iv. John's Relation to Chkist. — From the narrative of St. Luke (chs. 1 and 2), and from Mt 3", we should infer that John knew our Lord, and realized the nature of His Person ; but the words of Jn 1"-^ 'I knew him not,' imply that at any rate till the sign was given at our Lord's baptism John did not recognize Him as the Messiah ; and this view is taken by Strauss, Godet, and Weiss. It is quite probable that the Synoptic narrative gives .John's teaching before the baptism, and that the Fourth Gospel gives the special fiaprvpia which it was John's function, in the Divine Providence (Jn 1'), to bear, so soon as he realized by the sign at the baptism what our Lord's real personality was. This does not require that our Lord's divinity did not begin till His baptism and the descent of the Holy Cihost there, as held by various Gnostic and Humanitarian sects.* To the time of John's baptism of our Lord is to be assigned that ' anointing ' vnth the Holy Spirit (Ac 4" 10**) which was His consecration to His ministry. We assume here that the Synoptic narrative does refer to the time before our Lord's baptism, and the Fourth Gospel to the period which follows. In the former his references to our Lord's person are only relative to himself : He is 4 laxvplrrepot — He is the master, while John is the servant who boars (Mt! c looses (Mk, Lk) the master's sandals. The nn- willingness to baptize our Lord (Mt 3") does, how- ever, require that John hml some definite grasp of who it was that came to him. John speaks of the tcork of Him for whom he was preparing as consisting in a baptism ' with the Holy Ghost and with lire.' The baptism with lire must refer
" Cf. Conylwire, Key <tf Truth, pp. ill, xlll, (or the trachinr o( Orcfcory th'e lUumiaator. eatx 'John itave priesthixxl. and miction, and prophecy, and kmgvhlp to our Saviour Christ, and Christ gave It to 111* apoatlta, and the apostle* to the clergy o/ the Chiirrh.*
6S0
JOIIX MARK
JOHN, APOSTLE
either to the fire of judgment (as Keiiii, Xeander, Meyer, etc.), or to the Holy Spirit (as GoUet), and its ellect is eitlier that of devouring (Dt 4-') or purifyinK (Zee 13», Mai 3» etc.). In the Fourth liospi'l, thnii<;h we probably must not understand til'' twife repeated (Ju 1'^- ""} "who \va« before me' as a statement of belief in the pre-existence of Christ, yet the language in which John the Baptist speaks of Christ as ' the Son of God ' (1") and the ' Lamb of God ' implies a much higher and more definite conception of the person of Christ than any words used by John the Baptist in the Sjnoptic Gospels, and is best explained by the vision referred to in these Gospels, which would account for the clearer trrasp. \Ve cannot be sure that the Baptist understood coni])letely the term ' Lamb of God ' which he apjilied to our Lord, but he must have had in his mind some thought of Is 53. In the other pa-s.sage in which he speaks of Christ as the Bridegroom, he is using lan- guage hj which the relation of Jehovah to His peojile IS frequently described in the Of (Is 64° Gl'°, Hos 2"). It is an interesting jioint of coincidence between the Synoptic narrative and that of St. John that our Lord uses this same expression of Himself when disciples of John were present, Mt O"'-.
To complete our notice of John's relation to Christ, it IS necessary just to refer to the message which he sent to our Lord from the pri.son (Mt 11): we can hardly believe, after the terms applied by him to Christ in St. John, that his own faitii wavered, and must suppose that he wished some confirmation of Christ s Messiahship to be given for the sake of his disciples.
Before we leave this heading of the subject, it is worth while to notice how many of our Lord's expressions resemble those found in John the Baptist's mouth. Besides the reference to the Bridegroom just mentioned, we find a connexion in the command to repent with which our Lord begins His miiiistrv, in the language alunu the tree and its fruits (.Mt 7" 12'''), in the expression ■yti'vijij.aTa iX'^i'Uf (Mt 3'), used twice by our Lord iMt 12 -^ 23"), and nowhere else except by John the Baptist. We must also briefly notice here the testimony borne by our Lord to John, as the greatest born of women, as closing' the older dispensation of the law and the proiiliets, and yet as less than the least in the kingdom of heaven, because he pre- ceded its advent (Mt 11").
It hardly falls within the scope of this Dictionary to follow the many references connected with the name of John the Baptist in art, in liturgical use, in the dedication of churches, etc. etc. — for these reference may be made to the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, articles 'John the Baptist' and ' Baptisteries,' to the index of Nilles' Kalen- darium Utriusque Ecrlesia:, to Paciandi, Antiqui- tales ChristianiE, vol. iii. ('De cultu J. Baptists;') Romae, 1755, and to various books on sacred art, etc., such as those of Kraus, Detzel, and Wessely, or Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art.