The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 174

mrn mts81on tMS In ,'11trod1uie UJ 187'ael th~ noon lie might jnstly Sl\j, "I knew it not" lJapfize,· ,ri/11 thr Holy 0-host. (comp1tre the ln.ngnn.go of Paul, Phil. iii. 10, \'er. :n.-And I for my part knew him nnd of this seme c,·nngelist, Rev. i. 17. See not. This ie thong-ht by eome to be incom- Archdeacon Fumr's ' Life of Christ,' vol. I. patible with the ~tntumcnt of Mntt. iii. 14, 117; my 'John the Baptist,' p. 315). But where the Baptist displayed sufficient know- that he should be manifested to Israel, for ledge of Jeeus to have exclaimed, "I have this 0&1188 I oe.me baptizin • in (with) water. need to be bapti.zed of thee." Early com- It wos traditi01mlly expected thl\t Elijah mentators, e.g. Ammon ins, quoted in • Catena should anoint Messiah. John perceives now Pntrum.' euggestC'd that John's long resi- 1.he transitional 1111ture of his own mission. dence iu the wildernC'-ss had prevente,l his His baptism retires into the background. knowing his kinsman; Chrysostom, • Hom. He sees that its whole meaning was the x,·i. in Jonnncm,' urged that he was not introduction of Messiah, the manifestation familiar with l,is person; Epiphanius, • Adv. of the Son of God to Israel. It may be said limr ..' xxx., and Justin l\fortyr, 'Dial.,' o. 88, that the ministry of the wilderness, with the refor to a long passage in the • Gospel of vast impression it produced, is represented the Ebionites,' which, nohithsta.nding nu- by the synoptists as of more essential im- merous perversions, yet suggests a method portance in itself. John's own judgment, of conciliation of the two narratives, that however, here recorded, is the true key to the sign of the opening heavens and the the whole representation. 'fhe synoptio l'Oice OC<'.asioned the consternation of John, narrative shows very clearly that, as a. matter und explains his deprecation of the act of fa.et, the Johannine ministry culminated which he had already performed (see my at the baptism of Jesus, and lost itself in the • John the Baptist,' pp. 313,314; Nicholson, dawn of the grent day which it inaugu1'8.ted • Gospel according to the Hebrews,' pp. 38- and heralded. The Fourth Gospel does but 40). Keander has suggested the true expla- give the rationale of such an arrangement, nation: "In contradistinction to that which and refer the origin of the idea to John John now saw in the Divine light, e.11 himself. If John did not intensify the sense his previous knowledge appeared to be a of sin which Messiah was to soothe and non-knowledge." John knew of Jesus, as takeaway; if John did not, by baptism with his kinsman ; he knew him as One mightier water, excite a desire for an infinitely nobler thnn himself-One whose coming. as rom- a.nd more precious baptism; if John did not pareu with his own, waa as the coming of the prepare a. way for Oneofvastly more moment Lord. "When Jesus approached him for bap- to mankind and to the kingdom of God than tisni, John therefore knew quite enough to himself,-his whole work was a failure. In make him hesitate to baptize the Christ. that John saw his own relation to the Christ He knew more tha.n enough to induce him -he saw his own place in the dispensations to say, "l have need to be ba.ptized of thee." of Providence. Godet imagines that, since baptism wa.s pre- Vere. 32, 33.-And John bore testimony, oeded by confeBSion, John found that the saying, I have seen (perfect) the Spirit confession made by Jesus was of such a descending like a dove out of heaven, and lofty, saintly, God-like type of repudiation of it (he) abode upon him. And I knew him sin, as that John himself had never attained not, but he that sent me to baptize with (in) to. This representation fails from attribut- water, he said to me, Upon whomsoever thou ing to John the function of a. sacerdotal mayest see the Holy Spirit descending, and COl.ifessor of later days, and is out of har- abiding on him, this (one) is he that bap- mony altogether with the meaning and tizeth with (in) the Holy Spirit, The pre- potency of our Lord's confession of the sin paration by special teaching for a mysterious of the whole of that human nature which he vision is the key to the vision itself, which had taken upon himself. The knowledge John is here said to have described. There which John had of Jesus was as nothing to ca.n be no reasonable doubt that the evange- the blaze of light -which burst upon him list makes reference to the synoptic tradi- when he ree.l..ized the idea that Jesus was tion of the baptism of Jesus byJ ohn, although the Son of God. The " I knew him not " of it may suitsome uncompromising opponents this verse was a subsequent reflection of the of the Fourth Gospel to say that the baptism Baptist when the ~ul,lime humility, the is here omitted. The act of the rite is not dovelike sweetness, and the spiritual might totidem t1erbiB described; but the chief accom- of Jesus were revealed to him. A blind paniment and real meaning of the baptism man who had received his sight during the is specially portrayed, All the well-known hoors of darkness might imagine, when he cycles of criticism make their special assault saw the reflected glory of the moon or morn- on the narratives at this point, Rationalism ing sl&r in the eye of dawn, that he knew finds in a thunderstorm and the casual flight the Il.flture 1.nd had felt the glory of light; of a pigeon what John magnified into a but amidst the splendour of sunrise or of supernatural portent; Btraussianism sees tho CB, J.1-51.) 'l'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 33