The pro])het who made this announcement boro the name of John. The .'<cene of his preaching was the wilderness of Juda;a, near thi^ lower course of the Jordan where it fell into the Dead Sea. In this wilderiuss he had lived in soliiude for some time before he began his prophetic mission. His whole appearance was sternly ascetic. He seems to have .adopted deliberately a garb and a manner of life resembiing tho.se of Klijah, probably not .so much in anliciiiatinn of the verdict which was to he afterwards pa.sscd upon him (.Mt 11") as because he look Elijah for his model.
His character and his mission alike were severely simple. His soul w.ts posses.sed with a strong conviction, wrought in him in precisely the same manner in which such convictions were wrought in the prophets of the OT. that a great crisis \va.s near at hand. What lay beyond was dim, and, so far as the inophet had a definite jjicture before him, it was probably not very difterent from that which presented itself to his countrymen. But he saw clearly that the crisis would take the form of a judgment, and that there would be a judge, a personal judge, with a mission vastly greater than his own. At the same time, it is al.so borne in upon him that the preparation reiiuired by this coming judgment is a moral reformatiim. This he sees intensely ; and again he goes back behind the teaching of his day to that of the ancient prophets. That which is re<iuired is not merely a stricter performance of the law, but a deep inward change — a change spontaneously expressing itself in right action.
Once more, and indeed very con.spicuously, he made good his resemblance to the older prophets by clothing this leading idea of his in an expressive symbolical act. The rumour of him brought the people to him in crowds: and one by one, as they confessed to him their sins and convinced him of the reality of their rejientance, he took them down into the running waters of the .lordan ; he made them plunge in or let the waters close over their he.ads, and then he led them out again with the ccm- sciousness that they had left their sinful past behind them, and that they were pledged to a new life.
The process w.as called ' Baptism ' ; and John, from the fact that it constituted the main outward expression of his mission, was called 'the Baptist.' The .act bore .a certain resemblance to those cere- monial washings with which the .lews were famili.ar enough, and which held .a specially prominent place in the ritu.al of the Kssenes. But it differed from all these in that it was an act performed once for all, and ikjI repeated from day to d.ay. The lesson of it was that <if Jn KJ'": he who was once bathed in this thorough and searching fashion did not need to have the act repeated ; the effect was to last for life.
The movement took hold especially of the lower and what were thought to be the more abandoned classes. .lohn was kept fully employed in the work of confessing and baptizing, but he did not allow it to be forgotten that all this pointed forward to another mission greater than his own. The presentiment grew upon him that part of his task as prophet was to name this mightier suc- cessor. And again, after the manner of the older prophets, he knew that it would be made manifest to him whom he w.as to name.
Presently the sign was given. Among those who came to be baptized was one who passed for a relative of his own, with whom possibly, though perhaps not probably, he may have had soma intercourse in boyhood (cf. Jn 1"). As witb
JESUS CHRIST
JESUS CHRIST
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others wlio before their baptism were called upon to confess, so also with this kinsman, John had some converse, and, if we may accept what is found only in a single nanative,* at first refused to baptize him. His scruples are set a.'iide, but it is not until the actual baptism that the full truth bursts upon him. Still, the analogy of the older prophecy is maintained. A sign is given such as that which Isaiah offered to Ahaz (Is 7"). From the Fourth (io.spel we should gather that it was seen in prophetic vision by the Baptist (Jn l^'^-"*); from the Synoptics we should gather that it was seen in like vision by the baptized (Mk 1'", Mt 3''' ' he saw '). And to prophetic sight was joined also the prophetic hearing of a voice from heaven, pro- claiming in words tlutt recalled at once I's 2' and Is 42' ' Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.'
(a) T/ie BaplitVii //etilnlion.— The Incident of Mt S'«- is open to some Buspicion of oeinjr a product {such as might well prow up hy insensible decrees in the passing of the narrative from hand to hand) of the conviction which later liecame general among Christians, that their Master was without sin, and of the dirticully which thence arose of associating Hint with a baptism *of repentjmce.' We cannot exclude this possibility. But, on the other hand, the dillicully is for us. too, a real one, and the solution given, while it has "nothing under the circuni- ntances inconsistent or iini)robable. is attractive by Its very reserve, 'To fultll all righteousness * = to leave undone nothing wiiieh (!4)d hail shown to be His will. In a general movement whicl] embraced all the more earnest-niinde<I In the nation, it was right that He too should share. It would not follow tlnlt the svnibolical act of Baptism should have precisely the -same signlllcance for every one who submitted to It. For the main bociy it denoted a break with a sinful past and a new start upon a reformed life. For the .Messiah it denoted a break simply, the entrance upon a new phase in the accomplishment of Ills mission. It took tlu- place witii Ilini of the 'anointing,' which marked the assumption of the active work to which they weri' called by the kings and prophets of old. This 'anointing' was the 'descent of the Spirit.' The Baptism of the Messiah w-as Baptism * with the Spirit,' wherewith He was to bapti/e. The slgiillicance of Baptism In His case was positive I'ather than negative,