He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias.
εφη εγω φωνη βοωντος εν τη ερημω ευθυνατε την οδον κυριου καθως ειπεν ησαιας ο προφητης
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 12 commentaries
John, with meekness, first rejects their false suppositions, and then gives the true understanding of himself. “I,” he says, “am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said” (Is 40:3).
Since he had already uttered something great and exalted about Christ, he at once hastens, as if answering their thought, to turn to the prophet. In this way he confirms his words.
Then he answers them: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” I am, he says, the one of whom it is written, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Is 40:3).
For if the words “of whom it is written” are not supplied, the combination of words will seem strange.
What does the one crying say? “Make straight the way of the Lord.” I, he says, am a servant, and I prepare your hearts for the Lord. Therefore you malicious and crafty men, make them straight and level, so that through you there may be a way for the Lord Christ.
Then he brings Isaiah as witness. Having said a great thing about Christ, that He is Lord, and about himself, that he performs the work of a servant and herald, he has recourse to the prophet.
Perhaps someone will explain the words “I am the voice of one crying” in this way: I am the voice of Christ crying, that is, clearly proclaiming the truth.
For all the heralds of the Law are not loud-voiced, since the time of the Gospel’s truth had not yet come. The weak voice of Moses truly indicated the indistinctness and obscurity of the Law.
But Christ, as self-existing Truth and the One who proclaimed the Father to us all, is “the One crying.” Therefore John says: I am the voice of the crying Word, dwelling in the wilderness.
Then comes another beginning: “Make straight the way of the Lord.” John, as the Forerunner of Christ, is rightly called the voice, because the voice precedes the word.
I will speak more plainly. A voice is an inarticulate breath that comes forth from the chest. When it is divided into articulations by the tongue, then it becomes a word.
Thus first comes the voice, then the Word; first John, then Christ, according to His manifestation in the flesh. John’s baptism is also inarticulate, for it had no operation by the Spirit.
But the Baptism of Christ is articulate. It has nothing shadowy or figurative, for it is accomplished by the Spirit (Mt 3:11).
"What do you say about yourself?" "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness..." He strongly reproves them as knowing nothing, and by prophetic testimony confirms the ministry or appointment entrusted to him. I have come, he says, for no other purpose than to say this. The awaited Master is already at the doors, indeed within the doors. Be ready to walk by the way that He will show. You walked by the way of Moses. Take up the way of Christ. Concerning this way the choir of the holy prophets foretold you.
A comparison of sayings concerning the way of Christ follows.
Isaiah says, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will declare to us His way, and we will walk in it" (Is 2:3). Again he says, "There shall be there a wholly pure way, and it shall be called the holy way. No lion shall be there, nor shall any evil beast go up upon it; but the scattered shall walk there" (Is 35:8-9). Again he says, "I will give a beginning to Zion and will call Jerusalem to the way" (Is 41:27). Again he says, "I will lead the blind by a way that they did not know, and by paths that they did not know I will make them walk" (Is 42:16).
Jeremiah says, "Stand upon the ways and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord. See what is the good way, and walk in it, and you shall find cleansing for your souls" (Jer 6:16). And what is this "good way," which cleanses those who walk in it? Let Christ Himself say: "I am the way" (Jn 14:6).
The voice came before the Word. How can the voice be before the word? We have heard that Christ is the Word, and that John is the voice. Let us listen. When they said to him, "Who are you?" he answered, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Therefore, beloved, let us reason a little, as much as the Lord grants, about voice and word.
Christ is the Word, the Word that does not sound and pass away. What sounds and passes away is voice, not word. Therefore the Word of God, through Whom all things were created, is our Lord Jesus Christ. John is the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Which comes first, the voice or the word? Let us see what word is and what voice is, and then we shall see which comes first.
This was spoken by Isaiah (cf. Is 40:3). This prophecy was fulfilled in John: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Crying what? "Make straight the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God" (cf. Is 40:3; Mt 3:3; Jn 1:23).
Does it not seem to you that a herald ought to say, "Stand back, make way"? A herald would say, "Stand back." But John says, "Come." A herald drives people away from the judge, while John calls them to the Judge.
Rather, John calls them to the Lord full of humility, so that they may not perceive Him as the Judge full of power. "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said" (Jn 1:23).
He did not say, "I am John; I am Elijah; I am the prophet." What then did he say? He names himself in this way: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord. I am the one in whom the prophecy has been fulfilled."
As the voice that announces the light awakens the ear, and as the brightness of a lamp calls the eye into action, so Scripture assists the voice.
The voice that announces the light means the rooster’s crow, which announces the coming dawn. Literally, it “knocks at the doors of the ears.”
For the lamp and the rooster are one, as Elijah and John are one. The rooster awakens us by its voice to hearing, and it is an image of the voice of our Resurrector. The lamp, by its brightness, presents to us an image of the light of our Enlightener.
Thus both of them enclosed the darkness from two sides. The evening lamp drives away the darkness, and the rooster foretells the coming day. In this way the darkness of night is, as it were, pressed in from both sides, from evening and from morning.
They are images of the Father and the Son, who destroyed impiety. They are also images of the prophets and apostles, for from both sides they aided the Sun.
