Thus the LXX. have it, who have inserted /j,6vo$ also in Gen. iii. 11, 17, without doing violence to the meaning.
11. " Kyyikot) angels) Who had probably witnessed the contest. Cf. 1 Cor. iv. 9 ; 1 Tim. iii. 16. — diqxovow, ministered) Un doubtedly, by doing that which was then necessary, sc. bringing Him food. — Cf. 1 Kings xix. 5, 6.
12. 'Axovffag de or/, x.r.X., but having heard that, etc.) The name of Jesus is expressed in ver. 17. It is not expressed in ver. 12, 1 because this passage, verses 12—16, when taken in connection with what precedes it, intimates in what manner John made room for the Lord. But in ver. 17, etc., is described the actual commencement of the Lord's preaching, in which is included the vocation of the two pairs of brothers. Wherefore, in ver. 18, o 'iqffoiJg, Jesus, is again understood, but not expressed. — <jra,psd66ri) was delivered up) sc. to confinement in prison (in custodiam). — See ch. xi. 2. As John decreased, Jesus increased.2 — a
1 So BC*DZ Memph. Vulg. (MS. Amiat.) Orig. 3, 502c, 4, 161c. Rec. Text with fewer very ancient authorities, viz., Pate. Hil. 620, reads o" IYI<JW$. — ED. E. V. renders it, " Now when Jesus had heard." — (I. B.)
2 Most fittingly the imprisonment of John is mentioned as it were in pass ing, and the death of the same, in chap. xiv. 3, not as (when) the fact occurred, but as (when) it reached the ears of Jesus. And yet a long inter val cannot have elapsed between the beginning of John's imprisonment and the report of it reaching Christ. In John iii. 24, the Baptist was not yet imprisoned, but yet he was on the point of ' decreasing,' ver. 29, 30. And not even at chap. iv. 1 is mention made of his imprisonment ; and at chap. v. 35 he is no doubt said " to HAVE BEEN ('was') a burning and shining lamp," but it does not follow from this, that he, at that time, when Christ asserted this of him, was already confined in prison (for not even in that state did he altogether cease to be a burning and shining lamp). In fact, John is men tioned in the past tense (John v. 35), in respect to the fact that the Jews had already become sated and weary of the joy which they had derived from John, and The True Light, Jesus Christ, by His infinite splendour, had all but eclipsed John, who was, at it were, but a wax-light lamp. Besides, we must take into account, that the Saviour foreknew the imprisonment and subsequent death impending over John. Therefore the latter must have been cast into prison almost six months after the commencement of his public ministry, about Pentecost, and about a full year elapsed from that time till his death. They who maintain that more than three Passovers intervened between our Saviour's baptism and His death, must of necessity assign two years to John's imprisonment, which is less suitable to the general requirements of the case. For John ought rather to have passed