </p> <p> I. Sources </p> <p> II. Parentage </p> <p> III. Early Life </p> <p> IV. [[Ministry]] </p> <p> 1. The Scene </p> <p> 2. His First Appearance </p> <p> 3. His Dress and [[Manner]] </p> <p> 4. His Message </p> <p> 5. His [[Severity]] </p> <p> V. [[Baptism]] </p> <p> 1. Significance </p> <p> (1) Lustrations [[Required]] by the Levitical Law </p> <p> (2) Anticipation of Messianic Lustrations Foretold by the [[Prophets]] </p> <p> (3) [[Proselyte]] Baptism </p> <p> 2. Baptism of Jesus </p> <p> VI. Imprisonment And Death </p> <p> 1. The Time </p> <p> 2. The [[Occasion]] </p> <p> VII. John And His [[Disciples]] </p> <p> 1. The [[Inner]] [[Circle]] </p> <p> 2. Their Training </p> <p> 3. Their [[Fidelity]] </p> <p> VIII. John And Jesus </p> <p> 1. John's Relation to Jesus </p> <p> 2. Jesus' Estimate of John </p> <p> [[Literature]] </p> I. Sources. <p> The sources of first-hand information concerning the life and work of John the Baptist are limited to the New Testament and Josephus Luke and Matthew give the fuller notices, and these are in substantial agreement. The Fourth Gospel deals chiefly with the witness after the baptism. In his single notice ( <i> Ant </i> ., Xviii , v, 2), Josephus makes an interesting reference to the cause of John's imprisonment. See VI, 2, below. </p> II. Parentage. <p> John was of priestly descent. His mother, Elisabeth, was of the daughters of Aaron, while his father, Zacharias, was a priest of the course of Abija, and did service in the temple at Jerusalem. It is said of them that "they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless" (&nbsp;Luke 1:6 ). This priestly ancestry is in interesting contrast with his prophetic mission. </p> III. Early Life. <p> We infer from Luke's account that John was born about six months before the birth of Jesus. Of the place we know only that it was a city of the hill country of Judah. Our definite information concerning his youth is summed up in the angelic prophecy, "Many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (&nbsp;Luke 1:14-16 ), and in Luke's brief statement, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel" (&nbsp;Luke 1:80 ). The character and spiritual insight of the parents shown in the incidents recorded are ample evidence that his training was a fitting preparation for his great mission. </p> IV. Ministry. <p> <b> 1. The Scene: </b> </p> <p> The scene of the Baptist's ministry was partly in the wilderness of Southern Judea and partly in the Jordan valley. Two locations are mentioned, Bethany or [[Bethabara]] (&nbsp;John 1:28 ), and [[Aenon]] near Salim (&nbsp;John 3:23 ). Neither of these places can be positively identified. We may infer from &nbsp;John 3:2 that he also spent some time in Peraea beyond the Jordan. </p> <p> <b> 2. His First Appearance: </b> </p> <p> The unusual array of dates with which Luke marks the beginning of John's ministry (&nbsp;Luke 3:1 , &nbsp;Luke 3:2 ) reveals his sense of the importance of the event as at once the beginning of his prophetic work and of the new dispensation. His first public appearance is assigned to the 15th year of Tiberius, probably 26 or 27 AD, for the first Passover attended by Jesus can hardly have been later than 27 [[Ad]] (&nbsp;John 2:20 ). </p> <p> <b> 3. His Dress and Manner: </b> </p> <p> John's dress and habits were strikingly suggestive of Elijah, the old prophet of national judgment. His desert habits have led some to connect him with that strange company of Jews known as the Essenes. There is, however, little foundation for such a connection other than his ascetic habits and the fact that the chief settlement of this sect was near the home of his youth. It was natural that he should continue the manner of his youthful life in the desert, and it is not improbable that he intentionally copied his great prophetic model. It was fitting that the one who called men to repentance and the beginning of a self-denying life should show renunciation and self-denial in his own life. But there is no evidence in his teaching that he required such asceticism of those who accepted his baptism. </p> <p> <b> 4. His Message: </b> </p> <p> The fundamental note in the message of John was the announcement of the near approach of the Messianic age. But while he announced himself as the herald voice preparing the way of the Lord, and because of this the expectant multitudes crowded to hear his word, his view of the nature of the kingdom was probably quite at variance with