John 3:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If he had also ceased baptizing, he would have stirred up their rivalry all the more. Therefore Christ also began especially to preach when John had been killed.

I think John's death was permitted, and came so quickly, so that the attention of all the people might be turned toward Christ. Then opinions would no longer be divided between the two.

Yet even while baptizing, John did not cease exhorting and showing the great and exalted dignity of Jesus. He baptized for no other reason than this: "that they should believe in Him who was to come after him" (Acts 19:4).

Since he preached this, how would he have shown the dignity of Christ's disciples if he had stopped baptizing? People would have thought he did this out of envy or vexation.

By continuing to preach, however, he proved their honor still more strongly. He did not acquire glory for himself, but sent his hearers to Christ.

He helped Him no less than His disciples did, and even more. His testimony was above suspicion, and he had greater glory among all than they did.

The Evangelist indicated this when he said, "Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan went out to him" (Mt 3:5). Even when the disciples were baptizing, the people did not cease coming to him.

This was so that the whole devotion of the people might pass to Christ, and not be divided in thought between the two, John and Christ.

Christ's disciples baptize with a baptism that has nothing greater than John's baptism. Both are imperfect, since they do not partake of the Spirit, though the aim of both is one: to lead the baptized to Christ.

With shameless insolence, they would set the baptism with water above it. To what audacity do they not come? What blasphemy do they not invent, who rise against the sacred dogmas of the Church?

They "pervert all that is right," as it is written (Mic 3:9). To forestall their presumptuous grounds, the wise Evangelist brings before us the holy Baptist himself, offering his disciples the answer to the question.

Christ, then, baptizes through His disciples, and John does the same. Yet John does not baptize through others, nor in the same springs where Christ did this.

Rather, as it is written, he baptized near Salim, in one of the neighboring and adjacent springs. By this distinction of water sources, I think, the Evangelist sets forth the distinction in baptism.

As though through a riddle, he indicates that the baptism through John is not one and the same as the baptism from our Savior Christ. Yet it is close to it, as a certain anticipation and preparation for the more perfect Baptism.

As the Law of Moses, it is said, "has a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things" (Heb 10:1), so also must we understand the baptism unto repentance.

For the Mosaic writing contains within itself the hidden seed of truth. It is a prefigurement and foreannouncement of service in the Spirit.

That catechumen might say in his heart, "What profit is it to me to receive Baptism, so that I may possess what is also possessed by one whom I am already better than now?"

Therefore, lest this neck, raised up in some by the merits of their own righteousness, should destroy them, the Lord willed to be baptized by a servant.

It was as though He said to His proud sons, "Why do you exalt yourselves? Why do you lift yourselves up because of what you have? One has understanding, another learning, another chastity, and another boundless patience.

Can you have as much as I have, who gave these things? And yet I received baptism from a servant, while you disdain to receive it from the Lord!" That is: "Let all righteousness be fulfilled" (cf. Mt 3:15).

But someone will say, "Then it was enough for John to baptize the Lord. Why was it necessary for others also to be baptized by John?"

We have already spoken of this too. If the Lord alone had been baptized by John, many people would have supposed that John's baptism was better than the Lord's.

They would have said, "How great was the baptism John had, since Christ alone was counted worthy to be baptized with it."

Therefore, so that it might be clear that the Baptism the Lord was about to give was better than John's baptism, the Lord Himself was baptized.

The one could be understood as baptism from a servant, and the other as Baptism from the Lord. By being baptized, He gave an example of humility.

Yet He was not the only one baptized by him, lest John's baptism should seem better than the Lord's Baptism.

For this purpose, as you have heard, brethren, our Lord Jesus prepared the way. No one should refuse to be baptized by the Lord because he ascribes to himself some abundance of goodness.

For however much a catechumen may advance, he still bears the burden of his unrighteousness. It will not be remitted to him until he comes to Baptism.

As the people of Israel were not delivered from the Egyptian people until they came to the Red Sea, so no one is delivered from the weight of sins until he comes to the font of Baptism.

Under the pretext of defending their teacher, they might have raged still more fiercely against Jesus Christ and the apostles. Jesus Christ Himself knew this.

Therefore He began to preach more openly only when John had been taken from among the people. Chrysostom says: I think his very swift death was permitted so that all the people's devotion might be transferred to Jesus Christ.

It was also so that later they would not be divided in their opinions about the two. If anyone asks what advantage the disciples' baptism had over John's baptism, we shall say: none.

Both alike lacked the grace of the Holy Spirit. Both had one aim: to lead the baptized to Christ.

Therefore He resolved to spend a considerable time there with His disciples. He Himself was occupied with teaching, while His disciples baptized those who believed in Him.

His work was successful. His community soon became far more numerous than John's. Meanwhile, John's community also was being prepared for Him.

The hostile spirit, fearing their united action, sought to create a division between them. Yet the power of God overcame this cunning of the evil one.

They received the name of John's disciples. But the Baptist had not succeeded in developing their understanding to grasp this truth: his teaching was, for them in the strict sense, a preliminary and preparatory school.

Since they looked upon their teacher with boundless reverence, they considered it a certain injury to his honor when they saw the people increasingly hastening for instruction to Jesus, to whom John had borne witness.

They openly expressed this before their teacher.

Both Aenon and Salim are places not precisely determined. On the basis of the testimony of ancient ecclesiastical writers, they must have been in Samaria.

