John 1:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But if He has no need of such testimony, why was John sent by God? Not because He needed John's testimony. To say this would be the height of blasphemy. Why, then? The Evangelist explains this when he says: "that all might believe through him."

If Christ Himself says, "I do not receive testimony from man," let the senseless not think that He contradicts Himself. Here He speaks in one way, and elsewhere in another: "There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony which he bears of Me is true" (Jn 5:32).

In the latter place He meant John. But after saying, "I do not receive testimony from man," He immediately adds the explanation of His words: "I say these things that you may be saved" (Jn 5:34).

It is as though He were saying: "I am God and the true Son of God, of one immortal and blessed essence with the Father. Therefore I have no need of any witness. Even if no one wished to bear witness of Me, My nature would in no way be diminished.

"But since the salvation of men is the object of My care, I descended to such self-abasement that I allow even a man to bear witness of Me." Because of the weakness of the Jews, faith in Him could thus become easier and more accessible for them.

He clothed Himself in flesh so that, appearing to men in His unveiled Godhead, He would not destroy them all. Likewise, He sent a man as His herald, so that the hearers of that time, hearing a voice akin to their own, might follow Him more readily.

That the Son of God had no need whatever of John's testimony would have been sufficiently proved if He had merely revealed Himself as He is in His essence and struck all with terror.

But He did not do this. As I have already said, He would have destroyed everyone in this way, since no one could have endured the assault of that unapproachable light.

Therefore, I say, He is clothed in flesh and entrusts testimony concerning Himself to one of our fellow servants. He orders all things for the salvation of men, keeping in view not only His own dignity, but also what His hearers could receive and what would profit them.

He Himself expressed this when He said: "I say these things that you may be saved." The Evangelist repeats the Lord's saying, and after the words "to bear witness to the Light," he adds: "that all might believe through him."

It is as though he were saying: Do not think that John the Baptist came to bear witness in order to give credibility to the Lord's teaching. No. He came so that his kinsmen might believe through him.

That the Evangelist was hastening to forestall this very thought is clear from the following words, which he adds: "He was not the Light" (Jn 1:8).

The sun also rises in order to illumine all. But if someone shuts himself in a dark room and does not benefit from its ray, is the sun to blame? So it is here. John was sent so that all might believe through him. If this did not happen, he is not at fault.

Together with Him there is nothing else that has power to illumine and has no need of light. Therefore the Word of God is alien, and, so to speak, of another nature in relation to creation.

This is so if He truly and really is Light in the proper sense, while creation partakes of the Light. But He Who no longer stands in the rank of creatures is therefore understood as of another nature.

How, then, could He be created, and not rather uncreated? How, finally, could He not be within the bounds of the Godhead and not possess the nature of Him Who begot Him?

According to what was spoken by God through Moses, "by the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three witnesses, every matter shall be established" (Deut 19:15; cf. Mt 18:16). Therefore he prudently draws the blessed Baptist to himself.

Although the Evangelist was a most honorable person, he did not think it right to demand from the readers of his writing a faith concerning our Savior beyond the Law. Nor did he require them to believe him alone in a narrative about things beyond our mind and understanding.

They guided the Magi by a star, ministered to Jesus Christ, and announced His Resurrection to the myrrh-bearing women. The Father also bore witness from heaven concerning His Divinity at the Jordan, saying, "This is My beloved Son" (Mt 3:17).

Likewise on Tabor He said with a clear voice, "This is My beloved Son; listen to Him" (Lk 9:35). All four elements bore witness to His divine power.

The earth bore witness by earthquake and splitting. The sea bore witness by being crossed as dry land. The air bore witness by the obedience of the winds. Fire bore witness by the darkening of the sun.

Even the demons themselves bore witness to the Divinity of the Savior, crying out and shouting, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" (Lk 8:28).

But human testimony was also needed, because Jesus was not only God, but also man. Therefore all the prophets bore witness concerning Him through prophecy.

The sick bore witness through healings, the possessed through deliverance, and the dead through resurrection from the dead. Yet John His Forerunner bore witness concerning Him more than all men.

Conceived of an aged and barren mother, he leapt and worshiped Him while still in his mother's womb. He pointed Him out with his finger, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God" (Jn 1:36).

He baptized with the baptism of repentance, preparation, and faith in Him Who was coming after him, that is, Jesus Christ (Acts 19:4). He preached that he saw the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descending upon Him (Mt 3:16).

