The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 169

vision (Ezek. iu:xvii. 24; cf. Jer. xxx. 9; quoted from lea. xl. 3 two sentencee; the Hos. iii. 5), to rule over them. In the phy• synopti.ts cite the whole pBssrL~e, as .finding sico.1, superstitious sense, John the son of abundant realizn.tion in the mission of John. Zaohnrio.s was not the reincarno.tion of the 'fho prophet felt that the work he had to Prophet Elijo.h, o.nd so he boldly answered perform entirely concealerl the importance the inquiry, Art thou Elijah 1 1 with e. cate- of his own personrLlity. He lost himself in gorical nego.tive: I e.m not. They press their his office and in his message. Isaiah, when question once more. Art thou the Prophet 1 foreseeing the revival of the nation, then It is doubtful whether they here take up wandering in a spiritual "wilderness," along another populo.r expectn.tion of the physical rugged ridges, savage precipices, stony return of one of the old prophets, or whether, gorges, of a symbolic desert, anticipated the with on exegesis o.fterwards modified by the rP-tum of the Jehovah to his own sanctllBry, apostles, they point to Deut. xviii. 15, and and declared that ample prophetic prepam,. reveal the fact that they had not identified tion was needed. eo tho.t the people, by the prediction of "the prophet like unt.o repentance and reformation, might under- Moses" with their Messiah. If they had stand that Israel had received double for identified these representations, they would all her sins. "Ha:rk ! " says he, "a. crier, not, of course, have pressed him with an or a voice." The herald has gon& forth to identical question. It is highly probable break the silence that lay between the ls.ad that that prophecy had, with the predictions of captivity and the land of promise. "In of Male.chi and Isaiah, Jed to numerous ex- the wilderness prepare ye the way of the pectations more or le~s identified with the Lord." Israel was to see that there was Messianic cycle of coming events. In eh. neither self-righteousness nor moral rebel- vi. 14: vii. 40; Matt. xvi. 14, we see the lion to impede the approach of One who prevalence of the expectation-of e. longing was mighty to save. A portion of this for on old prophet. They yearned for no very oracle is quoted by Malachi when he upstart, but for one of the mighty brother- exclaims, "Behold, I send my messenger hood of departed men, in veritable flesh and before my face, who shall prepare the way blood. Now John and now Jesus was before me." This "messenger before the crudely suspected by some to be snob a resus- face of the Lord" is no other than he who citation. The Baptist, like the Samaritan should come in the spirit and power of woman, and subsequently St. Peter when Elijah. John, therefore, gathered up the full of the Holy Ghost, had shn.rply identi- significance of both prophecies, when he fied " the Prophet like unto Moses " with spoke of himself as " a voice crying in the the Messiah himself: and therefore, on wilderness [actual and symbolical]. Make either hypothesis, he gives o. clll't reply to straight the way of the Lord." The Hebrew this inquiry, and he answered, No. text, as we have translated it above, asso- Vers. 22, 23.-(2) He defines his position, ciates the words, '' in the wilderness," with positively. "me.ke straight." rather than with "the Ver. 22.-They said therefore (note the voice crying." The quotation by the evan- demonstrative force of oi'iv) to him (e.s a con• gelist from the LXX. will suffer either e.r- seq nence ot' his repeated threefold negative), ran2:ement of the words. Who art thou 1 Explain yourself, that we V'er. 24.-And they I had been sent from may give an answer to those who sent ua the Pharisees, which amounts to the so.me ( see note, eh. xx. 21, on the two verbs ci1ro- thing as "they which were sent were of the u-r/Mr,i and ,r/µ,rr,i): What sayest thou con- Pharisees," and it is after the manner of oerning thyself 1 Our suppositions about John to introduce e:!:plnnatory, retrospective thee are all repudio.ted one by one, hast comment, which may throw light on what thou any information to render to the follows (vera. 41, 45: eh. iv. 30; xi. 5). The supreme court of judicature? 1 The article o1 is omitted before ciw«rr<tA- Ver. 23.-He said, I am a voioG orying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of µ,vo, by Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. This Westcott and Hort, and R.T., on the authority great utterance had been by the synoptists of~•. A•, B, 0, L, and an early quot.ation distinctly applied to the Baptist (l\Iatt. iii. froru Origen, who guthers from it the idea of a 3: Mo.rk i. 3: Luke iii. 4) ; here we have second deputation of the Pharisees. With- the origin of such o.pplico.tion. The Baptist out the article, it might be translated, "and the Pho.risees were sent." Meyer thinks 1 T.R. and Laohmann insert lu after this renders the omission very suspicions. 'H-'i,is .r; but Tischendorf (8th edit.) und Westcott, however, translates it with a sup- the Ell.le Revisers omit it The slight but plementary sense, "they had been sent numerous vo.riutions in text and Latin ver• from," eto. The article has great manu- sione seem to he.ve rendered the insertion script cmthority, and is preferred by Meyer, dubiollS. Gotlet, eto.  THE GOSPEL ACOORDING TO ST. JORN [llll, I, 1-61,