John 1:34Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As for the miracles, one of them left some miracles for another to describe, and all of them passed over others in silence. I say this not without purpose, but with the shamelessness of the pagans in view. This is sufficient proof of the truthfulness of the Evangelists, and that they spoke nothing from partiality.

With this proof, together with others, you can contend against the pagans. But listen: it would be absurd if a physician contended with all diligence for his art, and likewise the shoemaker, the weaver, and every other craftsman for his craft, while one who professes himself a Christian cannot say a word in defense of his faith.

Neglect of those arts brings loss in possessions. Negligence toward the faith destroys the soul itself. We are in such a wretched state that we spend all our zeal on those matters, while we neglect the most necessary thing, on which our salvation depends, as though it were worth nothing.

This does not lead the pagans to condemn their own errors. If they, stubborn in falsehood, do everything to cover the shame of their false teachings, while we, servants of the truth, cannot even open our mouths for it, how will they not condemn us for the weakness of our confession?

How will they not suspect deception and error in us? How will they not blaspheme Christ as a hypocrite and deceiver, who used the ignorance of simple people for deception? We are guilty of such blasphemy whenever we refuse to labor in the study of our faith.

Instead, considering this work superfluous, we care only for earthly things. Some lover of a dancer, runner, or beast-fighter does all he can not to yield when contending about them. He pours out praises on them, defends them against accusers, and strikes opponents with a thousand insults.

But when a word must be spoken in defense of Christianity, everyone lowers his eyes to the ground, scratches himself, yawns, and withdraws in disgrace. What indignation this deserves, when Christ is treated by you as lower than a dancer.

You gather thousands of arguments in defense of what people do for a dancer, though these are the most contemptible of men. Yet in defense of Christ's miracles, which have drawn the whole world, you do not even wish to think or take the least care.

We believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the resurrection of bodies, and in eternal life. Now, if some pagan asks, "Who is this Father, who is the Son, who is the Holy Spirit?" or, "How do you accuse us of polytheism when you yourselves confess three gods?" what will you say?

What will you answer? How will you repel such an objection? And what if, while you are silent, another question is put to you: "What is this resurrection? Shall we rise again in this body or in another? If in this body, why must it be dissolved?" What will you say to this?

And if they ask further, "Why did Christ come now and not earlier? Did He only now desire to care for men, while during all the rest of time He had no concern for us?" What if they inquire into many other things besides these?

But we need not propose further questions and leave them unresolved, lest we harm the simpler people by doing so. What we have said is enough to drive sleep away from you. Indeed, what if you are tested on these matters and cannot even bear to listen to such words?

Tell me, will we undergo a small punishment if we become the cause of such errors for people sitting in darkness? I would like, if you had enough leisure, to show all of you a book written against us by one godless pagan philosopher, and another by one older than he. I would do this to rouse you and draw you away from such idleness.

If they are so sleepless in their accusations against us, can we deserve any forgiveness when we do not know how to repel their attacks? For what purpose, then, have we been brought into the Church?

Do you not hear what the Apostle says: "Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" (1 Pet 3:15)? Paul also exhorts us, saying: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Col 3:16).

What will people say to this, who are more senseless than drones? "Blessed is every simple soul," and likewise: "He who walks in integrity walks securely" (Prov 10:9). Is not all evil from this, that many do not even know how to cite the testimonies of Scripture fittingly?

The wise man in this place is not speaking of a foolish person, nor of one who knows nothing. He speaks of a man who is guileless, not crafty, and prudent. If it were otherwise, it would have been said in vain: "Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves" (Mt 10:16).

But why should we dwell on this, when this word leads nowhere? Apart from what has now been said, we do nothing else that pertains to life and action. In every respect we are wretched people and worthy of ridicule.

We are always ready to accuse one another. But when it comes to correcting the things in which we ourselves are guilty and subject to rebuke, we are always slow. Therefore I implore you: do not limit yourselves merely to mutual accusation. This is not sufficient to propitiate God.