Just as the evening lamp and the rooster’s crow, which disperse the darkness of night, assist the sun, so the prophets and apostles, who struggled with the darkness of impiety before and after Christ’s coming, aided the work of the Sun of righteousness.
But understand this also. John, whom the One who created his fiery mouth called a lamp, is also an image of Elijah. Elijah burned the ungodly with his tongue and punished them with drought and thirst by the flame of his mouth.
Moreover, the rooster that sings in the stillness of night is an image of John, who preached in the stillness of the wilderness.
If the lamp is brought in the evening hour, then the rooster, which sings only in the morning, cannot be heard at the same time as it, that is, by the lamp or in the evening.
But in John, the predawn voice was joined with the evening lamp, so as to bear witness to the coming of Elijah. Elijah is called the evening lamp because he is to appear at the end of the world. In a mystical manner he appeared in the person of John.
Therefore John is the voice, but the Word expressed by the voice is the Lord. The voice awakened them, the voice called them and raised them up, but the Word distributed His gifts to them.
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness.” John, the Forerunner of the Word, is rightly called a voice. When asked, “What sayest thou of thyself?” he answered: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Jn 1:22-23).
John also said: “After me comes a Man who was before me” (Jn 1:30), because the sound of the voice precedes the word. It is less than the word, and then the word comes, surpassing the sound. Therefore Christ wished to receive baptism from John, because among men the word is announced by the teacher’s voice. For this reason, perhaps, the voice was also restored to Zachariah, because he gave the name to the voice.
Having answered all their questions with magnanimity, he now also says who he is: I am the one of whom it is written, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” and so forth. This saying is explained in the third chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 3:3).
Then he declares who he is, adding, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." You know, most beloved brethren, that the Only-begotten Son is called the Word of the Father. John bears witness to this when he says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1).
From your own speech you know that the voice sounds first, so that the word may then be heard. Therefore John affirms that he is "the voice," because he goes before the Word. Since he precedes the coming of the Lord, he is called "the voice," because through his ministry he makes the Word of the Father audible to men.
He cries in the wilderness because he announces the consolation of the Redeemer to Judea, which had been abandoned and rejected. What he cries, he indicates by adding, "Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said." The Lord's way is directed to the heart when the word of truth is heard with humility.
The Lord's way is directed to the heart when life is prepared for keeping the commandment. Therefore it is written, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (Jn 14:23).
Thus, whoever is proud in mind, whoever breathes the flame of covetousness, whoever is defiled by the impurities of luxury, shuts the door of the heart against truth. Lest the Lord come to him, he strengthens the bars of the soul through long-standing vices.
As we said earlier, the prophet Isaiah called him a voice because he went before the Word. What he cried out is revealed when it is added: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Mt 3:3).
Everyone who preaches right faith and good works prepares nothing other than the road of the Lord coming to the hearts of his hearers. Let this power of grace enter. Let the light of truth shine forth. Let it make straight the paths for the Lord, while He forms pure thoughts in the soul through the preaching of good.
Then the members of the Sanhedrin, not satisfied with these negative answers, demanded from John the Baptist an exact designation of his position. They said to him: “Who then art thou? For we must give an answer to those who sent us. What shall we say of thee?”
“I,” John answered them, “am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.” He is only a voice, which, after proclaiming, vanishes into the air. He is the voice of the herald who announces the coming of the Lord, so that with His coming he may fall wholly silent.
Verses 22-23. Those sent, not satisfied with the Forerunner’s negative answers, demand that he say directly who he is. The Forerunner answers: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, as Isaiah said.”
The Forerunner answers concerning himself, not from himself, but in the words of the prophet Isaiah, Is 40:3. The prophet’s words are cited not literally, but according to their meaning. According to the prophet: “A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord.” I am that voice, says the Forerunner. I am the herald of the coming Lord. Prepare His way.
The answer of John the Baptist contains the third verse of Isaiah chapter 40. We must turn to the first five verses of that chapter in order to understand the full meaning of John's answer.
We must notice that in chapters 40-42, and especially in the first verses of chapter 42, the coming of the Messiah is clearly revealed. So also is the very form in which He will appear among His people.
"Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased. I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare judgment to the nations. He will not cry out, nor lift up His voice, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, until He brings judgment to victory. And in His name the nations will hope" (Is 42:1-4).
The humbled form in which the Lord will come, and the sufferings of the Messiah for the sins of men, are stated still more clearly in Is 53:1-12. But the first five verses of chapter 40 form, as it were, a brief introduction to the prophecy concerning the Messiah.
Keeping this in mind, we understand more closely the mysterious prophetic meaning of Isaiah 40:3, which John the Baptist proclaims: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord." Then in Is 40:5 it says, "And the glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."
Therefore the cry of John the Baptist should have been entirely clear to those who studied Scripture. He connects the prophecy of the Messiah with the events taking place during John's preaching and the arrival of the Jerusalem scribes.
These scribes should have known what John was proclaiming in the words of Isaiah the prophet. John himself is only the announcing voice. The Coming One is the Messiah. After receiving this answer from him, those who questioned John could not doubt this, but they did not want to believe it.
Compare Mt 3:3, Mk 1:3, and Lk 3 on the prophecy of Isaiah 40 as applied to John the Baptist.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS