The Baptism of Jesus ChristJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
inaugurates his public ministry as an adult.
Matthew'sThe Gospel of Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth...
infancy narrative has established Jesus as the
MessiahMessiah literally means "anointed "...
, the
Son of God"Son of God" is a phrase found in the Hebrew Bible, various other Jewish texts and the Christian Bible. In the holy Hebrew scriptures, according to Jewish religious tradition, "Son of God" has many possible meanings, referring to angels, or humans or even all mankind...
, Son of David and
King of the JewsKing of the Jews may refer to:History:Ruler of historic Jewish kingdoms and client states:* Kingdom of Israel * Kingdom of Judah * Hasmonean dynasty * Herodian Dynasty Others:...
. Matthew's description of
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of Baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel...
explains that John preached repentance before the coming judgment, baptism for the
forgivenessForgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, and/or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all...
of sins, and the imminent arrival of one far greater than him. In doing so he was preparing the way of the "Lord" and eagerly anticipating the coming after him of the "mightier" one.
Jesus as an adult comes to the
Jordan RiverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
to seek his own baptism from
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of Baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel...
. Matthew's gospel uniquely includes a conversation between Jesus and John. John humbly objects to baptizing Jesus, insisting instead that Jesus baptizing him. John's concern seemed to be twofold: (1) John baptized others for repentance and forgiveness of sins, something the sinless Jesus did not need; (2) John's ministry included the coming of a "mightier" one who would bring a better baptism—not only with water but with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus persisted and John acceded to administer Jesus' baptism. In accepting John's baptism, Jesus is seen as identifying with sinful humankind and expressing his full solidarity with us.
Jesus inaugurated his public ministry by stepping into the place of sinners with all our guilt on his shoulders and carrying it down into the depths of the Jordan. His baptism by John marked his acceptance of death for the sins of humankind; his coming up out of the water depicted his resurrection.
In what may be termed an adult epiphany, Jesus' baptism by John is concluded by images of the heavens opening the dove-like descent of the Holy Spirit and a
heavenly voiceBath Kol is a "heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God's will or judgment, His deeds and His commandments to individuals or to a number of persons, to rulers, communities, and even to whole nations." It was "identified with the Holy Spirit, even with God; but it differed essentially from the...
. It speaks in the third person singular, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The voice combines key phrases from the Old Testament: "My Son" (the Davidic king as God's adopted son in Psalms 2 and 10, "beloved" (Isaac in Genesis 22), and "with whom I am well pleased" (the servant of God in Isaiah 42:1).
Jesus then goes into the wilderness where
the devil tempts himThe temptation of Christ in Christianity, refers to the temptation of Jesus by the devil as detailed in each of the Synoptic Gospels, at , , and . According to these texts, after being baptized, Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the desert...
, and when he returns he begins his ministry. In the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel of John , is the last of the four canonical gospels. This non synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth...
, John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the
Lamb of GodLamb of God is one of the titles given to Jesus in the New Testament and consequently in the Christian tradition. It refers to Jesus' role as a sacrifice atoning for the sins of man in Christian theology, harkening back to ancient Hebrew sacrifices in which a lamb was slain during the Passover...
, and the Spirit in the form of a dove descends on Jesus, but there is no mention of Jesus' baptism.
Most Christian groups view the baptism of Jesus as an important event and a basis for the Christian rite of
baptismIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
(see also ).
In
Eastern ChristianityEastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to...
, Jesus' baptism is commemorated on 6 January, the feast of Epiphany. In the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, the
Anglican CommunionThe Anglican Communion is an international association of national Anglican churches. There is no single "Anglican Church" with universal juridical authority as each national or regional church has full autonomy...
, and some other Western denominations, it is recalled on a day within the following week, the feast of the
Baptism of the LordThe Baptism of the Lord is the feast day commemorating the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Originally the baptism of Christ was celebrated on Epiphany, which commemorates the coming of the Magi, the baptism of Christ, and the wedding at Cana...
. In Roman Catholicism, the baptism of Jesus is one of the Luminous Mysteries of the
RosaryThe Rosary or "garland of roses" is a popular and traditional Roman Catholic devotion. The term denotes both a set of prayer beads and the devotional prayer itself, which combines vocal prayer and meditation...
.