Let us strive to show a change for the better in all things, so that we may live for the glory of God and ourselves enjoy the glory to come. May we all attain it by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

As "every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named" from God the Father (Eph 3:15), because He is Father in the proper, original, and true sense, so every sonship is from the Son.

For He alone is Son in the proper and true sense, not spurious or falsely so named, but from the essence of God the Father.

This is not by cutting off, or outflow, or division, for the divine nature is wholly without passion.

Rather, He is One from One, always coexisting, coeternal, and connatural with the Begetter. He is in Him, and has come forth from Him indivisibly and without extension.

For the Godhead has no bodily nature, is not limited by place, and does not perform spatial movements.

Rather, as from fire proceeds the warmth proper to it, which in our thoughts seems to be separated from it and to exist as something other, distinct from it, so we should understand this.

The warmth exists from the fire and in it by nature, and proceeds from it, without undergoing cutting off, division, or outflow. For all of it is preserved in the whole fire.

In this way we must also think of the divine generation of the Son, receiving an understanding of it appropriate to the Godhead.

We believe that the Son has His own existence, without placing Him outside the one and ineffable Godhead, and without considering Him of another essence than the Father.

Otherwise He should no longer be honored as the true Son. He would turn out for us to be a recent, created god, another distinct from the true and only God.

Indeed, can that which is not consubstantial with God by nature be true God?

Since the blessed Baptist is worthy of complete trust, and since he bears witness that "this is the Son of God," we must confess the Son as true God and from the essence of the Father.

This, and nothing else, is what the name of sonship indicates to us.

You heard in the reading of the psalm that the poor and needy must cry to God in this world (cf. Ps 73:21). This voice, as you have often heard and should remember, belongs both not to one man and to one man.

It belongs not to one, because there are many believers, many grains amid the groaning chaff scattered over the whole circle of the earth. It belongs to one, because we are all members of Christ and therefore one Body (cf. 1 Cor 12:27).

This poor and needy people cannot express joy in the world. Both its pain and its joy are within, where no one sees except Him who listens to the one who groans and crowns the one filled with hope.

Worldly joy is vain. We wait with great hope for it to arrive, and we cannot keep it when it comes. If today gives joy to the dissolute in this city, tomorrow will not be the same, and tomorrow they themselves will not possess what they possess today. Everything passes, everything evaporates and vanishes like smoke.

Woe to those who love what passes away! Indeed, every soul strives toward what it loves. “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord abides forever” (Is 40:6-8).

See what you should love, if you wish what you love to abide forever. But you may say, “How can I possess the Word of God?” “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).

Therefore, beloved, let our poverty and neediness grieve over those who seem to themselves to live in abundance. Their joy is like the joy of the insane. As an insane man usually rejoices in his madness, laughs, and strikes a healthy man, so we too, beloved, if we have received medicine from heaven, for we all were insane, now groan to God for those who still rage in madness.

We are as men healed, for we no longer value what we once valued. It lies within His power to heal them also.

They must look at themselves and be confounded by their own appearance. But they want to see themselves and cannot. If they caught even a glimpse of themselves, they would see how greatly they should be ashamed.

Until that happens, our desires will be elsewhere, and the rest of our soul will be elsewhere. Our pain is stronger than their joy. As for the multitude of brothers, it is hard to imagine that any man has been carried away by that gathering.

But the multitude of sisters carried away by the festival grieves us. Their number ought to cause special pain, because they do not hasten to church, though if fear does not turn them away from those crowded assemblies, at least modesty should.

Would that He who sees all might see this, and that His compassion might come to their aid to heal them all. But we who have gathered here, let us taste the food of God, and let His word give us joy. He has called us to His Gospel. He Himself is our food, sweeter than which there is nothing, if only a man has a healthy taste in his heart.

I think, beloved, that you remember well that this Gospel is read in order by sections. I think it has not escaped you what has already been discussed, especially the recent discourse about John and the dove.

