John 1:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Such is the mark of a right-minded servant. He not only does not seize the honor that belongs to the master, but rejects it even when others offer it.

The simple people came to this supposition through simplicity and ignorance. But those men questioned him, as I have said, with an evil intention, hoping to draw him by flattery into what they wanted.

If this had not been what they had in mind, they would not have passed at once to another question. They would have been vexed that he was saying something completely different and not answering the question.

They would have said to him: do we suppose this? Have we come to ask about this?

But as if caught and convicted, they pass to another subject and say: "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said: "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered: "No."

But they showed human weakness in relation to John. Having worldly glory in view and looking at outward appearance, they thought it unworthy for John to subordinate himself to Christ.

Many things exalted John in their eyes. First, he had a distinguished and noble origin, because he was the son of a high priest. Second, there was the strictness of his life and his contempt for all human things.

In Christ it was the opposite. His origin was lowly, which the Jews often pointed out, saying: "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Mt 13:55).

His supposed place of birth was so dishonored that Nathanael said: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (Jn 1:46).

His way of life was ordinary, and His garments were no different from those of others.

So, because John often sent them away from himself to the One who, in their opinion, was lower than he, they were ashamed and irritated by this.

They preferred to have John as their teacher, but did not dare say this openly.

They send an embassy to him, hoping by flattery to dispose him to declare himself the Christ.

They do not send to him any contemptible men, as they did to Christ, when they sent servants, then Herodians, and others like them.

They send priests and Levites, and priests from Jerusalem at that, that is, the most honorable ones.

So these men now ask him, not because they do not know him. How could they not know a man who had become so famous?

Rather, they wanted to lead him to the point I have indicated.

Listen, then, to how this blessed man answers the very thought with which they questioned him, and not the question itself.

When they asked, "Who are you?" he did not immediately say what he ought to have said: "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (Jn 1:23; cf. Mk 1:3).

What then? He destroys their supposition. To the question, "Who are you?" he "confessed, and did not deny, but confessed: I am not the Christ" (Jn 1:20).

Notice the wisdom of the Evangelist. Three times he says the same thing, in order to show both the virtue of the Baptist and all the malice and senselessness of the Jews.

Such is the mark of a right-minded servant. He not only does not seize the honor that belongs to the master, but rejects it even when others offer it.

The simple people came to this supposition through simplicity and ignorance. But those men questioned him, as I have said, with an evil intention, hoping to draw him by flattery into what they wanted.

If this had not been what they had in mind, they would not have passed at once to another question. They would have been vexed that he was saying something completely different and not answering the question.

But as if caught and convicted, they pass to another subject and say: "What then? Are you Elijah?" (Jn 1:21).

If he had said, "I am the Christ," they would have believed him. If he had boasted in another's name, he would have lost his own. If he had boasted that he was Christ, would he not have answered himself: "Why do you exalt yourself? All flesh is grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower falls. Understand what remains forever: The word of the Lord remains forever" (Is 40:8).

They knew that Elijah had to precede Christ. For the name of Christ was known to every Jew. They did not think that He, Jesus, was the Christ. But they did not think that Christ was not to come at all.

Hoping that He would come, they stumbled over Him who had come. They stumbled as over an unnoticed stone. The blind Jews did not see the unnoticed stone. But what blindness it is not to see the mountain!

"And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah?" (Jn 1:20). For they knew that Elijah had to come before Christ. There was no Jew to whom the name of Christ was unknown.

They did not think that He was the Christ. Yet at the same time they did not think that Christ would not come at all. Although they hoped for His coming, they cast Him away when He appeared, as one kicks an insignificant stone.

For that stone was still small, although it had already been cut from the mountain without the aid of hands. As the prophet Daniel said, he saw a stone cut from the mountain without the aid of hands.

But what follows there? "And that stone grew and became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" (cf. Dan 2:34-35). Therefore see, beloved, what I am saying: before the Jews, Christ had already been cut from the mountain.

The prophet intends the mountain to be understood as the kingdom of the Jews. But the kingdom of the Jews did not fill the whole earth. From it that stone was cut, because there at that moment the Lord was born.

Why "without the aid of hands"? Because the Virgin gave birth to Christ without the participation of a man. Thus that stone was cut without the aid of hands in the sight of the Jews, but it was small.

And not without reason, since that stone had not yet grown and filled the circle of the lands. He showed this only in His kingdom, which is the Church, by which He filled the whole earth.