Location
John the Baptist is placed by the passage in the wilderness of
JudeaJudea or Judæa is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank Judea or Judæa (Hebrew: יהודה,
Standard Yəhuda
Tiberian , "praised, celebrated"; Greek: Ιουδαία, Ioudaía; ) is the...
, which is generally taken to refer to the region of Judea sloping down from the highlands to the
Dead SeaThe Dead Sea is a salt lake in Jordan to the east and in the West Bank and Israel to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world's...
, an arid area not well suited to habitation. The term normally translated as
wilderness is occasionally translated as
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
, although there was enough moisture to allow for
pastoralismPastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, sheep, and so forth. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh...
. According to
PlinyGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
this region was home to the
EssenesThe Essenes were a Jewish religious group that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE that some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests...
, and John could possibly have been one of their major leaders. According to
Donald GuthrieDonald Guthrie was a New Testament scholar. Guthrie was a graduate of the University of London . From 1949 until his retirement in 1982 Guthrie was lecturer in New Testament studies at London Bible College , and from 1978 until 1982 he served as vice-principal of the college.Guthrie is well known...
, at this time wilderness was considered much closer to God than the more corrupt cities.
According to some traditions, Jesus meets John at the
Jordan RiverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
, five miles south of the
Allenby BridgeThe Allenby Bridge , also known as the King Hussein Bridge , is a bridge that crosses the Jordan River, and connects Jericho in the West Bank to the country of Jordan...
, near Qasir al-Yahud on the
West BankThe West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel, which maintains the security of this area. To the east,...
. This location is today the site of an Eastern Orthodox
monasteryMonastery , a term derived from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer Monastery (plural: monasteries), a term derived from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος - monasterios...
. The area is currently an Israeli military district closed to the public. However, during Christian holidays and on other occasions, in coordination with Israeli authorities, the site opens for public pilgrimage and baptism rituals. Other areas down the river are provided for Christian pilgrims who wish to perform baptism there themselves.
Another site with a good tradition showing early Christian activity on the Eastern bank in
JordanJordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in Western Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba. Jordan shares borders with Syria to the north, Iraq to the northeast, Saudi Arabia to the east and south, the Gulf of Aqaba to the southwest,...
in Al-Maghtas (
Baptism, or
Immersion in Arabic), is considered by many to be the site of the baptism of Jesus following
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
-sponsored excavations. The location fits with :
These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. As well as the evidence from archaeology and early pilgrims accounts. This site was visited by
Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer...
in March 2000, and in 2007 a documentary film entitled "The Baptism of Jesus Christ - Uncovering Bethany Beyond the Jordan" was made about it.
Both locations appear on the Map of Madaba:
- Western Bank as Bethabara
This entry incorporates text from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia with some modernisation.Bethabara , in modern-day Jordan: According to the King James Version the place where John the Baptist baptized those who came to him...
, (House of the Ford, or of the Crossing)
- Eastern Bank as Aenon
Ænon is a Greek word coming from a Hebrew term "ay-yin". It means "spring" or "natural fountain", and was a place near Salem where John the Baptist baptized . Its probable location was near the upper source of the Wadi Far'ah, an open valley extending from Mount Ebal to the Jordan River which is...
or Sapsaphas (Place of the Willows)
The baptismal scene
In Luke, Jesus is watched as one of a large crowd who had come to see John and is baptized before them, while Matthew makes no mention of anyone besides John and Jesus being at the scene. The scene opens in Luke and Matthew with John delivering a polemic apparently against the
PhariseesThe word Pharisees comes from the Hebrew פרושים perushim from פרוש parush, meaning "set apart" . The Pharisees were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era...
and
SadduceesThe Sadducees were a group of Jews opposed to the Pharisees , founded in the second century BC. They ceased to exist sometime after the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD....
who are present. Luke and Matthew then re-join the account of Mark, which does not contain the polemic, by portraying Jesus as going down to John and being baptized by him.
The polemic
Once John has been introduced into the narrative, both Matthew and Luke have him immediately described as meeting a group of people, and calling them a
brood of viperThe Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes found all over the world, except in Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Madagascar, Hawaii and the Arctic Circle. All have relatively long hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of venom...
s, urging them to repent. That Mark does not contain this lecture while the other two synoptics do has led scholars to believe that this section comes from the
Q documentThe Q document or Q is a postulated lost textual source for the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke. It is a theoretical collection of Jesus' sayings, written in Koine Greek...
