Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/556

 JOHN

JOHN

that Herod on this account had Zachary put to death between the temple and the altar, because he had prophesied the coming of the Messias (Baron., "An- nal. Apparat.", n. 53). These are worthless legends long since branded by St. Jerome as " apocrj'phorum somnia".

Passing, then, with St. Luke, over a period of some thirty years, we reacli what may be considered the beginning of the public ministry of St. John (.see Chronology, Biblical). Up to this he had led in the desert the life of an anchorite; now he comes forth to deliver his message to the world. "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar . . . the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching" (Luke, iii, 1-3), clothed not in the soft garments of a courtier (Matt., xi, 8; Luke, vii, 24), but in those "of cameVs hair, and a leather girdle about his loins "; and " his meat" — he looked as if he came neither eating nor drinking (Matt., xi, 18; Luke, vii, 33) — "was locusts and wild honey" (Matt., iii, 4; Mark, i, 6); his whole countenance, far from suggesting the idea of a reed shaken by the wind (Matt., xi, 7; Luke, yii, 24), manifested undaunted constancy. A few incredu- lous scoffers feigned to be scandalized: "He hath a devil" (Matt., xi, 18). Nevertheless, "Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan" (Matt., iii, 5), drawn by his strong and winning personality, went out to him; the austerity of his life added immensely to the weight of his words; for the simple folk, he was truly a prophet (Matt., xi, 9; of. Luke, i, 76, 77). "Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt., iii, 2), such was the burden of liis teaching. Men of all conditions flocked round him.

Pharisees and Sadducees were there; the latter attracted perhaps by curiosity and scepticism, the former expecting possibly a word of praise for their multitudinous customs and practices, and all, prob- ably, more anxious to see which of the rival sects the new prophet would commend than to seek instruc- tion. But John laid bare their hypocrisy. Drawing his similes from the surrounding scenery, and even, after the Oriental fashion, making use of a play on W'Ords {abanimbanim), he lashed their pride with this well-deserved rebuke: "Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penance. And think not to say within yourselves. We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is al:)le of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire" (Matt., iii, 7-10; Luke, iii, 7-9). It was clear something had to be done. The men of good will among the listeners asked: "What shall we do?" (Probably some were wealthy and, according to the custom of people in such circumf5tances, were clad in two tunics. — Joseph., "Antiq.", XVIII, v, 7.) "And he answering, said to them: He that hath two coats, let him give to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do in like manner" (Luke, iii, 11). Some were pulilicans; on them he enjoined not to exact more than the rate of taxes fixed by law (Luke, iii, 13). To the soldiers (probably Jewish police officers) he recommended not to do violence to any man, nor falsely to denounce anyone, and to be content with their pay (Luke, iii, 14). In other words, he cautioned them against trusting in their national privileges, he did not countenance the tenets of any sect, nor did he advo- cate the forsaking of one's ordinary state of life, l>ut faithfulness and honesty in the fulfillment of one's duties, and the humble confession of one's sins.

To confirm the good dispositions of his listeners, John baptized them in the Jordan, "saying that

baptism was good, not so much to free one from certain sins [cf. St. Thorn., "Summ. Theol.', Ill, Q. xxxviii, a. 2 and 3] as to purify the body, the soul being already cleansed from its defilements by justice" (Joseph., "Antiq.", XVIII, vii). This feature of his ministry, more than anything else, attracted public attention to such an extent that he was surnamed "the Baptist" (i.e. Baptizer) even during his lifetime (by Christ, Matt., xi, 11; by his own disciples, Luke, vii", 20; by Herod, Matt., xiv, 2; by Herodias, Matt., xiv, 3). Still his right to baptize was questioned by some (John, i, 25); the Pharisees and the lawyers refused to comply with this ceremony, on the plea that baptism, as a preparation for the kingdom of God, was connected only with the Messias (Ezech., xxxvi, 25; Zach., xiii, 1, etc.), Elias, and the prophet spoken of in Deut., xviii, 15. John's reply was that he was Divinely " sent to baptize with water " (John, i, 33); to this, later on, our Saviour bore testimony, when, in answer to the Pharisees trying to ensnare him, he implicitly declared that John's Ijaptism was from heaven (Mark, xi, 30). Whilst liajitizing, John, lest the people might think " that perhaps he might be the Christ" (Luke, iii, 15), did not fail to insist that his was only a forerunner's mission: "I indeed baptize you with water; but there shall come one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in his hand and he wiU purge his floor; and will gather the wheat into his l)arn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" (Luke, iii, 16, 17). Whatever John may have meant by this baptism " with fire ", he, at all events, in this declaration clearly defined his relation to the One to come.

Here it will not be amiss to touch on the scene of the Precursor's ministry. The locality should be sought in that part of the Jordan valley (Luke, iii, 3) which is called the desert (Mark, i, 4). Two places are mentioned in the Fourth Gospel in this connexion: Bethania (John, i, 28) and Ennon (A. V. ^non, John, iii, 23). As to Bethania, the reading Bethabara, first given by Origen, should be discarded; but the Alexandrine scholar perhaps was less wrong in sug- gesting the other reading, Bethara, possibly a Greek form of Betharan; at any rate, the site in question must be looked for "beyond the Jordan" (John, i, 28). The second place, Ennon, "near Salim" (John, iii, 23), the extreme northern point marked in the Madaba mosaic map, is described in Eusebius's " Onomasticon " as being eight miles south of Scyth- opolis (Beisan), and should be sought probably at Ed-Deir or El-Fattir, a short distance from the Jor- dan (Lagrange, in "Revue Biblique", IV, 1895, pp. 502-05). Moreover, a long-standing tradition, traced back to A.D. 333, associates the activity of the Pre- cursor, particularly the Baptism of the Lord, with the neighbourhood of Deir Mar-Yuhanna (Qasr el- Yehud).

The Precursor had been preaching and baptizing for some time (just how long is not known), when Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, to be baptized by him. Why, it might be asked, should He "who did no sin" (I Pet., ii, 22) seek John's "baptism of penance for the remission of sins" (Luke, iii, 3)? The Fathers of the Church answer very appropriately that tliis was the occasion preordained by the Father when Jesus should be manifested to the world as the Son of God; then again, by submitting to it, Jesus sanctioned the baptism of John. " But John stayed him, saying: I ought to be baptized by thee, and eom- est thou to me?" (Matt., iii, 14). These words, im- plying, as they do, that John knew Josus, are in seeming conflict with a later declaration of John recorded in the Fourth Gospel: "I knew him not" (John, i, 33). Most interpreters take it that the Precursor had some intimation of Jesus being the