[4877] tethlimmene, the word translated "narrow" in Matt. vii. 14.
[4878] Matt. xi. 12.
[4879] tethlimmene, the word translated "narrow" in Matt. vii. 14.
[4880] Exod. iii. 5.
12. Heracleon's View of the Voice, and of John the Baptist.
The words, however, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness," etc., may be taken as equivalent to "I am He of whom the voice in the wilderness' is written." Then John would be the person crying, and his voice would be that crying in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord." Heracleon, discussing John and the prophets, says, somewhat slanderously, that "the Word is the Saviour; the voice, that in the wilderness which John interpreted; the sound is the whole prophetic order." To this we may reply by reminding him of the text, [4881] "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle," and that which says that though a man have knowledge of mysteries, or have prophecy but wants love, he is a sounding or a tinkling cymbal. [4882] If the prophetic voice be nothing but sound, how does our Lord come to refer us to it as where He says, [4883] "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which bear witness," and [4884] "If ye believed Moses, ye would believe Me," and [4885] "Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you, saying, This people honours me with their lips"? I do not know if any one can reasonably admit that the Saviour thus spoke in praise of an uncertain sound, or that there is any preparation to be had from the Scriptures to which we are referred as from the voice of a trumpet, for our war against opposing powers, should their sound give an uncertain voice. If the prophets had not love, and if that is why they were sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, then how does the Lord send us to their sound, as these writers will have it, as if we could get help from that? He asserts, indeed, that a voice, when well fitted to speech, becomes speech, as if one should say that a woman is turned into a man; and the assertion is not supported by argument. And, as if he were in a position to put forth a dogma on the subject and to get on in this way, he declares that sound can be changed in a similar way into voice, and the voice, which is changed into speech, he says, is in the position of a disciple, while sound passing into voice is in that of a slave. If he had taken any kind of trouble to establish these points we should have had to devote some attention to refuting them; but as it is, the bare denial is sufficient refutation. There was a point some way back which we deferred taking up, that, namely, of the motive of John's speeches. We may now take it up. The Saviour, according to Heracleon, calls him both a prophet and Elijah, but he himself denies that he is either of these. When the Saviour, Heracleon says, calls him a prophet and Elijah, He is speaking not of John himself, but of his surroundings; but when He calls him greater than the prophets and than those who are born of women, then He is describing the character of John himself. When John, on the other hand, is asked about himself, his answers relate to himself, not to his surroundings. This we have examined as carefully as possible, comparing each of the terms in question with the statements of Heracleon, lest he should not have expressed himself quite accurately. For how it comes that the statements that he is Elijah and that he is a prophet apply to those about him, but the statement that he is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, to himself, no attempt whatever is made to show. Heracleon only gives an illustration, namely, this: His surroundings were, so to speak, his clothes, and other than himself, and when he was asked about his clothes, if he were his clothes, he could not answer "Yes." Now that his being Elijah, who was to come, was his clothes, is scarcely consistent, so far as I can see, with Heracleon's views; it might consist, perhaps, with the exposition we ourselves gave of the words, "In the spirit and power of Elijah;" it might, in a sense, be said that this spirit of Elijah is equivalent to the soul of John. He then goes on to try to determine why those who were sent by the Jews to question John were priests and levites, and he answers by no means badly, that it was incumbent on such persons, being devoted to the service of God, to busy themselves and to make enquiries about such matters. When he goes on, however, to say that it was "because John was of the levitical tribe," this is less well considered. We raised the question ourselves above, and saw that if the Jews who were sent knew John's birth, it was not open to them to ask if he was Elijah. Then, again, in dealing with the question, "Art thou the prophet?" Heracleon does not regard the addition of the article as having any special force, and says, "They asked him if he were a prophet, wishing to know this more general fact." Again, not Heracleon alone, but, so far as I am informed, all those who diverge from our views, as if they had not been able to deal with a trifling ambiguity and to draw the proper distinction, suppose John to be greater than Elijah and than all the prophets. The words are, "Of those born of women there is none greater than John;" but this admits of two meanings, that John is greater than they all, or again, that some of them are equal to him. For though many of the prophets were equal to him, still it might be true in respect of the grace bestowed on him, that none of them was greater than he. He regards it as confirming the view that John was greater, that "he is predicted by Isaiah;" for no other of all those who uttered prophecies was held worthy by God of this distinction. This, however, is a venturesome statement and implies some disrespect of what is called the Old Testament, and total disregard of the fact that Elijah himself was the subject of prophecy. For Elijah is prophesied by Malachi, who says, [4886] "Behold, I send unto you Elijah, the Tishbite, who shall restore the heart of the father to the son." Josiah, too, as we read in third Kings, [4887] was predicted by name by the prophet who came out of Judah; for he said, Jeroboam also being present at the altar, "Thus saith the Lord, Behold a son is born to David, his name is Josiah." There are some also who say that Samson was predicted by Jacob, when he said, [4888] "Dan shall judge his own people, he is as one tribe in Israel," for Samson who judged Israel was of the tribe of Dan. So much by way of evidence of the rashness of the statement that John alone was the subject of prophecy, made by Heracleon in his attempted explanation of the words, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness."
