The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 297

mnr,el) is akin to many of the mysteries of dinary wave of popular excitement, yet of his life. "Why, it is sometimes e.sked, did nothing answering to the Daptiat's imagi• he not proole,im hie sublimest thoughts in nntion of what ought to ho.ve taken plaoe. J ohn'e ideo.s correaponded more closely than the scl10ols or temple courts? Why did he the teaching of Jesus did with the tenets confine them to_NioodemUB and the So.mari• and methods of the Pharisees. We find that tanese? There is no reason to compel us t.o the disciples of John are coupled with any such oonolusion. The simple fa.et before Pharisees in the matter of fasting (Matt. us is full justification of the belief that ix. H and parallel po.sSRges), yet that John's preaching o.nd baptism were distaste- on many another oooe.sion as well as on this, ful to the Pharisees. A fo,·tiori the baptism he uttered like things. of Jesus would be still more offensive, for it was doublless accompanied by more search- Vers. 1-6.-(1) The co11trast betioeen ing demands. It had invaded the temple ,Te1oish unsll,sceptibility and Samaritan pre- precincts, it had advauced more conspicuous d ispositiOfl w faith. personal claims. John so.id, "I am come to Vers. I, 2.-When therefore the Lord 1 prepare the way of the Lord;" Jesus said, -a few occa.sions are found in the Gospels " I am come down from he1Lven." (Although .,,-here this appcllo.tirn, without any proper (and yet) Jesus himself (in person) baptized name, is used for Jesus ( eh. ,i. 23 ; :ri. 2 ; not, bnt his disoiples performed the aot.) Luke x. I ;xvii.5 ; n:ii. 61 and on these ), This parenthetical cl!Luee, explo.natory of the occasions some special suggestion is made statement of eh. iii. 22, as well as of the pre- of the Dirine rank and personality of vious verse, is justified on the simple ground Jesus-knew that the Pharisees heard ; i.e. that Jesus baptized with the Spirit, and 'll"ere taking notice, after their wont, with not with wo.ter. For him to baptize into his Fccret machination and wi1h open lie stility, own name would have been to darken the of the course which he was pursuing. The mystery; for him to baptize into One who treatment which John the Baptist received should come would in a way have hidden at their hands was pointedly referred to by the fact thl\t he had come. The adminis- our Lord on two occasions (Matt. xvii. 12, tration of the rite by the few disciples who 13; n:i. 23-32). They did not believe in were with him would preaerve all the sym- John's baptism. The publicans and lw.rlots bolism of the new observance. We have harl repented and pressed into the kingdom no repetition of this statement, nor the before them. This "generation" did what- faintest hint that the apostles continued ever it listed to the Elias. Therefore we this Johannine ceremonial. Moulton and judge that Herod's persecution, stimulated some others lay emphasis· on the present by his guilty passions, WIIB a&isted by "the tenses, "makes and baptizes," and there- otispring of ,ipers." They had probably from argue that the miuietry of John hnd broken up the baptism.al enthusiasm of the not yet been brought to a termination, that multitudes, and aided Herod to shut up John was not yet cast into prison, and that John in the castle of Machmrns, e.nd hence the journey into Galilee does not correspond their present "hearing" meant immediate with that described in Matt. iv., but that and hostile action. J esue had left the onr Lord removed from Judrea simply to temple, and retired to the courta and avoid the apparent rivalry between the two homes and neighbourhood of Jerusalem; o.nd baptismal and evangelistic ministries. When then was only visited e.t night by solitary Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard, eto., men, who onght to have come in crowd.a. he resolved upon a new and startling course. He left Jerusalem itself for some point in Ver. 3.-He left Jndlea, and departed J udrean territ.ory, and there continued for e. again into Galilee. But it should be ob- season the preparatory call for repentance served that d<l'"ff1<e is a very peculiar word and conversion. The extraordinary success for a simple departure. The verb a.4>£11µ, is of Jesus e.t this period excited the special used when 1<a-ra>..el-,rw might have been ex- attention of the Phmisees. The matter pected (Westcott). The word means " t.o that came to their ea.ra waa that Jesus leave a thing to itself," to its own ways, to me.kes e.nd be.ptizes more disciples than John. treat it as r.o longer exercising an influence In other 'll"Ords, they heard of an extraor- on the mind. (It is, with the noun ~,Pe1T11, u~ed for" forgive," "forgiveness," of sine.) 1 •o Ktp,os, with A, B, C, 33, Ho.rcleau Jesus left Judma, which had so imperfectly Syriac, T.R., R.T., Alford, Tregelles, West- accepted his cl1Lims. The word suggests tott and Hort; 6 'l111Toos, with t<, D, some that his departure wo.s a consequence of the tursi ves, Vulge.te, Syriac, Coptic, is read by action uf the Pharisees; And he departed. Tischendorf (8th edit.), e.nd is placed in the again.• This refers to the first departure margin by Alford, Tregellel, and l3Ale Revisen. 1 The ..-cl>..111 is not found in A, n•, r, 4, OH, IV. 1-64.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 161