He bore witness by preaching, by deeds, and in every way concerning the Divinity of Jesus Christ. He bore witness so that all, through his testimony, might believe that Christ is the Son of God.

Having taught us this, the God-speaking Evangelist also forestalls the doubt which some had concerning John, saying, "He was not the Light, but came to bear witness concerning the Light."

It means that he was not an independent light, not self-originating, and therefore unable to transform and give life to human nature.

Here erchomenon eis ton kosmon can be grammatically referred either to anthropon or to phos. Yet this expression in Holy Scripture is usually used in relation to Jesus Christ (Mt 11:3).

Moreover, designating Jesus Christ as the One still to come into the world fully accords with the course of the Evangelist's thought here. He speaks of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world as accomplished only from verse 14.

Therefore the expression, erchomenon eis ton kosmon, should be referred to phos.

He did not confine himself to general exhortations and rebukes. He denounced with truly prophetic sharpness and directness. "You brood of vipers!" he cried to the crowd of Pharisees and Sadducees who had come to hear his preaching, more to criticize than to confess and repent. "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

According to the Evangelist, "the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by John" (Lk 7:30). Thus they did not accept his mission, even declaring him to be possessed (Lk 7:33).

He exposed all the emptiness and uselessness of their petty ritual disputes and casuistry. For this they in turn hated him. But since John had his authority not from them, but from above, he did not flatter them.

He addressed them with the same prophetic severity as he addressed the crowds they despised, demanding that they "bear worthy fruit of repentance."

In their narrow, pedantic arrogance, they considered their share in the kingdom of the Messiah already secure, simply because they were descendants of Abraham. They supposed that his righteousness would be imputed to them.

In their view, only Israel could find favor with God, precisely by virtue of its ancestral character. They thought and taught that the Kingdom of Heaven would be a purely Jewish kingdom, and that all other nations would be excluded from it.

But John mercilessly overthrew this false casuistic construction. "Do not think to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham," and to exclude you, his supposed sons, from the Kingdom if you do not repent.

Such preaching could not fail to strike the scribes and Pharisees. They enjoyed universal honor among all, yet this man addressed them with threatening rebuke.

They imagined that he would be before them like a reed shaken by the wind. In reality, he proved to be an unshakable oak. Flattery and fear were as foreign to his great soul as his rough mantle would have been among the soft garments of a king in a palace.

The sharp contrast between John's teaching and the teaching of the rabbis appeared with special force in the answers he gave to his various questioners.

If fire threatened the rabbis themselves, what fate, in their opinion, must have awaited ordinary people? Yet from the prophet's mouth thundered words that not only aroused fear, but also directed men toward a higher morality in outward deeds.

When the people heard John's terrible preaching, that "even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire," they asked him in trembling, "What then shall we do?"

He answered them: "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise" (Lk 3:9-11).

If they would help the hungry and the naked, and see in this their duty of love for mankind, they would thereby prove the sincerity of their repentance.

John embraced all classes with his human sympathy. Like Christ Himself, he rejected none of them. The publicans, despised by all, from whom the Pharisees withdrew as from the accursed, found consolation and assurance that they too could receive a share in the Kingdom of Heaven.

When the publicans asked him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" he answered them: "Collect no more than what is appointed for you."

Soldiers also asked him, "And what shall we do?" He said to them: "Do violence to no one, accuse no one falsely, and be content with your wages."

If the publicans honestly fulfilled their duty, and if the soldiers did not use their strength to insult others, but remained faithful to their standard and content with their modest position, this would be a sign of their good repentance.

It would be a sign of their fidelity to conscience, which would bring down upon them the blessing of God.

Yet while demanding practical fruits of repentance, John also pointed out that all who repented would receive special help from above in their moral efforts. He declared that the help of the Spirit of God was necessary for complete inner transformation.

"I baptize with water, but One mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

The hardened would undergo baptism by fire. To the contrite would be given the heavenly gift of a higher will, higher power, and higher knowledge of God, as well as higher communion with Him.

Knowing the needs of the time and filled with the spirit of the prophets, he could not forget how the Old Testament prophets proclaimed, as a sign of the Messiah's coming, that Jehovah would "pour out His Spirit on all flesh" (Joel 2:28).

They also proclaimed that He would "pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground," and that "His Spirit would be on the house of Israel" (Isa 44:3; Ezek 39:29).

Therefore he could not doubt that the One toward Whom he was only the heralding voice, the One whose sandals he would have counted it too great an honor even to loosen, would come not only with vengeance, but also with blessing.