[4881] 1 Cor. xiv. 8.
[4882] 1 Cor. xiii. 1.
[4883] John v. 39.
[4884] John v. 46.
[4885] Matt. xv. 7; Isa. xxix. 13.
[4886] iv. 5, 6.
[4887] 1 Kings xiii. 2.
[4888] Gen. xlix. 16.
13. John I. 24, 25. Of the Baptism of John, that of Elijah, and that of Christ.
And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, [4889] "Why baptizest thou then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" Those who sent from Jerusalem the priests and levites who asked John these questions, having learned who John was not, and who he was, preserve a decent silence, as if tacitly assenting and indicating that they accepted what was said, and saw that baptism was suited to a voice crying in the wilderness for the preparing of the way of the Lord. But the Pharisees being, as their name indicates, a divided and seditious set of people, show that they do not agree with the Jews of the metropolis and with the ministers of the service of God, the priests and levites. They send envoys who deal in rebukes, and so far as their power extends debar him from baptizing; their envoys ask, Why baptizest thou, then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? And if we were to stitch together into one statement what is written in the various Gospels, we should say that at this time they spoke as is here reported, but that at a later time, when they wished to received baptism, they heard the address of John: [4890] "Generations of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance." This is what the Baptist says in Matthew, when he sees many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, without, it is clear, having the fruits of repentance, and pharisaically boasting in themselves that they had Abraham for their father. For this they are rebuked by John, who has the zeal of Elijah according to the communication of the Holy Spirit. For that is a rebuking word, "Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father," and that is the word of a teacher, when he speaks of those who for their stony hearts are called unbelieving stones, and says that by the power of God these stones may be changed into children of Abraham; for they were present to the eyes of the prophet and did not shrink from his divine glance. Hence his words: "I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham." And since they came to his baptism without having done fruits meet for repentance, he says to them most appropriately, "Already is the axe laid to the root of the tree; every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." This is as much as to say to them: Since you have come to baptism without having done fruits meet for repentance, you are a tree that does not bring forth good fruit and which has to be cut down by the most sharp and piercing axe of the Word which is living and powerful and sharper than every two-edged sword. The estimation in which the Pharisees held themselves is also set forth by Luke in the passage: [4891] "Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." The result of this speech is that the publican goes down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee, and the lesson is drawn, that every one who exalts himself is abased. They came, then, in the character in which the Saviour's reproving words described them, as hypocrites to John's baptism, nor does it escape the Baptist's observation that they have the poison of vipers under their tongue and the poison of asps, for "the poison of asps is under their tongue." [4892] The figure of serpents rightly indicates their temper, and it is plainly revealed in their better question: "Why baptizest thou then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" To these I would fain reply, if it be the case that the Christ and Elijah and the prophet baptize, but that the voice crying in the wilderness has no authority to do so, "Most harshly, my friends, do you question the messenger sent before the face of Christ to prepare His way before Him. The mysteries which belong to this point are all hidden to you; for Jesus being, whether you will or not, the Christ, did not Himself baptize but His disciples, He who was Himself the prophet. And how have you come to believe that Elijah who is to come will baptize?" He did not baptize the logs upon the altar in the times of Ahab, [4893] though they needed such a bath to be burned up, what time the Lord appeared in fire. No, he commands the priests to do this for him, and that not only once; for he says, "Do it a second time," upon which they did it a second time, and "Do it a third time," and they did it a third time. If, then, he did not at that time himself baptize but left the work to others, how was he to baptize at the time spoken of by Malachi? Christ, then, does not baptize with water, but His disciples. He reserves for Himself to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Now Heracleon accepts the speech of the Pharisees as distinctly implying that the office of baptizing belonged to the Christ and Elijah and to every prophet, for he uses these words, "Whose office alone it is to baptize." He is refuted by what we have just said, and especially by the consideration that he takes the word "prophet" in a general sense; [4894] for he cannot show that any of the prophets baptized. He adds, not incorrectly, that the Pharisees put the question from malice, and not from a desire to learn.