Concerning John, we said that through the dove he learned something about the Lord, though he already knew the Lord. By the inspiration of the Spirit of God, this was revealed: although John already knew the Lord, through the dove he learned that the Lord Himself would baptize in such a way that the authority to perform Baptism would pass to no one else.

For it was said: “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove and abiding upon Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (Jn 1:33). What does “this is He” mean? It means no other, even if Baptism is administered through another.

Why through a dove? Much was said, and I cannot repeat it all again, nor is there any need. The main point is that this was done through a dove for the sake of peace, propter pacem.

For that very dove brought back to the ark those trees that had been baptized outside, when it found fruit upon them. As you remember, the dove was sent by Noah from the ark, which was floating in the waters of the flood and was washed by baptism. It did not drown.

After it was sent out, it brought back an olive branch, and it had not leaves only, but fruit also (cf. Gen 8:8-11). This is what we should desire for our brothers who have been baptized outside the Church: that they may have fruit. The dove will not allow them to remain outside, but will bring them back to the ark.

The whole fruit is love, without which a man is nothing, whatever else he may have. We have already mentioned and discussed what the Apostle said about this at great length.

He says: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I am sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. If I have all knowledge, and if I know all mysteries and have the gift of prophecy and all faith,” in what sense did he say “all faith”? “so that I can remove mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and give my body to be burned, but have no love, it profits me nothing” (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-3).

But those who destroy the unity of the Church can in no way say that they have love. Since this has already been said, let us see what follows in the Gospel.

John bore witness to what he saw. What did he bear witness? That “this is the Son of God” (Jn 1:34). Therefore it was fitting that He should baptize who is the only-begotten Son of God, not a son by adoption.

Sons by adoption are ministers of the Only-begotten. The Only-begotten bears authority; the adopted bear ministry. If a minister baptizes who does not belong to the number of the sons, and if he lives wickedly and acts basely, what should console us? This: “He is the one who baptizes” (Jn 1:33).

John later said: "I did not know Him; but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: He on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God" (Jn. 1:33). What, then, was the sign of the Spirit that descended upon Jesus? It was not the imparting to Him of something He did not possess. If we dare speak so, it was the visible overflowing, even for outside witnesses, from the divine being of Jesus upon His humanity. "He Himself sent down the Spirit from heaven, insofar as He is God; and He Himself received Him on earth, insofar as He is man," says Athanasius the Great. The form of the dove signified the divine meekness of the Teacher. It recalled the dove that brought to the forefather of the world, renewed by the flood, the branch of peace between heaven and earth. The Gospel history does not show how many were counted worthy to see this divine manifestation. It speaks only of John as having seen it. The ancient interpreters of Holy Scripture are more agreed in the opinion that the manifestation of the Spirit in the form of a dove was not for John alone. Yet the vision of the opened heavens was disclosed to Stephen alone, though many witnesses were present. The events at the Jordan also had no small importance for the ministry of John. John was always free from any desire to appropriate to himself what he had not been called to possess. Now, with joy, he changed his preaching about the One who was coming into preaching about the One who had come. Now with still greater zeal he began to preach repentance and the nearness of the kingdom of heaven. "Quickly" means before the others baptized with Him had time to come out.

32), for God Himself had given him this sign. When sending him to baptize with water, God told him that the One on whom he would see the Spirit descending and remaining was He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (v. 33). "And I have seen this," John concludes his discourse, "and not only have I myself known. But in accordance with my calling I have also borne witness to others that this is the Son of God." That John here calls Jesus Christ the Son of God in the proper sense is shown by the fact that in verse 30 he confesses Him to be eternally existing.