For this He would bring with Him the highest life-giving power, namely the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, under the influence of John's preaching and the extraordinary rite of baptism performed by him, the expectation of the Messiah proclaimed by the new prophet grew and strengthened more and more in the soul of the people.

And this Messiah finally came. He appeared openly before the people after His long, unknown stay in distant Nazareth.

Finally, by a special divine indication at the baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, he became a witness concerning the very person of this Jesus of Nazareth. He testified that He Himself is the promised Messiah, the Christ.

He was an immediate and wholly faithful witness. All the Old Testament prophets, in a general sense, bore witness concerning the Messiah. They prophesied about Him.

But John, as a prophet, by God's indication pointed with his finger to the Messiah already come. He raised prophecy to the visible and exact testimony of an eyewitness.

In this way he completed or brought to an end all Old Testament prophecy, becoming the immediate witness of the Messiah Who had appeared. The general purpose of this testimony of John was that all might believe through him.

That is, they were to believe in the Messiah-Christ, the Savior of the world. John was to be the mediator of Israel's and the world's faith in Christ (cf. Jn 5:33).

This is the same thing expressed in other words as preparing the way of the Lord, or preparing people to enter the kingdom of Christ. The testimony of such an extraordinary witness had every mark of truth.

It testified that Jesus of Nazareth is precisely the incarnate Word, the life and light of the human world. Therefore one ought to have believed him.

If not all believed his testimony, and if in time they even rejected their Messiah, this did not come from any lack of power and spirit in the witness. Nor did it come from any unreliability in his testimony.

It came from those who did not believe and who rejected this testimony. "The sun also rises in order to illumine all. But if someone shuts himself in a dark room and does not benefit from its ray, is the sun to blame?

So it is here. John was sent so that all might believe through him. If this did not happen, he is not at fault" (Theophylact).

Only obstinacy and blindness could oppose him. How important John's testimony was in the chain of God's testimonies was shown by the Lord Himself.

He repeatedly turned His speech to John, especially when, in His final discourse to the Jews in the temple, He wished to bring the blinded to understanding. The experts in the Old Testament Law could say nothing against this (Mt 21:23-27; Mk 11:27-33; Lk 20:1-8).

"That all might believe through him." The nearer indication of the Promised One was all the more necessary because the Promised One was to appear beneath a very great veil of humility.

Those who had sound eyes, like Symeon and others, could see and understand Him by themselves (Lk 2:25-32). There was nothing to say to the blinded. Even with John's testimony, they remained in blindness.

But most souls were immature and dim-sighted. Since they could not recognize the Promised One by themselves, they could follow Him through an undoubted indication and be fully assured of the truth through communion with Him.

For them John was a necessary guide. Even the Apostles belonged to this class, and after them all the others. To the first class belong the elect, who are very few.

He therefore represented the highest and most perfect servant of the God of the Covenant. In him were combined the meanings of the best Jew and the herald of Christianity.

By birth and by God's calling, John belonged to both Covenants. Therefore, "among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Mt 11:11).

His very name, as some scholars observe, means the gift of the Lord. In any case, we know that the name John was given to him by the command of the Lord and by the angel's announcement (Lk 1:13).

This one "sent from God" comes to bear witness concerning the Light, so that all might believe through him, that is, through John, in the Light that proceeds from the Word of God.

Let us note: all, not only the Jews. The most ancient men of God also foretold that the Lord, in His mercy, was preparing salvation not for the Jews alone.

Moses cried out, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people" (Deut 32:43). The prophet Isaiah said, "The people walking in darkness will see a great light. Upon those living in the land of the shadow of death, light will shine."

He also said, "To the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner for the peoples, the Gentiles shall turn" (Is 9:2; 11:10). And concerning the Servant, the Messiah, the Lord spoke through the prophet.

"I will give You as a covenant for the people, as a light for the Gentiles" (Is 42:6). Therefore John stood in the line of those sent by God who announced the great event in the life of mankind, the coming Messiah.

Like them, by God's command, he summoned all nations and tribes without exception to the source of life and light. Yet as the last in the line of the prophets, he announced not a future event far ahead, but one already arriving.

For this reason he preaches repentance with special force (Mt 3:2; Mk 1:4; Lk 3:3). It is the cleansing path to faith, that true and priceless good through which men receive the right to become children of God (Jn 1:12).

Faith and salvation are preached to the whole world. The preaching itself takes place in the region of the Jordan, on the border of the Jewish and Gentile worlds. This signifies, as it were, that they are addressed to the whole world.