. Luke has John addressing the people that have come to see him in general, while Matthew has him address the
PhariseesThe word Pharisees comes from the Hebrew פרושים perushim from פרוש parush, meaning "set apart" . The Pharisees were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era...
and
SadduceesThe Sadducees were a group of Jews opposed to the Pharisees , founded in the second century BC. They ceased to exist sometime after the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD....
in particular. According to several scholars, the presence of the Pharisees and Sadducees does not indicate their intent to join John's movement, but rather their wish to investigate it and decide whether it is a threat to their own power.
A number of theories have been advanced to explain why Matthew directs John's attack to these groups while Luke focuses on the general multitude.
Eduard SchweizerEduard Schweizer was a Swiss New Testament scholar who taught at the University of Zurich for an extended period.He wrote a number of influential books, many translated into English, including:*Jesus...
believes that since Matthew was writing for a more Jewish audience than Luke, Matthew did not want to offend all Jews and thus focused only on the religious authorities, who had become a direct threat to the Christianity of Matthew's time. Other scholars disagree with this view; some hold instead that
Pharisees and Sadducees should be understood as a
catch-all term for the Jews in general.
Brood of vipers was a common expression at the time indicating those filled with malice, which NT theologian
R. T. FranceRichard Thomas France is a New Testament scholar and Anglican Rector. He was Principal of Wycliffe Hall Oxford from 1989 to 1995. He has also worked for the London School of Theology.-Biography:...
believes could be rooted in . Later in Matthew the expression is employed by Jesus himself on two occasions ( and ). This insult has been borrowed by a number of other writers, including Shakespeare in
Troilus and CressidaTroilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. The play is not a conventional tragedy, since its protagonist does not die. The play ends instead on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between...
,
Anthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era...
in
Barchester TowersBarchester Towers, published in 1857, is the second novel in Anthony Trollope's series known as the "Chronicles of Barsetshire". It is possibly Trollope's best known work.-Plot summary:...
, Somerset Maugham in
CatalinaCatalina is a feminine given name. It is a Spanish form of Katherine. Catalina is an equivalent to Katherine or Catherine in English, Ekaterina in Russian, Caterina in Italian, Catalan and Ukrainian, Catherine in French, Katarzyna in Polish, etc...
, and in the title of
François MauriacFrançois Mauriac was a French author; member of the Académie française ; laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature . He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur...
's
Le Nœud de vipères. In Matthew and Luke, the word used for
brood implies Illegitimacy, and so scholars, such as
MalinaMalina is a solar deity in Inuit mythology. She is found most commonly in the legends of Greenland that link her closely with the lunar deity Anningan, her brother. Malina is constantly fleeing from Anningan as the result of strife between the two...
and
RohrbaughThe Context Group is a working group of international biblical scholars who promote research into the Bible using social-scientific methods such as anthropology and sociology...
, consider a more literal translation to be
snake bastardsSerpent is a word of Latin origin that is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some potent symbolic value.-Cross-cultural symbolic...
.
Superficially, the implication of illegitimacy and the phrase
don't think to yourselves "we have Abraham for a father" could be seen as an attack on the importance that Judaism placed on bloodlines. Some, such as R. T. France, do not support this interpretation, and instead see the phrase as a reference to the reliance of the Pharisees and Sadducees on their own religious authority to achieve salvation. Clearly, those having formal hierarchies in their church, particularly Roman Catholicism in regard to the Pope, do not support the interpretation of R. T. France.
John goes on to refer to future
wrath, although Christians interpret this as referring to the
righteous indignation of God. To avoid this wrath, John is described as stating that the fruit of
repentanceRepentance is a change of thought and action to correct a wrong and gain forgiveness from a person who is wronged. In religious contexts it usually refers to confession to God, ceasing sin against God, and resolving to live according to religious law...
should be made manifest, with every tree not bearing fruit being subject to destruction. The imagery used is of God as a
lumberjackA lumberjack is a tradesman in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...
cutting down trees and then burning them, much like the imagery at and , which may have been the ultimate origin of this verse. An argument for
Aramaic primacyAramaic primacy is the view that the Christian New Testament and/or its sources were originally written in the Aramaic language. Aramaic primacy is asserted over and against Greek primacy .-Brief history:...
can be put forward by this since in Aramaic, the word for a tree
root is
ikkar, while
cutting down is
kar, hence in Aramaic the description is an example of
punA pun, or paronomasia, is a form of word play that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect...
ning. Scholars of the eschatological school believe that this verse originally referred to an imminent
last judgmentThe concept of a Last Judgment is found in all Abrahamic religions and elsewhere like Zoroastrianism and Duat.In Islam, the Last Judgment is referred to as "the Day of Standing" and God Almighty, will judge all Creation....
which, when it failed to occur, was re-interpreted by later Christianity as referring to individual damnation.
In Luke, the crowd react favourably to John's speech, but Matthew neglects to mention the reaction of the crowd.
This passage has become a source of much dispute over
soteriologyChristian Soteriology is the branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation. It is derived from the Greek sōtērion + English -logy...
. While the passage could be read as indicating that good works are merely the outgrowth of internal repentance just as good fruit are the product of a healthy tree, it could also be more simply be regarded as indicating that good works
are repentance. This verse thus became a part of the larger debate over the doctrine held by Protestants about justification by faith. The
Augsburg ConfessionThe Augsburg Confession, also known as the "Augustana" from its Latin name, Confessio Augustana, is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Lutheran reformation...
, for instance, states that "it is taught among us that such faith should produce good fruits and good works and that we must do all such good works as God has commanded, but we should do them for God’s sake and not place our trust in them as if thereby to merit favour before God."
Divine provenance
While Luke is explicit about the
Spirit of God descending in the shape of a dove, the wording of Matthew is vague enough that it could be interpreted only to suggest that the descent was in the style of a dove. There was a wide array of symbolism attached to doves at the time these passages were written. While Howard Clarke believes the symbolism pointed to
NoahNoah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs; and a prophet according to the Qur'an...
sending out a dove to search out new land and hence is a symbol of re-birth, Albright and Mann note that in Hosea, the dove is a symbol for the nation of Israel. In the Graeco-Roman world the dove was a symbol of purity due to its whiteness and the belief that it had no
bileBile or gall is a bitter yellowish, blue and green fluid secreted by hepatocytes from the liver of most vertebrates. In many species, bile is stored in the gallbladder between meals and upon eating is discharged into the duodenum where the bile aids the process of digestion of lipids by...
, it was also a symbol of
AphroditeAphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty and raw sexuality. According to Greek poet Hesiod, she was born when Cronus cut off Ouranos's genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the aphros arose Aphrodite.Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace...
, goddess of love, lust and beauty. Whatever the original intent of the
Synoptic GospelsThe synoptic Gospels are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures...
, the dove imagery has become a well known symbol for the Holy Ghost in
Christian artChristian art is art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of religious image, and there have been major periods...
.
Persona
The narrative begins with a description of a man that Matthew names
John the Baptist, Luke names
John the son of Zacharias, and many manuscripts of Mark refer to as
John the baptizer. On this latter name, Anabaptists insist on the more emphatic translation
John the Immerser. John's title reflects his practice of baptizing people in the
JordanThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
.
John is described as having sparse food and uncomfortable clothing, including the wearing of
hairshirtHairshirt may refer to:*Hairshirt , a 1998 motion picture starring Dean Paras, Chris Hogan, Evan Glenn and Neve Campbell*"Hairshirt", a song) by R.E.M.*Cilice, an uncomfortable shirt worn by some Catholics and, earlier, by Jews as a sign of penance...
s. The description of John the Baptist has played an important role in the development of
Christian monasticismChristian Monasticism is a practice that began to develop early in the history of the Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, including those in the Old Testament, but not mandated as an institution in the scriptures. It has come to be regulated by religious rules Christian Monasticism...
, with John viewed as a model ascetic. However,
CalvinJohn Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
wholly rejected this interpretation, seeing this description simply as an accurate portrait of anyone that was forced to live in the
wildernessWilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
, and instead seeing John's holiness and popularity not because of his asceticism but despite it. Albright and Mann state that the description of John the Baptist's clothing is clearly meant to echo the similar description of Elijah in Kings.
John the Baptist's diet, which the Bible indicates was
locusts and
honeyHoney is a sweet food made by some insects using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
, has been the centre of much discussion. For many years it was traditional to interpret
locust not as referring to
the insectLocust is the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. The origin and apparent extinction of certain species of locust—some of which reached 6 inches in length—are unclear....
, but rather to the seed pods of the carob tree. Albright and Mann believe that this attempt to portray John the Baptist as eating seed pods was a combination of concern for having such a revered figure eating insects, and also a belief that a true ascetic should be completely vegetarian. In Greek the two words are very similar. Most scholars today conclude that this passage is referring to the insects, particularly since the other 22 times the word is used in the Bible it quite clearly refers to insects. Locusts are still commonly eaten in Arabia, and like many insects are quite
nutritiousNutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
. While most insects were
considered uncleanUnclean animals, in some religions, are animals on whose consumption or handling is labeled a taboo. According to these religions' dogmas, persons who handle such animals may need to purify themselves to get rid of their uncleanness.-History:...
,
LeviticusLeviticus or Vayikra is the third book of the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament, and the third of five books of the Jewish Torah or Pentateuch....
permits locusts. What is meant by "honey" is also a subject of some dispute. Aside from the obvious product of
beeBees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s, scholars such as Jones believe that it refers to gum from the tamarisk tree, a tasteless but nutritional type of liquid.
Message
After announcing John's existence, the Gospel of Matthew immediately goes on to portray him as delivering the message
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is nigh, a saying adopted by doom-sayers everywhere in the western world. In both Luke and Mark, however, the message is absent. Clarke notes that this is the first of twenty-nine references to the
Kingdom of HeavenKingdom of Heaven may refer to:* Kingdom of God, a foundational theological concept in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam* Kingdom of Heaven , a 2005 film, directed by Ridley Scott...
in the Gospel of Matthew. Luke and Mark tend to prefer the term "kingdom of God." That Matthew uses the word
heaven is often seen as a reflection of the sensibilities of the Jewish audience this gospel was directed to, in this case Matthew trying to avoid using the word
God. Most scholars believe the two phrases are theologically identical because of the large number of parallel passages in Matthew and Luke in which Matthew uses "heaven" and Luke uses "God." Robert Foster rejects this view, arguing that Matthew does use the phrase "Kingdom of God" in places. He asserts that the Kingdom of God represents the earthly domain that Jesus' opponents such as Pharisees thought they resided in, while the Kingdom of Heaven represents the truer spiritual domain of Jesus and his disciples.
Some scholars believe that when it was written this phrase was intended to be eschatological with the Kingdom of Heaven referring to the end times. According to this theory, when the
last judgmentThe concept of a Last Judgment is found in all Abrahamic religions and elsewhere like Zoroastrianism and Duat.In Islam, the Last Judgment is referred to as "the Day of Standing" and God Almighty, will judge all Creation....
failed to occur, Christian writers gradually redefined the term to refer to a spiritual state within, or worked to justify a much delayed end time. This passage, they say, presented a difficulty in this later endeavour as the phrase translated as "at hand" or "is near" both refer to an imminent event. Albright and Mann suggest that a better translation would be,
The kingdom is fast approaching. France sees it as even more immediate suggesting that the phrase should be read as referring to "a state of affairs that is already beginning and demands immediate action."; i.e., "The kingdom of God is here."
Others such as
O. CullmannOscar Cullmann was a Christian theologian in the Lutheran tradition. He is best known for his work in the ecumenical movement, being in part responsible for the establishment of dialogue between the Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions...
interpret John (and Jesus—Mark 1:15) to refer to an
inaugurated kingdom; one which is present now but is not yet come in all of its fullness, i.e. the kingdom being here (because the
king has arrived), but without being in the fullness of its glory.
The word translated as repent (
metanoo) is translated by R.T. France as "return to God." Albright and Mann state that at the time a general repentance was seen as necessary before the arrival of the messiah; evidence from Qumran seems to substantiate this claim. Clarke notes that in the
VulgateThe Vulgate is an early 5th-century Latin version of the Bible, largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of old Latin translations...
of St. Jerome the word is translated, both here and in Matthew 4:17, as
paenitentiam agite, which he interprets, not as "repent", but as "be penitent", in spite of the use of
paenitentiam agere in the sense of "repent" by the late Classical Latin writers
SallustFor the philosopher, see Sallustius; for other uses, see Sallust .Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust, , a Roman historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines...
,
QuintilianMarcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing...
