John 1:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see that I was not speaking idly when I said that this is precisely where they wished to drive him? At first they did not say this, lest they incur general reproach from everyone.

Then, when he said, "I am not the Christ," they wished to conceal what they were contriving in their soul. So they turned to Elijah and to the promised prophet. But when John said that he was neither the one nor the other, they were finally brought to perplexity.

They threw off the mask and openly displayed their wicked design, saying, "Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ?" Then, wishing again to cover themselves, they add the other persons also, Elijah and the prophet.

After they could not draw him by flattery into saying what they wished, and into declaring himself to be Christ, they frighten him with very severe and threatening words, saying: “Why then dost thou baptize? Who gave thee such authority?”

“And those who were sent were from the Pharisees,” that is, from the rulers of the Jews.

But those sent object further: “Why then dost thou baptize, if thou art neither Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” Since this question is asked not from a desire to know the truth, but from malicious envy, the Evangelist silently noted it when he added: “And those who were sent were from the Pharisees.”

He clearly speaks as if saying this: John is questioned about his works by those who do not know how to desire instruction, but only how to envy.

The evangelist's remark that "those who had been sent were from the Pharisees" is intended to explain the motive of the following question about John's right to baptize, if he was not the Christ, not Elijah, and not the prophet.

Therefore, in John's activity, baptism was what most offended the Pharisees. Why? Either because it was a baptism of repentance, and through it all people were declared morally unclean, not excluding the Pharisees proud of their legal righteousness.

Or it was because John's baptism was an innovation and therefore offended their legal zeal. Or both causes acted together. Their hidden hostility toward John already arose from the fact that by his preaching (Mt 3:7 and following) he declared them also unclean.

Those sent from the Sanhedrin did not understand his thought. They only wondered how he, being neither Messiah nor prophet, permitted such important innovations.

They were sensitive about rights in religious matters, since they belonged to the Pharisees. These were regarded as strict guardians of ancestral traditions, always ready to demand a severe account from anyone who seemed to violate their privileges. Thus these questioners fully proved that they deserved the confidence of the Sanhedrin.

Those sent were from the Pharisees. Therefore they were especially zealous for the traditions of the elders and supposed guardians of the purity of Jewish orthodoxy. See the note on Mt 3:7 concerning them.

As he begins to set forth the history of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the evangelist John opens his narrative directly with the testimony of John the Baptist concerning Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world sent from God.

This already belongs to the time after the Baptism of Jesus Christ and His temptation in the wilderness by the devil. The preaching of John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan drew to him the people from Jerusalem and all the surrounding regions.

Since at that time the Jews were intensely awaiting the Messiah, the members of the Sanhedrin sent an embassy to John to learn who he was. John the Baptist said plainly that he was not the Christ.

“And those who were sent were from the Pharisees.” The Evangelist notes this to explain both the persistence with which those sent interrogate the Forerunner, and what one must expect from such men in relation to the truth.

The Pharisees loved to seem friends of truth, exact interpreters of Scripture, and zealots for the people’s glory. In reality, however, they loved glory for themselves, not the glory of God. Therefore they proved to be enemies of heavenly truth. Those sent belonged to this number.

St. John the Theologian deliberately fixes attention on the fact that those who were sent belonged to the zealots of the Law. They were not ignorant of the Law, nor indifferent Sadducees. They were men who had devoted their whole life to studying the Scriptures.

The meaning of Isaiah's prophecy could not have remained unknown to them. Yet we see that they try, by other questions, to obscure the meaning of what John said. They do not want to accept his prophetic words.

They try to avoid the consequences that flow from John's words. Apparently the teachers of Israel feared the coming of the Messiah. They dimly understood that their power and influence would collapse with the appearance of the King of righteousness.