Because He had not yet grown, they cast Him away like a stone. What was written was fulfilled concerning them: "Whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever this stone falls, it will crush him" (cf. Lk 20:18).

First they fell upon Him when He was humble. But when He becomes great, He will fall upon them. Yet in order, when great, to crush them by falling upon them, He first broke them while humble.

They despised Him and were broken. They were not crushed, but broken. He will come in His majesty and crush them. But the Jews must be excused, for they cast away a stone that had not yet grown.

What sort of people are those who kick the mountain itself? You already understand of whom I speak. They are those who reject the Church spread throughout the whole earth. They kick not an insignificant stone, but the mountain itself, that which the stone became when it grew.

The blind Jews did not see the insignificant stone. But how great must blindness be not to see the mountain!

Therefore the Jews saw Him humble, but did not recognize Him. He pointed them to Himself through a lamp. For first he spoke, than whom none is greater among those born of women (cf. Mt 11:11): "I am not the Christ" (Jn 1:20).

And they said to him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" (Jn 1:21). He answered, "I am not Elijah." Since Christ was to send Elijah before Himself, he said, "I am not Elijah," and gave rise to a question for us.

We must take care lest those who do not understand this sufficiently suppose that John said the opposite of what Christ said. For in the same place where the Lord Jesus Christ said something about Himself in the Gospel, the disciples asked Him: "How then do the scribes, that is, the experts in the Law, say that Elijah must come first?"

And the Lord said to them, "Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatever they wished. And if you wish to know it, he is John the Baptist" (cf. Mt 17:10-13).

The Lord Jesus Christ said, "Elijah has already come; he is John the Baptist." But John, answering the question, confessed that he was not Elijah, just as he confessed that he was not Christ. In any case, he truly confessed that he was not Christ, just as he truly confessed that he was not Elijah.

How then shall we compare what the herald said with what the Judge said? It is inadmissible that the herald should lie, for he pronounces what he hears from the Judge.

Why then does he say, "I am not Elijah," while the Lord says, "He is Elijah" (Mt 11:14)? Because the Lord Jesus Christ wished the type of His future coming to be shown in him, and wished to say that John was in the spirit of Elijah.

What John was at the first coming, Elijah will be at the second coming. Just as there must be two comings of the Judge, so there must be two heralds. Yet the Judge is Himself the same, while there are two heralds, not two judges.

For the Judge first had to come in order to be judged. He sent a herald before Himself and called him Elijah, because what Elijah will be at the second coming, John became at the first.

Indeed, beloved, see how true what I say is. When John was conceived, or rather when he was born, the Holy Spirit prophesied what had to be fulfilled in this man: "And he shall go before the Most High in the spirit and power of Elijah" (cf. Lk 1:17).

Therefore he is "not Elijah," but in the spirit and power of Elijah. What does it mean, in the spirit and power of Elijah? It means in the same Holy Spirit, under the form of Elijah.

Why under the form of Elijah? Because what Elijah will be at the second coming, John was at the first.

Therefore John, speaking in the literal sense, gave a correct answer. But the Lord spoke figuratively: "Elijah is John." And John, as I have already said, spoke literally: "I am not Elijah."

If you consider the figure of the Forerunner, John is Elijah. For at the first coming he was what Elijah will be at the second. But if you ask about the particular person, John is John, and Elijah is Elijah.

Thus the Lord spoke truly in the sense of the type: "He is Elijah." And John spoke truly in the sense of the particular person: "I am not Elijah." Neither John lied, nor the Lord. Neither the herald lied, nor the Judge, if you understand this.

And who can understand this? The one who imitates the humility of the herald and grasps the majesty of the Judge. For there is no one humbler than the herald himself.

My brethren, John had no greater merit than this humility. Although he could have lied to men, so that they would consider him Christ and accept him as Christ, since such grace rested upon him and he was so excellent, he nevertheless openly confessed and said, "I am not the Christ."

What then? "Are you Elijah?" (cf. Jn 1:20-21).

John intentionally gives a positive answer to the question of who he is by referring to Isaiah’s prophecy (Is 40:3). This prophecy could not be falsely reinterpreted in the same way as the scribes of that time falsely interpreted the indicated words of Malachi. Their true meaning is explained in Lk 1:17; Mt 11:14; Mt 17:10-12.

He remains unshaken in his devotion. To show how foreign the attraction of empty glory was to the direct and holy soul of this prophet, the Evangelist notes that he plainly and decisively declared that the people were mistaken, and that he was “not the Christ.”

