John 1:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since they could not shake him by honor, they thought to force from him, by accusation, an admission of what was not true. Yet they could not do this either. O madness! O arrogance and untimely meddling!

You were sent to learn from him who he is and whence he comes. Do you also wish to prescribe laws for him? This indeed is what they wanted, forcing him to declare himself to be the Christ.

Yet even now he is not indignant and says nothing of the sort, though it would have been just, such as, "Do you wish to command me and give me laws?" Instead, he again shows great meekness.

It seems to me that the Jews, wishing that John not be accepted by the multitude as Christ, asked him, "Who are you?" out of envy and ill will.

Therefore cursed are those who accept the Baptist, yet after baptism do not acknowledge him. Truly the Jews are broods of vipers.

Yet he had been foretold through the voice of the prophet. When they heard, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord" (Jn 1:23; cf. Mt 3:3; Is 40:3), they did not accept this word.

They all but shamelessly forbid him, speaking as though in this way: There is nothing in you worthy of belief, nothing wonderful or great. "Why then do you baptize" at all? Why, being nothing, do you even occupy yourself with such a work?

Such is the custom of the impious Pharisees. They belittle one who is already present, while pretending to prefer one who is to come. For they wish always to receive honor from the Jews and to procure money for themselves.

Therefore they desire no one else's glorification except their own. In the same way they even killed the Heir Himself, saying, "Come, let us kill Him and seize His inheritance" (Mt 21:38).

Clearly he was not shaken by the wind, since John was not such as one carried by the wind. For one carried by the wind is swept away by every alluring spirit.

"But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments?" (Mt 11:8). But John was clothed in rough garments, namely, in a tunic woven of camel's hair. "Those who wear soft garments are in kings' houses" (Mt 11:8).

Therefore you did not go out to see a man clothed in soft garments. "What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet" (Mt 11:9).

For the prophets foretold Christ long before His coming, but John pointed to Him as already come.

In juridical terms, they considered themselves obliged to interrogate him about his right to introduce new rites into the religious life of the people. They were prepared to recognize such a right only in the Messiah and His forerunners.

For the meaning of John's answer, see the explanation on Mt 3:11 and parallels, and Jn 1:15, sections 1 and 18. Bethabara: see note 1 on Jn 1:19.

Since John had said that he was not the Messiah and not one of the risen prophets, the delegates of the Sanhedrin considered themselves entitled to interrogate him. Why, then, does he baptize those who come to him?

As one of our theologians, Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov, rightly observed, "It is clear that the question of those sent expresses not so much a desire to know the truth as a charge against John for wrongdoing, and a prohibition against his continuing to baptize."

Of course, they could not have forgotten the severe rebuke to which they were subjected when they came to John with others for baptism (Mt 3:7-10). Undoubtedly, even then they resolved in their souls to destroy him.

Now they came with this aim. This is why, paying no attention to his testimony about his heavenly calling (v. 23), they persistently interrogate him: "Why then do you baptize?"

John gives the answer to this question in the following two verses. There he passes from his own person to the Person of Him for Whom he was to prepare the way in men's hearts.

What right does he have to perform this action, if he is not only not the Messiah, but not even Elijah or the prophet, that is, not the Messiah's forerunner in their sense?

Moreover, the action he performed so publicly, solemnly, and before all the people was a direct indication that the whole society, the whole people of God, was unclean and required cleansing (Hag 2:13) through washing and repentance.

This was especially incompatible with Pharisaic self-opinion and pride. They were petty champions of all sorts of petty external washings and cleansings (Mk 7:3-4), and could be offended and grieved by it.

May this not be the reason for the evangelist's deliberate note that those who had been sent were from the Pharisees? Thus they were, so to speak, personally and more than others interested in clarifying John's actions and identity for themselves.

Then the envoys of the Sanhedrin, misunderstanding Malachi's prophecy about the appearance of a forerunner before the Messiah's coming "in the spirit and power of Elijah," took it to mean Elijah the prophet's second coming to earth. They asked John the Baptist whether he was Elijah.

John the Baptist answered this question in the negative, thereby bearing witness that the Jews had misunderstood 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 forerunner by the force of his rebukes against the moral corruption of contemporary society (Lk 3:7-14).

In the further conversation, John the Baptist says that he is not "the prophet" either. This is 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 about who he is, John the Baptist answers in the words of Isaiah the prophet: "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 forerunner, preparing people to receive Christ the Savior. Therefore the baptism performed by John 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" (26, 33).

It is clear that in the question of those sent, there is expressed not so much a desire to know the truth as an attempt to convict John of wrongdoing, and to forbid him to continue baptizing.

Poor men! Without paying due attention to the meaning of the Forerunner's last answer about his heavenly calling, they hastened to present themselves as men who had the right to expose another's error.

The Pharisees turn to the ritual side and ask John why he baptizes, if he is not the Christ, not Elijah, and not the prophet. Yet they pass over in complete silence his direct answer, which disclosed the meaning of his coming.

At the base of their questions lies the main hidden aim. They do not wish to allow any possibility of connecting the prophecies with the events now occurring. Perhaps they also wish to find a pretext for accusing John himself.

We repeat that it is impossible to suppose that men who studied the Scriptures did not suspect the truth from the chapters of Isaiah cited above, and from other prophetic passages. The popular image of a king Messiah, supposedly appearing in splendor and earthly glory, does not correspond to the prophecies.

Nor can it be allowed that they did not understand from John's words that the Messiah was coming. But the scribes and Pharisees did not want the will of God. They wanted the embodiment of their own idea.

From the very appearance of the Messiah's herald, in their powerless madness they began to persecute both him and the Messiah Himself. They did not wish to allow what they did not desire and what they feared.

It must also be observed that in the words of those sent there is a shade of contempt for John, who was "not clothed in soft garments" and did not sit "in kings' palaces" (Mt 11:7-9).

They thirst for earthly greatness and bow only before it. They could never understand what the Lord said: "The kingdom of God is within you." Therefore they could not understand that Ezekiel's prophetic words were being fulfilled in John's baptism.

Speaking in the Lord's name, Ezekiel said, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness; and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you" (Ezek 36:25).

This was the "preparation of the way of the Lord," the cleansing of the heart and the renewal of the spirit, so as worthily to meet the coming King of holiness and righteousness. Compare Mt 3:7-12 and Lk 3:7-18, the words of John the Baptist to the people.