John 4:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Yet in all things He conducted Himself as man, giving an example to those who would believe in Him. No servant of God sins if he withdraws to another place when he sees the fury of those who persecute him or seek evil against his soul. Yet it would have seemed that a servant of God sinned in doing this, had the Lord not done it first. The good Teacher did this in order to teach, not because He feared.

Perhaps this also troubles you. Why is it said that Jesus baptized more people than John, and after the word "baptized" it is added, "though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples"? What then? Did the Evangelist speak falsely and then correct himself by adding, "though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples"? Or are both true, that Jesus both baptized and did not baptize?

He baptized, because He Himself cleansed. He did not baptize, because He Himself did not sprinkle. The disciples performed the bodily ministry; He worked together with them by His power. For when He ceases to baptize, when will He cease to cleanse? Of Him the same John says, speaking through John the Baptist: "This is He who baptizes."

Therefore Jesus still baptizes. As long as we need to be baptized, Jesus will baptize. Let a man approach the lower minister without doubt, for he has the higher Master.

Therefore you are not better than John. Yet the baptism performed through you is better than the baptism of John. For this baptism is Christ's, while that was John's. What was performed by Paul, what was performed by Peter, and even what was performed by Judas, was all the baptism of Christ.

Judas performed it, and it was not the baptism of Judas. John performed it, and it was the baptism of John. The baptism Judas performed was Christ's, but what John performed was John's. We do not prefer Judas to John. We prefer the baptism of Christ, even when performed by the hands of Judas, to the baptism of John, even when performed by the hands of John.

For it is said of the Lord that before He was openly manifested, He baptized even more people than John. Then it is added, "though He Himself did not baptize, but His disciples." Himself, and not Himself: Himself by authority, they by ministry. They took part in baptism as ministers, while the authority of baptism remained with Christ.

Therefore His disciples baptized, and Judas was still among them. So were those whom Judas baptized not baptized again, while those whom John baptized were baptized again? Yes, a second time, but not as a repetition of baptism. For those whom John baptized, John baptized. Those whom Judas baptized, Christ baptized.

I do not fear the adulterer, or the drunkard, or the murderer, for I see the dove through whom it is said to me: "Behold, He who baptizes" (Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8; Lk 3:16; Jn 1:33).

It will not be unknown to your hearing, beloved, that the Evangelist John, like an eagle, soared aloft, rose above the earthly darkness, and with keen eyes beheld the light of truth. Much from his Gospel has already been discussed, by the Lord's help, in the course of our ministry. The order of the reading now requires us to discuss the passage read aloud today.

What I am about to say, with the Lord's permission, many of you will hear in such a way that you will recall it rather than learn it as something unknown. Yet your attention must not slacken because this will be a recovery of former knowledge, not the acquisition of new.

This passage has been read and is now before us, because what the Lord Jesus said with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well requires interpretation. What is said there contains great mysteries and figures of great realities, which nourish the hungry soul and restore it when it grows weak.

"When Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making more disciples than John and baptizing more, though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples, He left Judea and departed again to Galilee" (Jn 4:1-3).

There is no need to speak at length about this. Otherwise, by lingering over what is plain, we may lack time to enter into obscure questions and unfold them. If the Lord had seen that the Pharisees' knowledge of Him would serve their salvation, He would not have left Judea. Had they become His disciples, followed Him, and desired baptism from Him, He would have remained there for their sake.

But since He saw their knowledge and at the same time saw their envy, He departed from there. They knew of Jesus' increase not in order to follow Him, but to persecute Him. He could, of course, have remained there and not been seized by them, had He willed it. He could have remained and not been killed, had He willed it. He could even not have been born, had He willed it.

Yet in everything He did as man, He gave an example to those who believed in Him. A servant of God does not sin if he withdraws elsewhere when he sees hatred from those who persecute him or seek to bend his soul toward evil. Had the Lord not given such an example, a servant of God might have thought that he sinned by withdrawing from danger. Therefore He acted as the good Teacher, to give instruction and not because He feared.

Perhaps you are also perplexed by this. Why was it said that Jesus baptized more than John, and after this it was added, "though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples"? What then? Was the first statement false and then corrected by the addition? Or are both true, that Jesus baptized and did not baptize?

He baptized because He Himself cleansed. He did not baptize because He Himself did not immerse in water. The disciples performed the ministry bodily, while He gave help according to His majesty. How could He cease to baptize without ceasing to cleanse? For of Him the same Evangelist John spoke through the person of John the Baptist, who said: "This is He who baptizes" (Jn 1:33).

Therefore Jesus still baptizes. As long as we need Baptism, Jesus baptizes. Let a man come calmly to the lower minister, for he has the higher Guide.

But perhaps someone says: Christ indeed baptizes, but He baptizes in spirit, not in body. As though each person were filled with the mystery of bodily and visible Baptism by another's gift, and not by His.

Do you wish to know that He Himself baptizes not only with the Spirit, but also with water? Hear the Apostle: "as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her, cleansing her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present her as a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (cf. Eph 5:25-27).

"Cleansing her." By what? "By the washing of water with the word." What is the Baptism of Christ? The washing of water with the word. Take away the water, and there is no Baptism. Take away the word, and there is no Baptism.

After these preliminary remarks, by which the Evangelist approached the conversation with that woman, let us consider what remains, full of mysteries and laden with hidden truths.

He did not baptize Himself, but through His disciples. We understand that they had already been baptized either with the baptism of John, as some think, or, more probably, with the Baptism of Christ. Let Him not be thought to have avoided the ministry of baptism so as to have baptized servants through whom He would baptize the rest. He did not avoid the ministry of His memorable humility, when He washed their feet.

When Peter asked Him to wash not only his feet, but also his head, He answered: "He who has bathed needs nothing except to wash his feet." From this it is understood that Peter had already been baptized.

From this we must understand that the three Evangelists did not contradict the Evangelist John. They omitted the Lord's first coming into Galilee after He was baptized, when He changed water into wine there, and John the Baptist had not yet been handed over. They described His coming into Galilee when John had already been handed over.

The Evangelist John himself speaks of this return to Galilee in this way. When Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was gathering disciples and baptizing more than John, though Jesus did not baptize, but His disciples, He left Judea and withdrew into Galilee. Therefore we understand from this that John had already been handed over, and that the Jews had heard that He was gathering and baptizing more disciples than John had gathered and baptized.

For how could they baptize, or be baptized, if they did not have faith in His Flesh and Blood? He had warned them in advance: "Unless you eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, you have no life in you," cf. Jn 6:53. When they became angry and murmured, Jesus "said to the twelve, 'Do you also wish to go away?' And Simon answered Him: 'We have believed and have come to know,'" cf. Jn 6:67-69. How did they believe, if not through the same means by which the other Jews also could believe in Him, that is, by hearing Him and understanding? The meaning of St. Ephrem's last words seems to be this. Some think that, for the apostles, the Eucharistic Body of Christ served in place of baptism, grounding their opinion on the close bond between the mysteries of the Eucharist and Baptism. On the one hand, baptism, which the apostles themselves received and gave to others, requires faith in the Eucharist, as is clear from Christ's words. On the other hand, it must also be agreed that baptism necessarily precedes participation in the Eucharist, or is united with it in a single act. It should be noted that St. Ephrem here cites the opinion of "some," and not his own.

Luke had earlier mentioned the Baptist's arrest in passing, when describing his preaching activity. Here he gives no reference to this event at all. Instead, he connects Jesus Christ's return to Galilee with His baptism and His temptation by the devil in the wilderness: "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," cf. 4:1. The evangelist regards the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus Christ at His baptism as His anointing for the ministry of the Messiah. He regards His temptation by the devil in the wilderness as the first trial of His redeeming struggle against the spirit of darkness. This trial prepared Him for His public ministry to the human race. After this personal struggle and victory over the spirit of malice, Jesus Christ entered upon the ministry of the Messiah in the power of the Spirit received by Him at baptism.

They might lead the people to doubt the truth of those legalistic rabbinic rules in which the whole religion of the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem consisted. They did not yet have open hostility toward the Galilean Teacher, since Christ Himself carefully avoided a collision with them. His hour had not yet come. To confront danger boldly now, before duty required it, would have been contrary to His whole mission. Apart from the jealousy of the Pharisees, the people themselves gave sufficient reasons for Christ to leave Judea. Christ was in no way a popular agitator, striving by every means to attract the masses by flattering their empty curiosity with miracles. Many people were already gathering to hear His teaching. Yet this people still presented very unresponsive soil. The words of His teaching were still more like seed falling by the road, on rocky places, or among thorns and thistles that choked it. Therefore He again left Judea, in order to continue His ministry among the more receptive Galileans.

The Samaritan people arose from the mingling of Israelites with five peoples resettled from the East by the king of Assyria after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Most of that kingdom's inhabitants had been taken captive to Assyria and sold into slavery in the markets of the East. From that time the Israelite people lost its independent name in history, and the Samaritan people took its place. The Samaritans retained many pagan beliefs and a pagan way of life, while at the same time venerating Jehovah. Yet of the Hebrew sacred books they accepted only the Pentateuch of Moses. Thus they formed a sect within Judaism. The Jews treated them with greater contempt than pagans. Because their religious beliefs had some resemblance to those of the Jews, the Samaritans were more dangerous than pagans in their influence on the purity of the Jewish faith. When the Jews, after returning from the Babylonian captivity, began building the second temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans offered their services so that they might share the temple. The Jews rejected them with contempt. When the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, after the pattern of the temple in Jerusalem, the Jews regarded this as an offense against Jehovah. They destroyed the Samaritan temple, since, in their opinion, there could be only one temple to Jehovah, in Jerusalem. After this, the mutual hostility of Samaritans and Jews reached its extreme. The Jews avoided every form of communion with the Samaritans. Not only eating together or entering a house, but even passing through a Samaritan village was considered defilement among the Jews. For this reason the Samaritan woman was greatly astonished at the Savior's request that she give Him a drink.

By his austere appearance and strict fasting, he seemed to approve their soulless outwardness and their rules: "Do not taste, nor touch." Yet the Forerunner soon became the object of their enmity, which burned more fiercely the longer it lasted. He stirred them against himself by plainly calling himself the Forerunner of the Messiah, Jesus. Moreover, he demanded fruits of repentance, and those who imagined themselves righteous did not love repentance. He did not spare these proud teachers of the people. Before everyone he called them vipers, offspring of serpents, Mt 3:7. This was already too painful for proud men. Flavius says that the Pharisees brought John to prison. But the Pharisees disliked Jesus Christ even more. His glory tormented them, like thunder drowning out their reputation. His teaching destroyed them. Therefore not only enmity but malice against Jesus arose in them. When they heard that Jesus "was gaining more disciples than John," they were deeply disturbed. They also heard that His miracles, which John did not perform, were drawing very many to Him, Jn 2:23; Jn 3:2. They therefore resolved to take special measures against Jesus. If the Savior had not hastened to withdraw into Galilee, imprisonment would have been the lot of Jesus the Messiah, Mt 4:12; Mk 1:14; Lk 4:14. St. John mentions Christ's withdrawal to Galilee after noting in Jn 3:24 that the Baptist was still free. St. Matthew, Mt 4:12, and Mark, Mk 1:14, point to the withdrawal into Galilee after the Baptist had been imprisoned. It is therefore clear that both passages speak of one and the same event. From this it is evident that everything described by St. John in Jn 1:35-Jn 4:3 was omitted by the other evangelists.