The Prophet Isaiah had foretold how the Spirit of the Lord would descend upon the shoot from the root of Jesse: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Is. 11:2). This prophecy was now fulfilled. This was the divine anointing of Christ to preach good tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God (Is. 61:1). It was His formal consecration from above to the office of Messiah. In this sense it was the true hour of the birth of Christianity. It was His solemn elevation to the office of High Priest of the New Covenant. The ceremonial law required the sons of Aaron to be consecrated to their lofty office through washing and anointing. He who was now being clothed with an infinitely higher priesthood also had to enter His office through a corresponding, though more wondrous, rite of consecration. Instead of a temple made with hands, He had around Him the great temple of nature. Instead of the bronze laver, He had the flowing streams of the river, reflecting the majestic vault of heaven. If He did not have gold-woven garments, He had the garment of sinless righteousness. Instead of consecrated oil, the grace of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Him. By inspiration from above, John already knew that the Spirit had to descend in this way upon Him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit (Jn. 1:33). Thus he saw in this the confirmation of his faith that Jesus truly was the Lamb of God and His Son (Jn. 1:34). At the same time, in the baptism of Jesus the participation of the whole Holy Trinity was solemnly manifested. In the name of the three Persons Christian baptism is performed as a mystery. Having baptized Jesus and thus fulfilled the chief purpose of his ministry, John continued afterward to preach repentance. Jesus, filled in His human spirit with thoughts and feelings concerning the ministry that lay before Him, sought solitude for a time. He wished to be alone with God and to prepare Himself for the great work. For this purpose He withdrew from the waters of the Jordan into the wilderness. There He remained for forty days, marked by His triumph over the dark powers of this world.

The Forerunner did not know Jesus personally before His appearance at the Jordan. "He lived the whole time in the wilderness, not in his father's house" (Chrysostom). How, then, did he say to Jesus: "I need to be baptized by You" (Mt 3:14)? These words show that John knew the exalted person of Jesus.

Yes, he knew Him by an inward illumination of the mind as soon as Jesus came to him. But this knowledge was not yet fully sufficient. Clearer and more convincing indications were required concerning who Christ Jesus was.

"I saw," says the Forerunner, "the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and remaining upon Him." Even this was not enough. "He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."

The vision of the dove descending upon Jesus was certainly not an act of imagination, even if imagination had been stirred by the Holy Spirit. The Evangelist Matthew relates that, when Jesus had been baptized, He immediately came up from the water, and the heavens were opened to Him. The clouds opened, as we see when lightning flashes.

St. Mark, Mk 1:10, and John say that the Forerunner saw the Spirit of God as a dove. Or, as St. Luke expresses it more precisely, He descended in bodily form, somatiko eidei. It is clear that the Spirit of God descended visibly, in a form perceptible to bodily senses, as He descended upon the Apostles.

Did others besides the Forerunner see all this? "Even if they saw it," says Chrysostom about the Jews, "for such things bodily eyes alone are not sufficient. The eyes of the mind are especially needed, so that a real object may not be taken for an empty sign."

This means that capable people, people with a right disposition of mind and heart, saw it. But there was no need for everyone to see it. In itself, this was quite sufficient for recognizing the Messiah in Jesus.

Yet the Jews could still express doubts about the correctness of John's subjective vision. The Forerunner says that, just as the Lord appeared to the prophets and proclaimed one or another will of His, so the Lord Himself appeared to the son of Zacharias and declared His thought: "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."

Do you believe the appearances of the Godhead to the prophets? Then you must also trust me in my preaching that Jesus is that Messiah who will perform upon men a grace-filled, inward baptism, one able to transform the very hearts of men. Otherwise, you must reject the whole history of the people of God.

This is why he says: "I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." When did the Forerunner testify that Jesus is the Son of God? "He called Him the Lamb and also said that He would baptize with the Holy Spirit. But that He is the Son of God, he did not say" in John's Gospel.

"The other Evangelists do not write that, after the baptism, he said anything. Passing over the events of that time, they speak of Christ's miracles, which occurred after John's imprisonment. From this we may conclude that they passed over this and much else in silence. This very Evangelist, John, showed the same at the end of his Gospel" (Chrysostom, Zigabenus).

Here, then, is another testimony of the Forerunner concerning Jesus, the son of Mary. It is a testimony showing in Jesus an extraordinary messenger of God, even the Son of God, and it is a testimony confirmed by the witness of heaven.

At the same time, He shows man that all who believe in Him and love Him must also receive the Holy Spirit. Without His gifts and help, man is powerless in his striving toward God and the good.

