The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 164

doxical testimony of the Baptist, which in cried; and the cry is still hel\rd among men: John's own beitring the great forerunner h1td This wa■ he of whom I epake; implying that twiee ult,,rC'd, under very extraordinary cir- John uttered words of strange enigmntioal cumstan<-e• (see vers. 26, 30). In the ·1aror signiflmnce before he so.w Jesus coming to ,·ers<'s this tcsti~ony is put in its proper hie baptism, e.nd that, 1\8 the evangelist sub- plAoo. ICJI repetition _deepens the impre•sion sequently shows, on two memorable ocoaeione, which the narrative givee of the vivid reality, the prophet recalled them nnd reo.fllrmod and of the fe.-Ot that the evangelist was trust- their truthfulness. Before I saw him, I said ing to a strongly impressed recollection and it: He that is coming after me hath beoom, is not romanticizing, e.s the Tiibingen critics -hath been in mighty activity-before me. suppose. The sharp pantdoxil',11,l form is He came forth in many ways from the Father, thoroughly characteristic of the man who and was the central reality of the old c,illed on scribes and Pharisees to "repent," covenant; 1'.-Y""'"• he hath oome in the voice and spoke of God raising up seed to Abraham of the Lord, in the Shechin1th-glory, in the from the stones of the ground. From the Angel of the presence, chronologically "before synoptists we l<.'arn that John declared that rue." The English Version ha.s followed the the Coming One we.s " mightier " than him- traditionaryinterpretation from Chrysostom to self, would dea.l with the Holy Ghost and Liicke, De Wette, Alford, McLellan, and hos with fire o.s he was able to do with water. seen in this <µ1rpo<1'8ov µou -ye-,,ov•v a reference He knew not the kind ofme.nifestation which to the higher rank or dignity of the Logos 'l\'aB coming on apace. But an enormous incarnate, and translated the second clause change p11,SS0d over John the Baptist when " is preferred before me," or " hath been he came into contact with our Lord, and at made before me," etc. But such a sta.tement his baptism he sank abashed before the would not have conveyed any thought of revelations which flwihed on his soul. The grea.t importance. A herald is naturally ex- cnigmatical form of the Baptist's utterances ceeded and superseded by the dignity and wns the beginning of the evangelist's faith rank of him for whom he prepares the way. in the personal pre-existence of the Logos Moreover, the two adverbs of place are used who he.d become flesh in Christ. The testi- in metaphorical sense as adverbs of time mony of the Baptist is here brought in, as ( derived from the relative position of indi- the last great word of the prophetic ministry viduals in a line or procession), and it ie of the Old Testament, apart from the historic scarcely probable that the second should be setting in which it afterwards occurs, as if, used in another sense altogether, which would moreover, it was an abiding word which was have disturbed the antithesis between them. yet sounding in the ears of men. The On the other hand, Heugstenberg, Meyer, greatest of the sons of woman, and " more Lange, Godet, etc., recognize the perception than a prophet," he who gathered up in bis of the Baptist, and his utterance of belief in immense persone.lity all the functions of the pre-existence of the Christ, and that prophet, priest, Nazarite, and master and from such passages o.s Isa. vi. 1 a.nd Mal. iii. 1 teacher of men, the Elijah of the new • he knew that he who was coming into the revelation-John, the very idea.I. of Divine world, and about to baptize with the Holy and supernatural voice in this world of ours, Ghost and with fire, to to.ke the fan in hie John, the veritable hiatoric man, moreover, hand, etc., had been in reality before him. to whose disastrous martyrdom some of the The difficulty of this interpretation is so.id to Jews (Josephus, 'Ant.,' xviii. v. 2) referred be that the proof which follows-beoause, or the terrible judgments that befell their for (1rpwr&s µ.ov fiv), he was before me- nation-1ohn bee.reth witnes1. 1 That was his would be tautologous in the extreme ; the function, and his testimony still stands, his reason given for the Lord having become " voice " is still heard "° herever his great before him being simply the asseveration of career is known or properly appreciated-in the fact. But the two very remarkable ex- Palestine, in Alexandria, in Ephesus or pressions, lµ1rpouBlv µ.ov -,,-,,ovw and ,rpwr&r Corinth. And he orieth (,co,cp..-,•,,); or, hath µov 1jv, a.re not identical. The first may easily refer to the historic precedence of the activity 1 II( here reads 1<<1<po.-y,,, or,.,us ~" I, lnriur,, of the Coming One in e.11 the operations of ,.,,,,., lpXOp,EIIOS OS lµ:rrpotTBev ,.,,,,,, -yo-yo11,11, Omit- the Logod; the second may refer to the abso- Wig 611 Elrov, and introducing os before lute and etemal precedence of the Logos in ,µ,rpouBlv. This is rejected by Westcott and itself. If so, the whole significance of the Hort and Tischendorf (8th edit.). 'fhe text previous fourteen verses is gathered up, and of Westcott and Hort is 1<e1<po.-y•11 Al-yr,,11-ohos shown to have been flashed upon the con- ~,, I, ,i,,,.,J,v--o lnrlur,, Jl,OIJ EpXOp,EJIOS tµ1rp00"8<11, sciousness of John the Baptist, a.nd uttered etc. •o ,f.,,,,,,, is found in one correction of II(, with such intensity tho.t the evangelist B, C. Weetcott does not adopt it in his com- caught the idea., and saw in it the key to mentary; '.I.'ischendorf (8th edit.) speaks of it the whole mystery. It would seem, how- u "inep~;" R.T. pl8,(ll!II it iD t.he iiiargin. ever, that the 3n ,rp/h6s 1"'11 did not for!D Cllt, I, 1-51,) '!'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 21