In that case, the activity of Jesus Christ at this time was near the Jordan, within the territory of the tribe of Judah.

But in Josh 15:32, cities are named in the tribe of Judah in southern Palestine: Shelihim or Selhim and Ain. These plainly sound like Salim and Aenon.

If these are the same cities, then the activity of Jesus Christ at this time was in southern Palestine.

In the Evangelist Luke, the imprisonment of the Forerunner is also mentioned out of chronological order, before the Baptism of Jesus Christ (3:20).

But when the first Gospels are compared with the Gospel of John, it becomes clear that the first Evangelists omit the whole history of Jesus Christ's entrance into public ministry.

Immediately after the Lord's Baptism and temptations, they pass to the narrative of His Galilean activity. Its beginning took place much later, about nine months later, and did indeed coincide with John's imprisonment.

Compare Jn 4:3 with Mt 4:12, Mk 1:14, and Lk 4:14.

The silence of the first Evangelists about John's continuing ministry at the beginning of Jesus Christ's preaching could cast a shadow on the truthfulness of the Gospel narratives.

So also could their silence about Jesus Christ's preaching before the Forerunner's imprisonment. Therefore the Evangelist John forestalls a possible doubt about the events he describes.

In the present narrative, he observes that John the Forerunner had not yet been cast into prison at that time.

Thus this remark serves not only to reconcile the Gospel accounts. It also has a very important significance for Gospel chronology.

After this brief remark about the Forerunner's freedom, the Evangelist recalls a dispute of his disciples with the Jews that was most unpleasant for them.

It greatly agitated them and compelled them to turn to their teacher for the resolution of a question that had strongly occupied their thoughts.

The question properly concerned the dignity of the baptism belonging to their teacher in comparison with the baptism of Jesus Christ (Jn 3:25-26).

This fulfilled the words of the risen Savior: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19).

At the same time as Christ's disciples, John the Baptist also continued to baptize. More people were going to Christ. This is how it had to be.

But John's devoted disciples were grieved that the people's attention to their teacher was weakening. The Pharisees made use of this touching attachment to John, which reached the point of extreme blindness.

They stirred up envy and ill will in them toward Jesus Christ and His disciples. Equally malicious toward Christ and toward His Forerunner, the Pharisees wished to sow discord between the disciples of both.

In this way they hoped to reduce their influence over the people to nothing. Stirred up by the Pharisees, the disciples of John the Baptist came to him with their complaint.

"Rabbi! He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, He is baptizing, and all are going to Him" (v. 26).

Many were also coming to the disciples of Jesus to be baptized, and the number wishing this was rapidly increasing (Jn 4:1-2).

The growing reverence toward Christ Jesus, and the thought that their teacher John and his disciples might soon lose the people's respect, filled the hearts of John's disciples with sorrow.

The dispute about baptism with the Jew gave them occasion to pour out their grief before their teacher. They said, "Rabbi! He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, is baptizing, and all are going to Him."

"He to whom you have borne witness" means Him "whom you praised and made glorious" (Chrysostom). For persons "witnessed to" are the same as those approved, Acts 6:3.

In Laertius 1.24, μαρτυρει δ αυτω και Ηρακλειτος και Δημοκριτος means, "Heraclitus and Democritus also praise him."

The poor men do not understand themselves. They do not understand that, by being vexed at the growing glory of Jesus, they are thereby no longer disciples of John.

John had said aloud before them, "I am not worthy to loose the strap of His sandals." They do not understand that they are not concerned for their teacher's honor at all, but only for themselves.

Their teacher counted it an honor to be the servant of Jesus, not to be higher than He. Thus ambition and envy darkened their noetic vision of the great events and of themselves.

It is clear that these self-loving disciples were not among the best disciples of the Forerunner. The best disciples, such as Andrew, Peter, John, Philip, and Nathanael, were on the side of Christ Jesus, not against Him.

Later, Paul found such disciples of John in Ephesus. They had no idea of the grace of the Holy Spirit or of grace-filled Baptism, and did not understand John's baptism well.

Yet they were still obedient enough that, after hearing Paul's instruction, they were baptized with grace-filled Baptism (Acts 19:2-5). In other places, some of John's disciples appeared who formed a sect hostile to Christianity.

Most authorities, including Archpriest Sokolov in his Sacred History and in the map attached to it, apparently on the basis of Eusebius and the reports of the Palestine Exploration Fund, place Salim on the western bank of the Jordan.

They place it on the border of Samaria and Galilee. Aenon lies south of Salim, and in all probability, according to Westcott in the Speaker's Bible and Grove in Smith's Bible Dictionary, it is the Chaldean, that is, Aramaic, word ain.

This means "spring," or in the plural "springs," ainan, and the word was transcribed in Greek letters as αἱνόν.

There is another opinion, that Aenon was near Nablus, or Shechem, in Samaria. We mention it only to state that we do not share it.

This is especially so because St Jerome also indicates in the Onomasticon that Aenon lay eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis, "near Salim and the Jordan," juxta Salem et Iordanem.

Scythopolis was ancient Beth-shean (Josh 17:11; 2 Sam 21:12; cf. 1 Macc 5:62; 12), whose name was replaced by Scythopolis in 2 Macc 12:29. It is now again called Beisan, with a slight alteration of the ancient name.