“Jesus comes up from the water,” says Gregory the Theologian, “and raises the world with Himself. He sees the heavens opened, which Adam had shut against himself and those after him. The Spirit bears witness to the Godhead, and a voice is heard from heaven, for from there comes the One who is witnessed.” And further: “He is seen bodily as a dove, for He honors the body of Christ, since by deification this too is God.”

“The Spirit,” says Basil the Great, “was co-present with the very flesh of the Lord, becoming its anointing and abiding inseparably with it. According to what is written.” Compare Jn 1:33 and Acts 10: “Jesus, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit.” Compare Lk 4 and Is 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,” the Lord said of Himself.

John very solemnly repeats the statement that he did not know the Lord until he saw Him at the Jordan (cf. verse 31). Still more solemnly and mysteriously, he speaks of Him who sent him to baptize and who revealed to him the sign by which John knew that before him stood “He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” and “the Son of God.”

How this revelation occurred, and how John received the commands given to him, we do not know. Only those specially chosen by God can know the mystery of God’s direct communication with mortal man, or understand and comprehend the voice of God.

Only a few understood the testimony from heaven mentioned by John (Jn 12:29). For the people, it was only thunder. John saw “the Spirit descending and abiding upon the Lord,” and, behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17).

This great moment of the Theophany of the Holy Trinity signified that the time was coming when mankind would be allowed to draw near to the Godhead. Great mysteries were being opened to it, and it was to be sanctified and baptized with the Holy Spirit.

John’s baptism with water only prepared for the reception of the great Baptism with the Spirit. The Lord spoke to Nicodemus about this baptism, or rebirth of the inner and eternal man: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5).

“Holy Scripture,” says Basil the Great, “ascribes to the action of the Spirit the ordering of our whole nature, and calls the Spirit the renewer of creation unto incorruption.” Psalm 103:29-30 says, “You send forth Your Spirit, and they are created.”

In the Evangelists Matthew (Mt 3:11) and Luke (Lk 3:16), it is highly significant that they add that the One coming after John “will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Fire is kindled by the presence of God. It gives light and warmth when the lamp of the human soul is lit from it. But it burns the disobedient and the proud, for the presence of God is terrible for sinners. It is the more terrible the more they have enjoyed His mercies.

But fire also has a third meaning: it is a means of purification. “The Creator is called Spirit and fire,” says Gregory the Theologian, “the one because He is an intellectual, that is, spiritual nature, the other because He is purifying.”

From now on, the whole thought of mankind, as it listens to the words of John the prophet and Baptist, must be concentrated upon Him “who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” and who is “the Son of God.”

This One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit is He who said to His disciples: “I will send you the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.” This Comforter, the Spirit of truth, “when He comes, will guide you into all truth” (Jn 15:26; 16:13).

After His Resurrection, He also said to His disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22), and “He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Lk 24:45).

Before the Ascension, He promised them the complete renewal of nature, or, in Basil the Great’s expression, “creation unto incorruption,” saying to them: “You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

Therefore the revelation in the Gospels of the mysterious descent of the Holy Spirit in visible form upon the God-man, as He receives John’s baptism, is a great and merciful disclosure to us of the mysterious ways of God.

The Lord, in the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, assumes human flesh and becomes perfect man. As such, He receives baptism by water and by the Spirit, signifying that man too must receive the same baptism.

Without this baptism, man is powerless to rise to Christ, who draws him to Himself by His love.

At the beginning of His human ministry, the Lord receives the Holy Spirit as man. In this He signifies in Himself all mankind, whose sins He takes away.

So man, in his weak and insignificant form, can do good and draw near to God according to the measure of his weak powers only when he is sanctified and his nature is renewed by the Holy Spirit.

This Spirit is sent from the Father by the Lord Jesus, man’s brother according to the flesh.

Man receives the right to obtain the priceless and renewing gifts of the Holy Spirit, and to be “recreated unto incorruption,” only when he has been washed by the divine Blood.