Gregory the Theologian expresses it as "to whom the Godhead was joined." On precisely this basis St. Athanasius the Great requires that, when reading the Gospel, one attend to what is said of the Lord according to His humanity and what is said according to His divinity. For example, when the Lord says that "of that day and hour no one knows, not even the Son, but only the Father" (Mk 13:32), the Lord says this according to humanity, as man, not as God. Here also, in the word "knew," we must see an indication that the Lord Jesus Christ, by His own will remaining within the limits of humanity, understood and learned by a human mind the malicious attitude of the Pharisees toward Him. Such also was the impression of this knowledge upon the minds of the disciples. As St. Athanasius the Great observes: "I dare say that even the blessed disciples themselves did not have a perfect conception of His Godhead until the Holy Spirit descended upon them. For even after the resurrection 'they doubted'" (cf. Mt 28:17). Keeping this in mind, we suppose that the holy Evangelist John the Theologian deliberately wrote the phrase "Jesus knew." He wished thereby to show that, although all things were known to the Lord according to His divinity, here the human form is spoken of, in which the Lord was pleased to appear to men. Above, concerning verse 22 of chapter 3 and following, we indicated the meaning of John's baptism and of the baptism with which the Lord's disciples baptized. It was a baptism of repentance, a symbolic preparatory act for receiving the great gift of God, baptism by water and the Spirit. This gift is granted to the faithful only after the redemption of humanity by the Lord's death and resurrection; see Tertullian, De Baptismo 2. Let us also recall that Israel was commanded to wash and be purified before the solemn proclamation of the law on Sinai (Ex 19:10-14). The washing prescribed by the ritual law for cleansing from every defilement (Lev 14:1; 15 and following) had to precede readmission into the community of God's people for one temporarily excluded from it. Still more closely, John's baptism recalls the washing of Aaron and his sons before their consecration as priests of the Most High God (Ex 29:4; Lev 8:6). Only in Christianity were the Lord's words perfectly fulfilled: "You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests" (Ex 19:6). For the holy Apostle Peter cries out to Christians: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" (1 Pet 2:9). And the Lord prayed for us: "Father, sanctify them by Your truth" (Jn 17:17). Consequently we, "sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor 1:2; cf. Jude 1:1), are as it were priests of the Most High God. For the holy Apostle Paul said, "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from One. For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, 'I will declare Your name to My brethren'" (Heb 2:11; Ps 21:23). Therefore, before this most important and solemn moral event in the life of humanity, which the Lord raises into priesthood, a preliminary washing was required, as before the Aaronic priesthood. This was the baptism with which John and the Lord's disciples baptized. The priesthood itself was laid upon man by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which accompanies baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:5-6). For in Him is the fullness of the Godhead, worshiped in the Holy Trinity, which the Lord Jesus manifests on earth: the Father and the Word with the Holy Spirit. According to verse 22 of the preceding chapter, after the conversation with Nicodemus the Lord leaves Jerusalem, but remains for some time in Judea. We do not know precisely where the Lord was. But we may suppose that He went northward and perhaps lived for a time in northern Judea near Jericho. In the account of His journey to Galilee through Samaria, it is not said that He passed again through Jerusalem. The Evangelist John, mentioning the Lord's departure from Judea, connects this event with the report that reached the Pharisees that the Lord's disciples were increasing. From the whole Gospel of John, it is evident that the Pharisees played an especially malicious role in persecuting the Lord. The Evangelist John never calls the Sadducees and Herodians by these names, which the other Evangelists give them. The Herodians were adherents of the Idumean dynasty; they are mentioned, for example, in Mt 22:16 and Mk 3:6. John mentions them under the general name of rulers or chief priests, as, for example, in Jn 11:47 and 19:6. In the introduction we indicated that the Sadducees, as a political party supported by the Romans, had seized both the high priesthood and all civil authority. In essence, they were not fanatics, but politicians. The Pharisees, however, were the true representatives of fanatically malicious and suspicious Judaism. At first they watched every step of John the Baptist with sharp attention. Very probably, in alliance with the Herodians, they caused John's imprisonment by the tetrarch Herod Antipas by denouncing the Baptist to him. Herod Antipas was the brother of Archelaus and son of Herod I. He ruled Galilee and Perea. Later he was exiled by Caligula to Lyon together with Herodias, then fled with her to Spain, where he died. See Josephus, Antiquities 18 and Jewish War 2:16. Soon, however, they began to watch the Lord Jesus also with strained and malicious attention. Each day the Lord's teaching became more and more dangerous to them. These narrow interpreters of the law held the whole Jewish people in their power by their ritual ordinances. They felt that power slipping from their hands, and that the kingdom of righteousness and self-denial was beginning, in which there was no place for them. The Lord temporarily leaves the country where the Pharisees were all-powerful masters: "His hour had not yet come."