Under such circumstances the Sanhedrin ought to have fully believed him. It likewise ought to have believed his testimony about the true Messiah who had actually appeared, and to whom John pointed.

It turned out, however, that it believed the former and not the latter.

Then the envoys of the Sanhedrin, misunderstanding Malachi’s prophecy about the appearance before the coming of the Messiah of a forerunner “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” took it as a second coming of Elijah the prophet to earth.

They asked John the Baptist whether he was Elijah. To this question John the Baptist answered negatively, thereby bearing witness to the incorrectness of the Jewish understanding of Malachi’s prophecy.

Indeed, Malachi spoke not of Elijah the prophet, but of a forerunner “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” John the Baptist was such a one by the power of his rebukes of the moral decay of the society of his time (Lk 3:7-14).

In the further conversation, John the Baptist says that he is not “the prophet” either, because he bears witness to Christ the Savior who has already come, not to a future Messiah, as the Old Testament prophets did.

To the envoys’ insistent question, who then he is, John the Baptist answers with the words of the prophet Isaiah: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord.”

By these words John the Baptist defines his ministry and calling as the Forerunner who prepares men to receive Christ the Savior.

Therefore the baptism that John performs is only preparatory to the Baptism that Christ is to establish: “I baptize with water; but among you stands One whom you do not know. He it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (Jn 1:26, 33).

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ took place before the arrival of the priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem by the high priest and the great council. John, answering them (Jn 1:26, 32ff.), already bears witness that he had seen the Spirit descending upon the Lord Jesus. As we know from the Synoptic Gospels, this happened at the Lord's Baptism (Mt 3:16-17; Mk 1:10-11; Lk 3:21-22).

Immediately after His Baptism, the Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Mt 4:1; Mk 1:12; Lk 4:1). At that time, when the Lord had completed the days of fasting and prayer and was returning from the wilderness to the Jordan after the temptation, the men sent by the high priest of Judea appeared at the Jordan.

To them John pointed directly and without evasion. He declared that the Great One had appeared, whose sandals he was not worthy to carry: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Mt 3; Mk 1:7; Lk 3:16).

But the heart of those who sent and of those who were sent was unclean. They became convinced that John was a true prophet, and yet they did not believe him (Mt 21:24-27; Mk 11:29-38; Lk 20:3-8). They did not believe him because he exposed the uncleanness of their heart, their greed, and their thirst for power.

They also did not believe him because John bore witness concerning the Lord Jesus. "You sent to John," the Lord said to the Jews, "and he has borne witness to the truth" (Jn 5:33).

The holy Evangelist John places this testimony of John the Baptist before the account of events, because it removed every excuse from the rulers of the people. They themselves had sent to John. If they rejected his testimony, it was only because it did not accord with the desires of their corrupt heart and perverted thought.

We have spoken above about the significance of John the Baptist, the prophet who stands on the boundary of the two Testaments. His words addressed to the representatives of the Old Testament Church, his report that he had seen the Spirit of God descending upon the Lord Jesus, and his testimony that this is the Lamb of God are dread witnesses against the Jews.

These words were carefully recorded so that Christians might remember that the rulers of the Sanhedrin committed their crime with full consciousness of it when they put the Lord Jesus to death.

"And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ.'"

The word Jews, by which the Slavonic text sometimes renders Ἰουδαῖοι, as we saw above, means that part of the once chosen people hardened in narrow national fanaticism. Through malice it was incapable of receiving the light of God.

When John was writing his divinely inspired Gospel, the full and final separation of the Church of Christ from the Jewish church had already taken place. The word Jew, set against the name Christian, recalled a corpse in the presence of a living organism destined for eternal life.

These Jews send priests and Levites to ask the prophet who appeared in the wilderness, "Who are you?" John's answer in verse 20 proves that he knew their thoughts. He foresaw that they had come with the definite purpose of learning whether he was the Messiah.

Or perhaps they came in order to fashion an accusation against him. John too was hateful to the Jews as an accuser who shook the authority of the scribes and teachers of the people. In the mouths of the scribes, the unlearned people were called the contemptible am-haaretz.

This contempt for the people is vividly expressed in the words of the Pharisees: "But this crowd, which does not know the Law, is accursed" (Jn 7:49).

The solemnity with which John declares that he is not the Christ is very remarkable: "he confessed and did not deny." Answering the secret thought of his questioners, he solemnly proclaims, "I am not the Christ." For he is already preparing to declare that Christ stands among them (Jn 1:26).

That many regarded John as the Christ is evident from Lk 3:15-16: "As the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying: I baptize you with water. But One mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."