This occurs only when the Lord in the flesh has completed His ministry, offered Himself as a sacrifice, redeemed man, and been glorified forever.

The Evangelist John says of the disciples’ reception of the Holy Spirit: “This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in His name were about to receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn 7:39).

On the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and upon disciples from all nations, see Acts 1:8; 2:1-4 and following; 4:31; 8:17; 10:44-47, and many other passages. “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise, of the Holy Spirit, in Christ Jesus through the Gospel” (Eph 3:6).

Considering the testimonies of all four Evangelists, namely Jn 1:33-35 with Mt 3 and 4:1, Mk 1:11-12, Lk 3:21-23, and Lk 4:1, we understand that our Lord Jesus Christ spent His childhood and youth in complete quiet and obscurity.

The only exception is His appearance in the temple as a child (Lk 2:40-52). As for all traditions about miracles performed by the Lord in childhood, they are wholly rejected by the Church.

He entered upon His ministry “at about thirty years of age” (Lk 3:23). At that time He received in the flesh the baptism by water from John and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

“After the baptism, every action is performed in the presence of the Spirit,” Basil the Great observes. “The Spirit was co-present even with Him when He was tempted by the devil, for it is said, ‘Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness’” (Mt 4:1).

The temptation of the Lord in human flesh by the devil for forty days occurred after the baptism and the overshadowing of the God-man by the Holy Spirit.

We venture to indicate that the last three temptations mentioned by the Evangelists are these. First is the temptation of the flesh by hunger. Second is the temptation of human vainglory by royal, worldwide glory. Third is the most dangerous temptation for man under the appearance of humility: the temptation of secret pride, by which man thinks himself perfect and therefore tempts God.

But from Mt 4 it is clear that the devil did not know for certain whether this was the Son of God or not.

Thus the temptation concerned, and could concern, only the man. Yet, let us note, it concerned the perfect man, strengthened by the Holy Spirit.

In this case, the Godhead, by His Most High will, permitted the temptation of the man. He likewise permitted the suffering and death of the perfect human being in whom the will of God, having assumed human flesh, was accomplishing our salvation.

He gave this flesh over to temptation and suffering for the salvation of all mankind.

John, who baptized the Lord and saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Him and abiding upon Him, begins by God’s command to preach about the Coming One, who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

But when John receives this command, he does not yet know where the One about whom he preaches is. Yet now the Lord, having completed the struggle of temptation, is already approaching.

As we dare to infer, the Lord is coming from the wilderness to John (verse 29). John is baptizing beyond the Jordan, πὲραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, in the words of John the Theologian (Jn 1:28).

For the writer, this always means the left bank of the Jordan, the Transjordan side, the bank of the wilderness. Therefore, when John “the next day saw Jesus coming toward him,” we should think that the Lord was coming from the Transjordan wilderness toward the left bank.

At this time, those sent by the Pharisees question John, and he bears witness to the Lord. First, he says that this is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (verse 29).

Second, he reveals to the people the mysterious signs by which it was granted him from God to know Him. Third, he points out that the Coming One is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

Finally, he completes his testimony with the solemn proclamation that the Coming One is the Son of God, “for thus the voice from heaven had informed John” (Mt 3:17).

This most sacred name was first spoken of the Lord Jesus by the angel of annunciation, sent to the Most Holy Virgin Mary. The angel said to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy one who is born will be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).

John proclaims this sacred title before the people and before those sent by the Pharisees, the chief priest, and the scribes. “And John confessed and did not deny” (verse 20).

Directly and openly, moved by the Spirit of God, he calls Him the Son of God upon whom the Holy Spirit descended during His baptism.

Before this testimony, could the Pharisees, priests, and Levites, who knew the Scriptures, remain in doubt or be perplexed that the Coming One is the Messiah?

If, because of the malice of their heart and their human calculations, they wished to deny the Messiah, they had to do so with full consciousness of what they were doing.

Such is the meaning of all the actions of those whom John the Theologian includes under the common name of the Jews.