that of his hearers. Instead of the expected day of deliverance from the foreign oppressor, it was to be a day of judgment for Israel. It meant good for the penitent, but destruction for the ungodly. "He will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with ... fire" (&nbsp;Matthew 3:12 ). "The axe also lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (&nbsp;Luke 3:9 ). Yet this idea was perhaps not entirely unfamiliar. That the delay in the Messiah's coming was due to the sinfulness of the people and their lack of repentance, was a commonplace in the message of their teachers (Edersheim, <i> Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah </i> , I, 169). </p> <p> The call to repentance was then a natural message of preparation for such a time of judgment. But to John repentance was a very real and radical thing. It meant a complete change of heart and life. "Bring forth ... fruits worthy of repentance" (&nbsp;Luke 3:8 ). What these fruits were he made clear in his answers to the inquiring multitudes and the publicans and soldiers (&nbsp;Luke 3:10-14 ). It is noticeable that there is no reference to the usual ceremonies of the law or to a change of occupation. Do good; be honest; refrain from extortion; be content with wages. </p> <p> <b> 5. His Severity: </b> </p> <p> John used such violence in addressing the Pharisees and Sadducees doubtless to startle them from their self-complacency. How hopelessly they were blinded by their sense of security as the children of Abraham, and by their confidence in the merits of the law, is attested by the fact that these parties resisted the teachings of both John and Jesus to the very end. </p> <p> With what vigor and fearlessness the Baptist pressed his demand for righteousness is shown by his stern reproof of the sin of Herod and Herodias, which led to his imprisonment and finally to his death. </p> V. Baptism. <p> <b> 1. Significance: </b> </p> <p> The symbolic rite of baptism was such an essential part of the work of John that it not only gave him his distinctive title of "the Baptist" ( ὁ βαπτστἡς , <i> ''''' ho ''''' </i> <i> ''''' baptistḗs ''''' </i> ), but also caused his message to be styled "preaching the baptism of repentance." That a special virtue was ascribed to this rite, and that it was regarded as a necessary part of the preparation for the coming of the Messiah, are shown by its important place in John's preaching, and by the eagerness with which it was sought by the multitudes. Its significance may best be understood by giving attention to its historical antecedents, for while John gave the rite new significance, it certainly appealed to ideas already familiar to the Jews. </p> (1) Lustrations Required by the Levitical Law. <p> The divers washings required by the law (&nbsp;Leviticus 11 through 15) have, without doubt, arcligious import. This is shown by the requirement of sacrifices in connection with the cleansing, especially the sin offering (&nbsp; Leviticus 14:8 , &nbsp;Leviticus 14:9 , &nbsp;Leviticus 14:19 , &nbsp;Leviticus 14:20; compare &nbsp;Mark 1:44; &nbsp;Luke 2:22 ). The designation of John's baptism by the word βαπτἱζειν , <i> '''''baptı́zein''''' </i> , which by New Testament times was used of ceremonial purification, also indicates some historical connection (compare [[Sirach]] 34:25). </p> (2) Anticipation of Messianic Lustrations Foretold by Prophets. <p> John understood that his baptism was a preparation for the Messianic baptism anticipated by the prophets, who saw that for a true cleansing the nation must wait until God should open in Israel a fountain for cleansing (&nbsp;Zechariah 13:1 ), and should sprinkle His people with clean water and give them a new heart and a new spirit (&nbsp;Ezekiel 36:25 , &nbsp;Ezekiel 36:26; &nbsp;Jeremiah 33:8 ). His baptism was at once a preparation and a promise of the spiritual cleansing which the Messiah would bestow. "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me ... shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (&nbsp;Matthew 3:11 margin). </p> (3) Proselyte Baptism. <p> According to the teaching of later Judaism, a stranger who desired to be adopted into the family of Israel was required, along with circumcision, to receive the rite of baptism as a means of cleansing from the ceremonial uncleanness attributed to him as a Gentile. While it is not possible to prove the priority of this practice of proselyte baptism to the baptism of John, there can be