John the Baptist and the Coming Kingdom of God

“The test for what you’re studying theologically is: does it arouse our religious affections?”[1] In an effort to honour John the Baptist and to orient this study towards God who is love, the hermeneutic of the lectio divina will be used for this essay. For Bernard of Clairvaux, this “Divine Reading” was an approach that sought the truth of scripture through four parts: literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical.[2] So first we will examine the historical aspects of the Baptist’s life, next the mystical symbolic nature of his identity, then the moral implications of the man and his message, and finally we will look to whom John pointed. In doing this, we hope to not only explore the objective facts about John, but to treat him as a person. From a Christian perspective, to understand a person’s identity (both ipse and idem) is to explore his conscious self as well as his relationship with God and with God’s people. So this essay will attempt to answer two questions through a hermeneutic of lectio divina: “Who is John the baptist?” and “What does he show us about God, His Kingdom, and His people?”

Literal

Palestine in the first century was characterized by bubbling unrest and hostility due to the Roman occupation of a Jewish nation that had a unique worldview and belief system. N.T. Wright succinctly summarizes this worldview by showing how the average Jew of the time would answer four questions. “Who are we? We are Israel, the chosen people of the creator God. Where are we? We are in the holy Land, focused on the Temple; but paradoxically, we are still in exile. What is wrong? We have the wrong rulers: pagans on the one hand, and compromised Jews on the other. What is the solution? Our God must act again to give us the true sort of rule, that is, his own kingship exercised through properly appointed officials [a true priesthood and a true king].”[3]

The Jews had hope because they believed in one true creator who loves His creation and does not abandon it. He had acted in history by calling a people through election and covenant, and had promised to restore shalom to all of creation through them. God had made these promises through the prophets who had spoken of a new age to come, a new covenant, and a true return from exile for Israel. This would be a time when the world would be set right under the rule of God. Israel’s role in this new age would be to take “the place - under God and over the world.”[4] So salvation for a first century Jew was not about going to heaven after death, but a rescue from pagan oppression.[5] It was into this world that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, looking very much like a prophet of old and calling people to repent (metanoeō) for the kingdom is at hand.[6]

How God would keep his promises in the near and distant future, and what Israel should do in the mean time, were questions answered differently by different groups. The Pharisees thought the solution was ritual purity and keeping Torah. The Sadducees saw the Temple as the answer. (It was to these two groups that John said “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”[7]) Some groups like the Zealots thought the answer lay in violence. But the majority of Jews simply kept more or less to their scriptural laws, prayed, attended the feasts, and hung on to the hope defined by their worldview.[8]

But one group bears more scrutiny because some scholars think John the Baptist had contact with this sect.[9] The Essenes saw themselves as the ‘true Israel’ and retreated to the desert to ‘prepare the way for the Lord.’10 They were hostile to the ‘wicked priests’ in Jerusalem whom they regarded as having profaned the temple and polluted the land.[10] They believed that God had already begun to act and that He would send his anointed ones, a king and a priest to restore order by leading Israel into war.[11] In the meantime, they remained in the desert as a foretaste of God’s future kingdom.[12] They also practiced ritual washings (baptisms) as an initiation into their community. Although John’s connection to this group is speculative,[13] the Essenes at least give us a window into part of the world he inhabited. We will now narrow the focus to John’s family.

John was of the priestly line and should have followed in his father’s footsteps.[14] “To abandon this role would be unheard of in the society of his time.”16 So how did he come to be a prophetic figure in the wilderness? Heschel’s understanding of the prophetic consciousness and how it differs from the priestly consciousness is helpful in answering some of these questions. “Just as a prophet is the supreme example of anthropotropism, so the priest is the outstanding exponent of theotropism.”[15] For Heschel, theotropism (man’s turning towards God) is attained through ritual acts of the priest, who performs these on behalf of the people. John’s father, Zechariah, was a Zadokite, a descendant from the priestly division of Abijah, and his mother Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.18 John should have been named after his father and become a priest. But God’s intervention resulted in a different name and vocation. A prophet does not choose his vocation, rather it is a result of anthropotropism (God’s turning toward man).[16] So whereas his priestly office came to him through his lineage, his prophetic calling came to him through God’s active intervention in his life, an act of election and grace.

The few sources available about John[17] are silent regarding his childhood, the circles he moved in, and how he came to be in the desert.21 But since I will argue that John’s prophetic consciousness is not a result of these factors, the lack of information is not a hindrance. Heschel rightly argues that prophetic consciousness is not formed from a developmental process, but comes about because of specific events in the person’s life in which the God who is known, imparts personal and specific information.22 This information is not general and it is “improper to employ the term self-revelation … [because] God never reveals His self … He only discloses a word. He never unveils His essence; He only communicates His pathos, His will.”[18]

So in John’s Gabriel-visited birth narrative,[19] and in Zechariah’s Spirit-filled prophecy[20] we see God’s anthropotropism. Later when John starts his public ministry, he has clear but limited God-given information. He is simply a voice with a word preparing the way of the Lord.[21]  Even though John may have been Jesus’ cousin[22] or kinsman,[23] and even though he had leapt in the womb when Jesus was near,[24] he did not know who the “one who comes after” would be.30 In fact his baptizing was for the purpose of revealing this ‘higher ranking’ person to Israel.31 All he knew was that God had sent him to baptize and that “one who baptizes with the Spirit” would be revealed when the Spirit descended and remained.[25] This is the limited but specific word he had been given.

John presented himself as a prophet of old [26] and was viewed as such by his contemporaries.[27] This startling fact should not go unnoticed. As mentioned earlier, the first century Palestinians were “not an anarchic fabric of superstitious Jews who could be swayed by threats and proclamations of any assertive ‘prophet’ but people with intensely mature and worldly outlook in regard to themselves, their beliefs and their religious leaders.”[28] Josephus records other non-conformist voices,[29] but John is in very select company in his ability to draw large geographically diverse crowds[30] to himself and even more so in his being perceived as a prophet. It is no surprise his authority was challenged.[31] It is also no surprise he was perceived as a threat by Herod Antipas.

There had been a four hundred-year silence by Yahweh’s prophets, and the last book of the Old Testament had ended with God’s promise to send Elijah before the day of the Lord.[32] So for John to appear looking like Elijah[33] and “in the Spirit and power of [Malachi’s] Elijah”[34] was to imply the preparation for the coming of Yahweh Himself[35] and His long-awaited salvation.[36] His message was one of impending judgment44 and his baptism was one of metanoia[37] because the nation was not ready and needed to be prepared for the one coming after him. To dive deeper into the man and his message, however, we will now explore how Origen and Augustine saw him.

Allegorical

Both Origen and Augustine envision John the Baptist as a boundary marker. He represents both a temporal marker between the Old and New Testaments, as well as a dimensional marker between earth and heaven. Origen is more interested in John directly and is quite speculative, whereas Augustine is primarily only interested in the Baptist as he pertains to God.

Augustine calls John the boundary stone between testaments, the end of one age and the beginning of another.[38] For Augustine, the human race is divided into two classes: the impious and the devoted to God. From Adam until the Baptist, members of the devoted class “live the life of the earthly man under a servile form of righteousness. Their history is called the Old Testament.”[39] John straddles the boundary by representing the old dispensation of the law and the prophets and at the same time heralding in the new dispensation in which the kingdom of God is preached. “Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb [by leaping at Mary’s arrival].”[48] 

Origen agrees, but because the Baptist is mentioned in the cosmic prologue of the gospel of John, [40] Origen sees him in a more universal way.[41] John is the type of the Old Testament and the beginning of the Gospel. He recapitulates the Old Testament and proclaims the New in two ways: before Christ is revealed he is a prophet and after he is a witness. Origen sees John as the apex of the prophetic tradition who fulfills the principal aim of the Old Testament: to “announce the connection that exists among spiritual events, those that have already happened and those that are yet to come to pass.”[42] This connection is critical to Origen because there is a continuity in the divine economy of salvation. Anyone “who maintains that there is no need for the prophetic witness to Christ wishes to deprive the choir of prophets their greatest gift.”[43] After Christ is revealed, he becomes a universal witness. “When John makes Christ known, man is making God and the incorporeal Saviour known, and a voice is making the Word known.”[44]

John is also the boundary marker between ‘above’ and ‘below.’[45] Augustine orders reality from highest to lowest, and “among those born of women, no one greater than John the Baptist has arisen.”[46] Augustine juxtaposes Jesus’ statement with John’s “He who is coming after me is greater than I”[47] to show that Jesus must be more than a man; He must also be God.[48] Augustine then uses the two Biblical metaphors[49] of sound and light, hearing and seeing, to illustrate this.

Augustine unpacks the difference between John the voice and Christ the Word thusly. A voice does not have to be intelligible; it can be merely an uttered sound or a cry. The Word on the other hand is a concept held in the heart, mind and memory; it is prepared by the will and is intelligible whether spoken or not.[50] The voice is necessary for communication, but is only temporal and passing. Once the idea has been transmitted, it then resides in both the heart of the sender and the receiver.59 The endpoint of the voice is the ear, but the end point of the word is the heart. “So Christ the Word created a voice for [51]himself in John who was made to manifest the Word.”60 Augustine suggests that this was symbolized in the parallel birth narratives in which Zechariah’s silence ended when John was born,[52] whereas Mary understood and took it to heart.[53] Augustine’s use of the metaphor of light is more complex than his metaphor of sound. He compares Christ to the light, the day, and the sun in various places, but John is usually just the lamp. [63]

There are in fact many lamps, but only one light. As a mere lamp, John did not illumine every man, but Christ’s light reaches all. The light for Augustine has a Platonic flavour in the sense that souls attain happiness by participating in the light of God. So Augustine can say that John is not the light because “the rational soul, like the soul of John, cannot be light to itself, and that it shines only by participation in the true light of another.”64 But Augustine differs from the Platonists in that the light of Christ is Biblical wisdom.[54]

For Origen, John (who is not worthy to unstrap Jesus’ sandal) represents an allegory for the journey of faith from below to above. John’s poverty of spirit[55] is the beginning of faith’s journey for all “who are being instructed in the beginning principles of the oracles of God, who come to the voice crying in the wilderness” to prepare themselves for “the spiritual world which is born in them through the enlightenment of the Spirit.”[56] John’s humility must be accompanied by his message of repentance because “the sin of all men is not taken away by the Lamb, if they neither grieve nor are tormented till it be taken away.”[57] John then prepares believers to grasp Christ’s full identity so they can go on to perfection[58] in mature Christian faith.[59] So for Origen, John’s allegory for the journey of faith is a necessary ascent from below to above. “It is not possible to be in the Father or beside the Father if one has not first taken the initiative to ascend, from below, to the divinity of the Son.”[60]

So by looking at John as the boundary marker, Origen and Augustine are able to show the continuity as well as the discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments. They also use John to show the gap between earth and heaven that is now crossable through the journey of faith in the God-man of the cross.

Tropological

Bernard of Clairvaux will be our guide for this section. In his sermon for the birthday of John the Baptist, he focuses on Jesus’ description of John as a burning and shining lamp.72 John is an example to us in both his inner life (burning) as well as his outer life (shining). Both should be present in the Christian life. “Only to shine is nothing; only to burn is not enough. To burn and shine is complete.”[61] But Bernard highlights the fact that Jesus says burning first “because John’s splendor came from [his] fervor, and not the fervor from [his] splendor.”[62] He warns those who seek man’s praise by shining without burning, for they are in danger of the Lord’s judgment.[63]

Bernard sees in John’s life a threefold burning and a threefold shining. John burns with rigor in his life, he has a deep fervor of devotion to Christ and he is consistently bold towards his sinful neighbours. He shines by example, he illuminates what is hidden for the remission of sins, and he lights the darkness for corrective purposes. Given Bernard’s bouts with the Cluniac order over laxity, it is no surprise that he starts with John’s rigorous ascetic lifestyle.[64] Bernard chastised his twelfth-century listeners for their prideful clothing and indulgent diets.[65] He reminded them to work and long for heavenly food instead of the kind that perishes[66] because man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.[67] John also had a chaste and penitent heart, so we should also examine our consciences regularly and confess our sins.[68]

Bernard lists the ways that John was both humble and yet totally devoted to the Lord: he leaped for joy even in the womb,[69] he was afraid to baptize the Lord,[70] he denied being the Christ even when people thought he might be,[71] he said he was not worthy to loosen Jesus’ sandal,[72] and he rejoiced at the voice of the bridegroom.[73] But the best example of John’s humble devotion came when a rivalry developed between his disciples and Jesus’. John was so devoted to Jesus that he was willing to shrink his ministry so that Jesus could expand. John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”[74] Commenting on this passage Loane quotes the hymn: “We must come to the point where the love of Christ can conquer and our heart learns to cry, ‘none of self and all of Thee.’”[75] Teresa of Avila points out that we cannot in fact add or subtract anything from Christ in reality, but we can subtract from ourselves.[76] So she encourages her sisters to be like the silkworm and spin a cocoon so they can die to their self-love and self-will, and then they will be hidden in God’s greatness.[77] For Teresa, this hiddenness is also a union, for unlike John whose role was to unite the bridegroom to the bride and then “retire into obscurity”[78] Teresa recognizes that we are also the bride.

John’s courage was a form of burning and shining. He spoke up against the Pharisees and Scribes[79] and he condemned Herod saying it was not lawful for him to have Herodias[80] and this resulted in his imprisonment and death.[81] Houston reminds us that Christian courage is not some heroic lack of fear that we can muster up, but it is an enlargement of the heart that comes from seeing the wonders of God’s trustworthiness.[82] The man who had come in the spirit and power of Elijah had now encountered his own Ahab and Jezebel.[83] Calvin says this courage is the stance the prophetic identity must have because it is voicing a word that has authority over kings and nations. “Why are prophets and teachers sent? That they may reduce the world to order: they are not to spare their hearers, but freely reprove them whenever there may be need … true prophets and teachers may take courage, and thus boldly set themselves against kings and nations, when armed with the power of celestial truth.”[84] But John’s imprisonment and death demonstrate this boldness is not without cost. The Puritan Richard Baxter said, “What have we time and strength for but to lay out both for God? What is a candle made for, but to burn? Burnt and wasted we must be, and is it not more fit it should be in lighting men to heaven and in working for God than in living for the flesh?”[85]

John also shone by pointing out Christ with his voice. His word illuminated by giving “knowledge of salvation to his people” as Zechariah had prophesied.[86] Bernard demonstrates that John’s voice was not merely about repentance and judgment, but also of gladness,[87] mercy and grace,[88] forgiveness[89] and peace. John’s example of bold speech is held in balance with speech that brings good news and directs people to the life of God. Bernard tells us that to decrease so that Christ might increase, refers only to shining, not burning. Our inner life must continue to burn with zeal for the Lord, while our shining must draw less attention to ourselves. Teresa of Avila gives us an example of how this can be done with her ‘rhetoric of humility.’[102]

Bernard concludes with a counterpoint to Baxter. He says that by shining less and burning more, we will not be consumed. Jesus pours out his Spirit which cannot be emptied so that all can receive.103 Christ promises to give his Spirit in measure so that we will always have the strength to burn rather than shine.[90][91] Even if we think we only have a ‘little oil left for anointing,’105 we should let it burn in a lamp because God will provide the light, for the sun has risen.[92] It is here that we will look next, for even if the sun is blindingly bright, it is where John pointed.

Anagogical

Newbigin says, “John is only a voice. It is futile to get a hold of the person behind the voice and fix him in a place in your scheme of things. There’s nothing to get a hold of … you must just listen to the voice. The important thing about a voice is not the voice itself, but what the voice says or in John’s case, where the voice points.”[93] When John was pressed to identify himself, he denied being anyone but a voice so that people would look away from him and towards the one he spoke of.[94] John’s characteristic posture is pointing at Christ: He is the voice that speaks of the Word, he is the lamp that burns with the light, he is the best man who rejoices for the bridegroom, and he is the water-baptiser who speaks of the Spirit-baptiser. If we as humans are on a journey of knowing ourselves by seeing God,[95] then we can perhaps get a glimpse into John’s evolving identity through his view of Christ. So we will look at John’s vision of Jesus before he baptized him, during the baptism, after he baptized him, and what he heard about Jesus when he was imprisoned by Herod.

Initially John’s view of the “one who comes after” was very much in line with the Jewish worldview described earlier. John baptized with water, but the one coming would baptize with the Spirit and fire.[96] Fire was the prophetic word for judgement[97] and vindication (as it had been for Elijah). John warned the people that Abrahamic lineage was not enough to save them. The coming one was going to cut down the fruitless tree with his axe,[98] clear his threshing floor with his winnowing fork, and burn the chaff with his unquenchable fire.[99] But John did not know who this person would be.

The revealing came at the baptism, and what a revealing it was. John’s view of the one he was preparing the way for was expanded by a theophany. He witnessed Jesus praying, the heavens being torn open,[100] the descent of the Spirit as a dove, and a voice from heaven declaring the man he baptized to be the beloved Son of the Father.[101] John may not have understood the Trinitarian theophany right away, but it must have been a metanoia moment for him. His understanding of his own baptizing action would have been redefined as well. Keel commenting on Psalm 2:7 states that in the ANE world, “before coronation the king is purified and sprinkled with the water of life. In the consecration of the High Priest, a rite partially analogous to the coronation, the candidate was solemnly washed at the beginning of the ceremony.”[102] This was not just a baptism, it was a coronation of a king and the consecration of a high priest. Just like Elijah who had anointed Jehu[103], John found himself anointing Jesus, the king and priest Israel had been hoping for.

Chrysostom tells us that Jesus also sanctified and altered the act of baptism by first passing through John’s baptism of water, and then by baptizing with the Holy Spirit. Following Augustine and Origen, Chrysostom says that John’s baptism was “a bridge between both baptisms, leading across itself from the first to the last.”[104] The original Jewish washing was to cleanse,[105] but John did not wash to purify; his was a baptism of repentance. At the same time, his baptism was as powerless as the original’s to deal with sin. Jesus’ baptism on the other hand would deal with sin in a new way. Johnson says that John proclaimed that Jesus would baptize “in and with”[106] the Holy Spirit.121 This means Jesus immerses us with the Spirit, fills our existence with the glory of God, and infuses us with the very life and glory of the living God.[107]

Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted in the wilderness after his baptism.[108] This gave John forty days to process his theophany. When Jesus returned, John had a new message to proclaim.[109] He said, “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Loane argues that the definite article (the lamb) would have triggered references for his hearers including:[110] Abraham and Isaac’s lamb,126 the Passover offering,[111] and Isaiah’s lamb.[112] “John’s eye was … the only eye in Israel which could at that moment discern the truth, and his proclamation marks the climax of his career.”[113] But what caused John to say this about Jesus? Was there something in the theophany that expanded his vision? Did he perhaps see that Jesus would be baptized a second time with the baptism of suffering for the sin of the world?[114] Or was there something in the audible and visible signs? John was a voice, but a voice from heaven,[115] God himself had not only declared his begotten son to be King[116], but also to be Isaiah’s prophesied servant.[117] John was a lamp, but the visible descent of the Spirit was in the form of a dove, a sign at odds with axes and winnowing forks.[118] Regardless of how John understood this truth about Jesus, “God sanctifies believers by means of theophanies.”[135]

From John’s mountain top experience, we move to his valley. John’s imprisonment was a dark moment. Shut out from the world, he did not know what Jesus was doing. If this was the messianic age, then why was the current political situation not overturned? Why was he still in Herod’s dungeon? The cry of the voice from the pit to Jesus was “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”[119] Loane says that Jesus did not answer with a yes or no to this question, because the passage He quotes from Isaiah would go to the heart of John’s need.[120] Go and tell John, the voice and the lamp, what you hear and see: the deaf hear and the blind see.[121]

This is what John did not see: the kingdom of God would come, not by overturning the kingdoms of the world by force[122] and violence,[123] but by absorbing the violence on the cross. John did not see that the Word (the logos that is the very rational foundation of the universe) would ask “why?”[124] and that the Light of the world would experience the darkness[125] of death. John did not see that through death, resurrection, ascension and outpouring of the Spirit, all of creation would be reconfigured. John was the greatest yet born of women, greater than Abraham, Moses or Elijah. But in the new world, the least in God’s Spirit baptized kingdom, those born from above,[126] those born of water and the Spirit, would be greater than John. “There is a greatness beyond all that John could attain. Moses had led Israel to the edge of Canaan; John stood on the borders of the kingdom: but they did not enter, and the least of those who did would attain to a greatness which they knew not.”[127] The world would in fact be so radically reconfigured, that Jesus could say of those who believe in Him, that they would do greater works than even He![128]

Conclusion

So who was John the Baptist and what does he show us? He was the voice who came to prepare the way for the King. He was a prophet after four hundred years of silence, who stood at the boundary between the old world and the new, between the world of the earthly kingdoms and the world of the heavenly kingdom. He shows us that God has one coherent plan that includes the Old Testament story, but that this plan also involves a radical reconfiguring of the world in an unexpected way.

In this new world, the kingdom comes through the baptism of water and the Spirit rather than through force and violence. It is through the Spirit that Jesus and the Father come to live in us. It is also through the Spirit that we are able to be in Christ and enter into the life of God. Chrysostom, speaking of John’s baptism of Jesus, says that the Spirit appearing as a dove reminds us that Christ is the true Ark, and that only by being in Christ can we enter into the life of God.[129] This means that by being in Christ we can be burning and shining lights that do not run out of oil, and by being in Christ we can truly be ourselves.

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References:

[1] Jim Houston, “Friends and Lovers of God in the 12th Century” INDS616 from Regent College, Vancouver, March 12, 2015.

[2] Ibid.

[3] NT Wright, Christian Origins and the Question of God. Vol. 1. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 243

[4] The place of Adam. Ibid., 264

[5] Ibid., 334

[6] Mt 3:2

[7] Mt 3:7

[8] Wright, 214

[9] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament. Third ed. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 58 10 Ibid., 57.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Wright, 205

[12] Johnson, 57

[13] Carl R. Kazmierski, John the Baptist: Prophet and Evangelist. (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1996), 27-30

[14] A person’s honour stands for their rightful place in society ascribed through birth and family connections. Failure to take up this position means dishonour. Bruce J. Malina, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology. (Atlanta, Ga.: John Knox Press, 1981), 51-60 16 Kazmierski, 23

[15] Abraham Joshua Heschel and Jacob Neusner, To Grow in Wisdom: An Anthology of Abraham Joshua Heschel (Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990), 66 18 Lk 1:5, 1 Chron 24:10.

[16] Heschel, 63.

[17] The Four gospels, Acts, and a short passage from Josephus’s “Jewish Antiquities” 21 Orthodox tradition: Elizabeth hid John in the wilderness to protect him from Herod. 22 Heschel, 68

[18] Ibid., 60

[19] Lk 1:5-25

[20] Lk 2:67-80

[21] Jn 1:20-23

[22] Orthodox tradition: Elizabeth was the sister of Anna, Jesus’ grandmother.

[23] Lk 1:36 συγγενίς is a kinswoman or a female relative

[24] Lk 1:41-44 30 Jn 1;31 31 Ibid.

[25] Jn 1:33

[26] Kgs 1:8, Zech 13:4

[27] Mt 11:9

[28] Shimon Gibson, The Cave of John the Baptist: The Stunning Archaeological Discovery That Has Redefined Christian History (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 125

[29] Ibid., 127

[30] Mt 3:5

[31] Jn 1:19-28

[32] Mal 4:5-6

[33] Mk 1:6

[34] Lk 1:17, Mk 1:6, Mt 3:4, 2 Kgs 1:8, Mal 4:5

[35] Isa 40:3 and Mal 3:1 are not Messianic texts. They are about the coming of the very presence of God. Rikk Watts, “Jesus: His Mission, Message, and Identity” BIBL502 from Regent College, Vancouver, January 25, 2012.

[36] Lk 3:6 Keeping in mind what we have already said about what salvation meant to a first century Jew in Palestine. 44 Mt 3:7-10

[37] Mt 3:11-12

[38] Augustine, Sermo 293, 1-3; PL 38, 1327-1328

[39] Frederick Fleteren, Augustine: Biblical Exegete (New York: Peter Lang, 2001), 203

[40] Augustine, Sermo 293

[41] “John is everywhere a witness and forerunner of Christ.” Origen, Commentary on the Gospel According to John Books 1-10, 2.224

[42] Origen on First Principles: Being Koeschau’s Text of the De Principiis, trans. G. W. Butterworth (New York,NY: Harper & Row, 1966), 4.2.9

[43] Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John Books 1-10, 2.208

[44] Ibid., 2.195

[45] Jn 3:31

[46] Mt 11:11

[47] Mt 3:11

[48] Fleteren, 199

[49] Jn 1:23

[50] Fleteren, 199-200

[51] “A sound is passing, a word is eternal.” Ibid., 200 60 Ibid.

[52] Lk 1:64

[53] Lk 2:19 63 Fleteren., 201 64 Ibid.

[54] Augustine, Confessions, XII.20

[55] Jn 1:23, Mt 5:3

[56] Origen, Commentary, 6.225

[57] Ibid., 6.297

[58] Heb 6:1

[59] “After John’s teachings … the perfect Word sojourns in those who have prepared themselves in advance.” Origen, Commentary, 6.192

[60] Ibid., 1.189, 1.227 72 Jn 5:35

[61] Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Summer Season, (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1991) 89

[62] Ibid., 91

[63] Ibid., 89

[64] John took the Nazarite vow. Kazmierski, 11

[65] Bernard, 92

[66] Jn 6:27

[67] Mt 4:4

[68] Jn 1:9

[69] Lk 1:44

[70] Mt 3:14

[71] Jn 1:20

[72] Jn 1:27

[73] Jn 3:29

[74] Jn 3:30

[75] Marcus L. Loane, John the Baptist as Witness and Martyr (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1968), 71

[76] Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle (Radford, VA: Wilder 2008), 70

[77] Ibid., 71

[78] Loane, 71

[79] Lk 3:7

[80] Mt 14:4

[81] Mk :21-29, Mt 14:6-12

[82] Jim Houston, “The Spiritual Formation of the Identity of Teresa of Avila as Being ‘in Christ’” INDS616 from Regent College, Vancouver, March 26, 2015.

[83] Loane, 108

[84] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, Jer 1:9-10

[85] Loane, 117-118

[86] Lk 1:76-77

[87] Jn 3:29

[88] Jn 1:29

[89] Bernard draws together various texts to show how Christ obtains his bride “without wrinkle or blemish.” (Eph 5:27) He does not find the perfect bride, but rather makes her from a woman of ill repute. Bernard, 95-96 102 Houston, “The Spiritual Formation of … Avila as Being in Christ” 103 Jn 1:16

[90] Jn 3:34

[91] Kgs 4

[92] Mk 16:2

[93] Lesslie Newbigin, The Light Has Come: An Exposition of the Fourth Gospel (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1982), 13

[94] Jn 1:19-23

[95] Hans Boersma, “Christian Identity in the Theology of Gregory of Nyssa” INDS616 from Regent College, Vancouver, March 5, 2015.

[96] Mt 3:11, Lk 3:16

[97] Watts, “Jesus: His Mission, Message, and Identity”

[98] Lk 3: 7-9, 17

[99] Lk 3:17

[100] Mk 1:10 uses the word σχίζω which is the same word used to describe the tearing of the temple curtain (Lk 23:45) and the rocks splitting (Mt 27:51). (cf Isa 64:1, Gn 28:12, Acts 7:56)

[101] Lk 3:21-22

[102] Other Keel, Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms (New York: Seabird Press, 1978) 257

[103] After Elijah’s own theophany, God told him to anoint Jehu whose name means “Yahweh is he” 1 Kings 196

[104] Chrysostom, John. "Discourse On the Day of the Baptism of Christ." Orthodox Church in America. Accessed April 11, 2015.

[105] Lev 15:5

[106] The word en can mean both in and with. 121 Jn 1:33

[107] Darrell Johnson, “The Gospel According to John the Baptist” Evening Public Lecture from Regent College, Vancouver, March 13, 2008

[108] Mt 4:1

[109] Loane argues John had this unique insight after the baptism. Loane, 31-33

[110] The scapegoat could be added to this list as the one who carries our sins away. Lev 16:10 126 Gen 22:7

[111] Ex 12:2

[112] Is 53:7

[113] Loane, 32

[114] Mk 10:38

[115] Since God had not spoken by prophets for four hundred years, Jewish tradition presumed God communicated in this era by voices from heaven. John the prophet and the voice from heaven thus provide a dual witness to Jesus’ identity. Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament, 197

[116] Ps 2:7

[117] The voice from heaven combines Psalm 2:7 with Isaiah 42:1.

[118] The dove represents “a sign of God’s love for mankind and the cessation of the flood.” Chrysostom 135 Boersma, INDS616 Lecture

[119] Mt 11:3

[120] Loane, 96-97

[121] Mt 11:4-5

[122] Jn 6:15

[123] Mt 11:12

[124] Mt 27:46

[125] Mt 27:45

[126] Jn 3:3 Born ἄνωθεν means “born from above” (cf Jn 3:31)

[127] Loane, 108

[128] Jn 14:12

[129] Chrysostom, “Discourse On the Day of the Baptism of Christ.”