In this verse Holtzmann finds two marks of late date. (1) The Baptist was markedly a man of his own people, whose eye never ranged beyond a Jewish horizon; yet here he is represented as from the first perceiving that the work ot Jesus was valid for all men. And (2) the allusion to the sacrificial efficacy ot Christ’s death could not have been made till after that event. Strauss stated this difficulty with his usual lucidity. ‘So foreign to the current opinion at least was this notion of the Messiah that the disciples of Jesus, during the whole
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τοῦ κόσμου.
30. οὗτός ἐστι περὶ] οὗ ἐγὼ εἶπον, Ὀπίσω µου
ἔρχεται ἀνὴρ, ὃς ἔµπροσθέν µου Ὑέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός µου ἦν.
31. κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾖδειν αὐτόν : m ΜΕ. i, 10. T00TO ἦλθον ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι βαπτίζων.” Ιωάννης λέγων, “'""Ὅτι τεθέαµαι τὸ Πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον ὡσαὶ
Mt. iii. 16. » LK. iii. σα.
1νπερ in SYBC, Origen. in late Greek prose.
period of their intercourse with Him, could not reconcile themselves to it; and when His death had actually taken place their trust in Him as the Messiah was utterly confounded.’’ Yet Strauss himself admits that “‘a penetrating mind like that of the Baptist might, even before the death of Jesus, gather from the O.T. phrases and types the notion of a suffering Messiah, and that his obscure hints on the subject might not be comprehended by his disciples and contemporaries”. The solution is pro- bably to be found in the intercourse of John with Jesus, and especially after His return from the Temptation. These men must have talked long and earnestly on the work of the Messiah; and even though after his imprisonment John seems to have had other thoughts about the Messiah, that is not inconsistent with his making this statement under the direct influence of Jesus. We must also consider that John’s own relation to the Messianic King must have greatly stimulated his thought; and his desire to respond to the cravings he stirred in the people must have led him to consider what the Messiah must be and do.
Ver. 30. οὗτος . . . πρῶτός µου ἦν. Pointing to Jesus he identifies Him with the person of whom he had previously said ὀπίσω pot, etc. Cf. νετ. 15. ‘ After me comes a man who is before me because He was before me.” The A.V. ‘which is before me” is preferable though not so literal as the R.V. “‘ which is become before me”. The words mean : ‘Subsequent to me in point of time comes a man who has gained a place in advance of me, because He was eternally prior to me”’.—éaiow pov ἔρχεται refers cather to space than to time, “‘ after me,”’ but with the notion of immediacy, close behind, following upon. As certainly, ἔμπροσθέν pov γέγονεν refers to position or dignity; He has come to be in front of me, or ahead of me. So used sometimes in classic writers ; as ἔμπροσθ.τοῦ δικαίον, preferred before justice. Dem., 1297, 26.
Cp. 2 Thess. ii. 1, and 2 Cor. i. 8. Cp. Holden’s note in Plutarch, Demosth., p. 181.
ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα φανερωθῇ τῷ σραὴλ, διὰ 32. Καὶ ἐμαρτύρησεν
This use common
--ὅτι πρῶτός µου ἦν, assigning the ground of this advanced position of Jesus: He was before me. For πρῶτός µου see chap. xv. 18, “If the world hateth you, ye know ὅτι ἐμὲ πρῶτον ὑμῶν µεμµίσηκεν, and Justin Martyr, t Apol., 12. It is difficult to escape the impression that something more is meant than πρότερος would have conveyed, some more absolute priority. As oi πρῶτοι στρατοῦ are the chief men or leaders, it might be supposed that John meant to say that Christ was his supreme, in virtue of whom he himself lived and worked. But it is more probable he meant to affirm the pre-existence of the Messiah, a thought which may have been derived from the Apocalyptic books (see Deane’s Pseud. and Drummond’s Fewish Mess.).—Ver. 31. Kayo οὐκ ἴδειν αὐτόν, z.e., 1 did not know Him to be the Messiah. Mt. iii. 14 shows that John knew Jesusas aman. This mean- ing is also determined by the clause added: GAN ἵνα . . . ἐν ὕδατι βαπτίζων. The object of the Baptist’s mission was the manifestation of the Christ. It was the Baptist’s preaching and the religious movement it initiated which summoned Jesus into public life. He alone could satisfy the cravings quickened by the Baptist. And it was at the baptism of Jesus, undergone in sympathy with the sinful people and as one with them, that the Spirit of the Messiah was fully im- parted to Him and He was recognised as the Messiah. How John himself became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah he explains to the people, wv. 32-4.—Ver. 32. τεθέαµαι τὸ πνεῦμα . . . ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν. ‘I have seen the Spirit coming down like a dove out of heaven, and it remained upon Him.” “1 have seen, perfect, in reference to the sign divinely intimated to him, in the abiding fulfilment of which he now stood.” Alford, τεθέαµαι is used (as in ver. 14) in its sense of seeing with intelligence, with mental or spiritual observation and inference (cf. Aristoph., Clouds, 363,