no doubt of the fact, for it is inconceivable, in view of Jewish prejudice, that it would be borrowed from John or after this time. </p> <p> While it seems clear that in the use of the rite of baptism John was influenced by the Jewish customs of ceremonial washings and proselyte baptism, his baptism differed very essentially from these. The Levitical washings restored an unclean person to his former condition, but baptism was a preparation for a new condition. On the other hand, proselyte baptism was administered only to Gentiles, while John required baptism of all Jews. At the same time his baptism was very different from Christian baptism, as he himself declared (&nbsp;Luke 3:16 ). His was a baptism of water only; a preparation for the baptism "in the Spirit" which was to follow. It is also to be observed that it was a rite complete in itself, and that it was offered to the nation as a preparation for a specific event, the advent of the Messiah. </p> <p> We may say, then, that as a "baptism of repentance" it meant a renunciation of the past life; as a cleansing it symbolized the forgiveness of sins (&nbsp;Mark 1:4 ), and as preparation it implied a promise of loyalty to the kingdom of the Messiah. We have no reason to believe that Jesus experienced any sense of sin or felt any need of repentance or forgiveness; but as a Divinely appointed preparation for the Messianic kingdom His submission to it was appropriate. </p> <p> <b> 2. Baptism of Jesus: </b> </p> <p> While the multitudes flocked to the Jordan, Jesus came also to be baptized with the rest. "John would have hindered him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? But Jesus answering said unto him, [[Suffer]] it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" (&nbsp;Matthew 3:13-15 ). [[Wherein]] was this act a fulfillment of righteousness? We cannot believe that Jesus felt any need of repentance or change of life. May we not regard it rather as an identification of Himself with His people in the formal consecration of His life to the work of the kingdom? </p> VI. Imprisonment and Death. <p> <b> 1. The Time: </b> </p> <p> Neither the exact time of John's imprisonment nor the period of time between his imprisonment and his death can be determined. On the occasion of the unnamed feast of &nbsp;John 5:1 , Jesus refers to John's witness as already past. At least, then, his arrest, if not his death, must have taken place prior to that incident, i.e. before the second Passover of Jesus' ministry. </p> <p> <b> 2. The Occasion: </b> </p> <p> According to the Gospel accounts, John was imprisoned because of his reproof of Herod's marriage with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (&nbsp;Luke 3:19 , &nbsp;Luke 3:20; compare &nbsp;Matthew 14:3 , &nbsp;Matthew 14:4; &nbsp;Mark 6:17 , &nbsp;Mark 6:18 ). Josephus says ( <i> Ant </i> ., Xviii , v, 2) that Herod was influenced to put John to death by the "fear lest his great influence over the people might put it in his power or inclination to raise a rebellion. Accordingly, he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, and was there put to death." This account of Josephus does not necessarily conflict with the tragic story of the Gospels. If Herod desired to punish or destroy him for the reasons assigned by the evangelists, he would doubtless wish to offer as the public reason some political charge, and the one named by Josephus would be near at hand. </p> VII. John and His Disciples. <p> <b> 1. The Inner Circle: </b> </p> <p> Frequent reference is made in the Gospel narrative to the disciples of John. As the multitudes crowded to his baptism, it was natural that he should gather about him an inner circle of men who should receive special instruction in the meaning of his work, and should aid him in the work of baptism, which must have soon increased beyond his power to perform alone. It was in the formation of this inner circle of immediate followers that he prepared a sure foundation for the work of the Messiah; for it was from this inner group that the disciples of Jesus were mainly drawn, and that with his consent and through his witness to the superior worth of the latter, and the temporary character of his own mission (&nbsp;John 1:29-44 ). </p> <p> <b> 2. Their Training: </b> </p> <p> [[Concerning]] the substance of their training, we know from the disciples of Jesus (&nbsp;Luke 11:1 ) that it included forms of prayer, and from his own disciples (&nbsp;Matthew 9:14 ) we learn that frequent fastings were observed. We may be sure also that he taught them much concerning the Messiah and His work. </p> <p> <b> 3. Their Fidelity: </b> </p> <p> There is abundant evidence of the great fidelity of these disciples to their master. This may be observed in their concern at the over-shadowing popularity of Jesus (&nbsp;John 3:26 ); in their loyalty to him in his imprisonment and in their reverent treatment of his body after his death (&nbsp;Mark 6:29 ). That John's work was extensive and his influence lasting is shown by the fact that 20 years afterward Paul found in far-off Ephesus certain disciples, including Apollos, the learned Alexandrian Jew, who knew no other baptism than that of John (&nbsp;Acts 19:1-7 ). </p> VIII. John and Jesus. <p> <b> 1. John's Relation to Jesus: </b> </p> <p> John assumed from the first the role of a herald preparing the way for the approaching Messianic age. He clearly regarded his work as Divinely appointed (&nbsp;John 1:33 ), but was well aware of his subordinate relation to the Messiah (&nbsp;Mark 1:7 ) and of the temporary character of his mission (&nbsp;John 3:30 ). The Baptist's work was twofold. In his preaching he warned the nation of the true character of the new kingdom as a reign of righteousness, and by his call to repentance and baptism he prepared at least a few hearts for a sympathetic response to the call and teaching of Jesus. He also formally announced and bore frequent personal testimony to Jesus as the Messiah. </p> <p> There is no necessary discrepancy between the synoptic account and that of the Fourth Gospel in reference to the progress of John's knowledge of the Messianic character of Jesus. According to &nbsp;Matthew 3:14 , John is represented as declining at first to baptize Jesus because he was conscious of His superiority, while in &nbsp;John 1:29-34 he is represented as claiming not to have known Jesus until He was manifested by the heavenly sign. The latter may mean only that He was not known to him definitely as the Messiah until the promised sign was given. </p> <p> The message which John sent to Jesus from prison seems strange to some in view of the signal testimonies which he had previously borne to His character. This need not indicate that he had lost faith in the Messiahship of Jesus, but rather a perplexity at the course of events. The inquiry may have been in the interest of the faith of his disciples or his own relief from misgivings due to Jesus' delay in assuming the expected Messianic authority. John evidently held the prophetic view of a temporal Messianic kingdom, and some readjustment of view was necessary. </p> <p> <b> 2. Jesus' Estimate of John: </b> </p> <p> Jesus was no less frank in His appreciation of John. If praise may be measured by the worth of the one by whose lips it is spoken, then no man ever received such praise as he who was called by Jesus a shining light (&nbsp;John 5:35 ), more than a prophet (&nbsp;Matthew 11:9 ), and of whom He said, "Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist" (&nbsp;Matthew 11:11 ). If, on the other hand, He rated him as less than the least in the kingdom of heaven, this was a limitation of circumstances, not of worth. </p> <p> Jesus paid high tribute to the Divine character and worth of John's baptism; first, by submitting to it Himself as a step in the fulfillment of all righteousness; later, by repeated utterance, especially in associating it with the birth of the Spirit as a necessary condition of inheriting eternal life (&nbsp;John 3:5 ); and, finally, in adopting baptism as a symbol of Christian discipleship. </p> Literature. <p> The relative sections in the Gospel Commentaries, in the Lives of Christ, and the articles on John the Baptist in the several Bible dictionaries. There are a number of monographs which treat more minutely of details: W.C. Duncan, <i> The Life, Character and Acts of John the Baptist </i> , New York, 1853; Erich Haupt, <i> Johannes der Taufer </i> , Gutersloh, 1874; H. Kohler, <i> Johannes der Taufer </i> , Halle, 1884; R.C. Houghton, <i> John the Baptist: His Life and Work </i> , New York, 1889; H.R. Reynolds, <i> John the Baptist </i> , London, 1890; J. Feather, <i> John the Baptist </i> , Edinburgh, 1894; [[George]] Matheson in <i> Representative Men of the New Testament </i> , 24-66, Edinburgh, 1905; T. Innitzer, <i> Johannes der Taufer </i> , Vienna, 1908; A.T. Robertson, <i> John the Loyal </i> , New York, 1911. </p>