John 1:28Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

A great virtue is the bold and open confession of Christ, and the preference of this confession to everything else. It is so great and wondrous that the Only-begotten Son of God confesses such a man before His Father, though this reward is not proportionate.

You confess on earth, and He confesses in heaven. You confess before men, and He before the Father and all the angels. Such was John.

He looked neither to the people, nor to glory, nor to anything human. Despising all these things, he preached Christ to all with due freedom. Therefore the evangelist also indicates the very place of his preaching, in order to show the boldness of the loud-voiced preacher.

Why did the Evangelist say that this happened in Bethany? In order to show the boldness of the great preacher. He preached in this way about Christ not in a house or in a corner, but at the Jordan, amid a multitude of people.

It must be known, however, that the more accurate manuscripts read: in Bethabara. For Bethany is not beyond the Jordan, but near Jerusalem.

"These things," he says, "happened in Bethabara beyond the Jordan." He communicates even this as a sign, so to speak, of his precise and refined memory. For in narratives concerning important matters, we all customarily remember the places where they happened.

As we have already said, this means: "He who was before me is the One whose shoe straps I am not worthy to loose" (cf. Jn 1:27). How greatly he humbled himself! Therefore he was so greatly exalted, for everyone who humbles himself will be exalted (Lk 14:11).

So, holy brethren, you must see this. If John humbled himself so much as to say, "I am not worthy to loose the straps of His shoes," how much should those humble themselves who say, "We receive baptism; what we give belongs to us, and what belongs to us is holy"?

He says, "Not I, but He." They say, "We." John is unworthy to loose the straps of His shoes. If he had said that he was worthy of this, how much would he already have humbled himself by that?

The more accurate manuscripts have “in Bethabara,” because Bethany was not beyond the Jordan and not in the wilderness, but near Jerusalem.

He indicates the place, thereby showing that John said this about Christ in the presence of many. Omitting the further events recounted by the other Evangelists, namely the baptism of Jesus Christ, the testimony concerning Him from above, the forty-day fast in the wilderness, and the temptation, the Evangelist relates what happened after His departure from the wilderness, which the others omitted.

The Evangelist's remark that "those who had been sent were from the Pharisees" is meant to explain the motive of their further question. They ask by what right John baptizes, if he is neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet.

Thus, in John's activity, baptism was what most offended the Pharisees. Why was this so? Perhaps because it was a baptism of repentance. Through it all people, including the Pharisees proud of their legal righteousness, were declared morally unclean.

Or perhaps John's baptism was an innovation, and for that reason offended their zeal for the Law. Or both causes acted together.

John ended his conversation with those sent from the Sanhedrin by portraying the divine majesty of the Messiah.

In verse 28 the Evangelist, as an exact historian, even indicates the place where those sent from the Sanhedrin questioned John: "These things took place in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing."

It must be noted that in almost all codices the place where John baptized is called Bethany, not Bethabara. Bethany was also the name of the village where Lazarus lived and died.

But the Evangelist precisely distinguishes one place from the other. Of the Bethany of Lazarus he says that it was near Jerusalem (11:1, 18; 12:1). The latter, however, was beyond the Jordan, that is, on the left side of the Jordan, in Perea.

The Jewish authorities began to be troubled by the extraordinary success of John the Baptist among the people. The people had begun to look upon him, if not as the Messiah Himself, then as His forerunner.

To avoid a clash with them, and also in order to widen the field of his activity, John moved his preaching to another place and withdrew beyond the borders of Judea.

From the low hollow of the Jordan, he apparently went higher, to a small plain adjoining the river near Scythopolis. There the famous Gideon's "spring of trembling" breaks steeply from the eastern edge of the Jezreel plain into the valley of Jalud, toward the Jordan.

"This happened," that is, this conversation of John with those sent to him from the Jerusalem Sanhedrin.

"In Bethabara": in very many ancient manuscripts it reads "in Bethany." Perhaps the little place had two names, as happened in Palestine and happens everywhere. In any case, this was not the Bethany near Jerusalem, because this one is expressly noted as being by the Jordan.

Origen found a settlement named Bethabara almost directly opposite Jericho, on the eastern, Perean or Gileadite, bank of the Jordan. Here, probably, John baptized, choosing a place near a large trading city for the convenience of those who wished to be baptized and to hear his preaching about the Christ who had appeared.

As he begins to set forth the history of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Evangelist John begins his narrative directly with the testimony of John the Baptist concerning Jesus Christ as 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 region.

Since at that time the Jews were awaiting the Messiah with intense expectation, the members of the Sanhedrin sent a delegation to John to find out who he was. John the Baptist stated plainly that he was not the Christ.

The evangelist, as an exact historian, also indicates the place where the Forerunner conversed with those sent by the Sanhedrin. This indication of place also gives weight to the testimony given concerning Jesus.

The testimony was not given somewhere in a hidden place, but where thousands gathered to hear John's preaching. It was given within the hearing of thousands of people, within the hearing of all Judea.

Origen, while reviewing the Gospel text and considering that Bethany, where Lazarus was raised, lay south of Jerusalem and not beyond the Jordan, considered the reading "this happened in Bethany" to be a scribal error. He introduced the reading, "this happened in Bethabara."

The locality mentioned here is apparently the one named in Judges 7, to which Gideon sent the Ephraimites during the war with the Midianites. Bethabara means "house," or place, "of the ford" or "crossing."

It is also regarded as identical with Beth-nimrah, mentioned in Num 33 and Josh 13 among the fortified cities of the tribe of Gad on the eastern bank of the Jordan.

In some of the oldest manuscripts that have come down to us, Bethany is read instead of Bethabara. This, of course, is not the Bethany located fifteen stadia from Jerusalem. It is a place of the same name on the Jordan, the second name of the locality where John baptized.

Bethany means "house of dates." The name was probably given to the "place of the ford" because a group of date palms stood there.