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 mea.sured 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 ' ( Jn 5''), as one who was ' much more than a prophet ' (Mt 1 1^ RV, Lk 7=*), as the Elijah who by his coming was to 'restore all things' (Mt ll'* IV^-, Mk O""-) ; and of whom He .said : ' Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist' (Mtll"; see the whole passage, and cf. Lk 7^'°'-). Tliat John had his limitations Jesus made clear (Mk 2'8''-), 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 dispensation al necessity outside of the realized Kingdom of God (Mt ll"^ Lk 7=*"').
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 (Mt 3">). He showed it when He asked the question, ' The baptism of John, whence was it ? from heaven, or of men ? ' (Mt 2P^ II), a question to which His own answer was self-evident, and which St. Luke answers for us when he savs that ' all the people when they heard, and the publicans, iustified 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 ' Lk 7-'"-). And may we not say that in His words to a certain Pharisee (Jn 3') about the necessity of a birth ' of water and the Spirit' (v.°), He was indicating once more the deep religious value of John's water-baptism, while in- sisting at the same time on the indispensableness of that spiritual birth which conies only from above (v.")? Time after time, too, even to the closin" days of His ministry, words which Jesus let fall reveal to us that He carried about with Him con- tinually the thought of His [predecessor's career, and perceived tlie bearing of its lessons upon His own ministry and earthly lot and fate (see Mt Q""-
JOHN THE APOSTLE
JOHN THE APOSTLE
jjiiff. is;. i7'j(r. 21*-, Lk 16'"). And, finally, after His resurrection, we lind tliat as He had justified John at the first by taking up his baptism of preparation, so now He < lowns the work of the Foreranner W instituting tlie biijiti^ni of the Kingdom itself (Mt 28'^). John hn.l :i.ln|,ii-,l tin' rite as the distinctive symbol of hi- n loi imii- .utivity and the gateway into the si)hen' m1 .Mr>>i,iiiiL- preparation. Jesus transformed it into ;t, ciurament of the Christian Church— at once the token of the gospel of for- giveness and the sign and seal of discipleship to Himself. Literature. — Relative s<
John the Baptist; Hustiiiijs' niS, artt. 'John the Baptis ' Baptism,' and vol ii, I'tof : PI! F'-'. :ir'. ■ .l.ilrinnp« fhr Tiiiifer';
Haivpt, Johannrs :: r /.,((,,■ I ;. tn. iii in i.. /' /-'"V ''hristi
durch Johaniify. - : / // ' ■ ■ ■■. xiii.
[1902] 483t., w, " ' ! :' . ' , 1 in, '.IStf.,
iM'ff.,vii. [iibWiiL';!!. .'v,,i,^.^,,'.,,,,'.i.i,.;,,,,,.,,,r, ij..^uniciitL
the First Chapter of St. Luke's (rospel; tlie earlier sections of Althaus, Die Heilsbedeutung der Tau/e.
J. C. Lambert.
JOHN (THE APOSTLE),-As the Gospels are but memorabilia of Jesus, giving relatively but meagre accounts of His life and works, it is to be expected that they can afford us only glimpses of the Apostles. Such is the case ; and, while a few more references are made to Peter, James, and John than to the others, we have no such material as allows any more than a fragmentary account of any one. Tradition has, in the case of each Apostle, added to the Scripture narrative a story of sub- sequent activity and fate. For convenience of reference, therefore, to all that is known of John we may group the materials under the following heads : (1) those found in the Scriptures ; (2) those given us by tradition. To the account thus obtained we shall add a brief delineation of his character.
i. The Testimony ok ScKirrriM:.— Preliminarj to giving the facts in tlnii rlnniHilnuical order, it is well to call attentiuii l.. tin' .ilniost universal identification of theunnumiMl .lisciiile of theFourth Gospel with John.*
John is first introduced to us as a disciple of John the Baptist (Jn 1^). How long he had been with this stern preacher of the desert we do not know, but the time was one of preparation for tlie higher discipleship soon to follow. After the Temptation Jesus returned to the Jordan. Then and there John first met Jesus, and, with Andrew, showed such deep interest in Him that He invited them to go with Him to His abode. So critical was the hour when they went — four o'clock in the afternoon — that it was remembered long years after (l^-*"). John's home was in Galilee (pro- bably at Bethsaida), where his father, Zebedee, a man apparently of means (Mk 1-°), was busy as a fisherman on the Lake. His niotlier w.'us Salome (cf. Mt 27=« with Mk 15^"). On the next day after Ids first meeting with Jesus, John accompanied Him to Galilefe, and was present at the marriage feast at Cana (Jn 2'""). From Cana they went to Capernaum, in order, perhaps, to make" ready for going up to Jerusalem to the Passover. At this first Passover Jesus cleansed the Temple, and also ' did signs ' which awakened popular interest. Here also He conversed with Nicodemus (2"-3-'). The capital had not shown itself ready for the work He w^ished to do, so Jesus withdrew into the country of Judiea and summoned the people to the baptism of repentance, just as the Baptist himself was doing.