,
Pliny the YoungerGaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo , better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome...
and
SenecaLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
. Clarke claims that Jerome's translation played a central role in the development of the
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
doctrine of
penancePenance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Christian Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in the Lutheran Divine Service...
. With the increased knowledge of Greek in the Renaissance this translation began to be criticized, with
Lorenzo VallaLorenzo Valla was an Italian humanist, rhetorician, and educator. His family was from Piacenza; his father, Luca della Valla, was a lawyer....
first pointing out the supposed error. Erasmus' 1516 translation and commentary (in Latin) became the first to use "repentance" (in Latin,
paenitentia?) rather than "penitence" (in Latin,
paenitentia?).
John's purpose according to the synoptic gospels
In all three of the synoptic gospels, John the Baptist is described as completing a prophecy made by Isaiah; as the individual who would make straight the paths of
him. The quote, coming from , refers in its original context to making straight the paths of
God, and specifically in reference to later escape from the
Babylonian CaptivityAlthough the term Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile typically refers to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC, in fact the exile started with the first deportation in 597 BC...
. Rather than the
Masoretic textThe Masoretic Text is a Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible . It defines not just the books of the Jewish canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their vocalization and accentuation for both public reading and private study...
, the quote uses the wording of the
SeptuagintThe Septuagint , or simply "LXX", referred to in critical works by the abbreviation ...
, as is usual for New Testament quotations of the Old Testament.
The importance of John
Matthew and Luke describe Jews coming from
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
, all of
JudeaJudea or Judæa is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank Judea or Judæa (Hebrew: יהודה,
Standard Yəhuda
Tiberian , "praised, celebrated"; Greek: Ιουδαία, Ioudaía; ) is the...
, and the areas around the
Jordan RiverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
to hear John the Baptist preach. This description is considered quite historically credible as it is backed up by
JosephusJosephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70...
. In his
Antiquities of the JewsAntiquities of the Jews was a work published by the important Jewish historian Flavius Josephus about the year 93 or 94. Antiquities of the Jews is a history of the Jewish people, written in Greek for Josephus' gentile patrons...
he says of John the Baptist that the
others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved by hearing his words. At the time Josephus was writing, around 97 AD, John the Baptist seems to have been an exceptionally more significant figure than Jesus - while John is frequently mentioned,
hardly anyone appears to have mentioned JesusThe historicity of Jesus concerns the historical authenticity of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth. Scholars often draw a distinction between Jesus as reconstructed through historical methods and the Christ of faith as understood through theological tradition...
at all, in all of Josephus' writing, there are only two very short passages which could possibly refer to Jesus, and
these are heavily disputedJesus of Nazareth is possibly mentioned in two passages of the work The Antiquities of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus, written in the late first century AD. One passage, known as the Testimonium Flavianum, discusses the career of Jesus. The authenticity of the Testimonium Flavianum has...
with most scholars seeing them as forgeries.
Unlike Luke and Mark, Matthew has John being hesitant about baptizing Jesus, with John stating that Jesus should be the one baptizing him, though it doesn't state exactly why. The
Gospel of the NazoraeansThe Gospel of the Nazoraeans is a book of the New Testament Apocrypha. It may or may not be the same as, or derived from, the Gospel of the Hebrews...
, a text which has very strong similarities to Matthew, adds a clarification to this story, stating that it was because of Jesus' sinlessness that John felt he was the one who should be baptized. In the environment in which the author of Matthew is presumed to have been writing, there would still have been many followers of John the Baptist who felt he was equal to or superior to Jesus. And while the followers of John are often presented as becoming followers of Jesus, the ancient Mandaean religion, which survives much reduced to the present day, claims to originate in a direct line from the followers of John, without being tainted by following Jesus.
Baptism and John
The origins of John's baptism ritual are much discussed amongst scholars. While various forms of baptism were practiced throughout the Jewish world at this time, only those of John the Baptist and
QumranQumran is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank, just next to the Israeli kibbutz of Kalia...
are associated with an eschatological purpose, leading many scholars to connect John to the group that wrote the
Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea scrolls consist of about 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Qumran Wadi near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.The texts are of great...
. In Qumran, however, baptism was a regular ritual for individuals rather than the one-time event that the synoptics present it as. Obviously that the synoptics describe John as baptizing people in the once-off form could simply be due to them putting a spin on John's historic behaviour due to being motivated to present him in accordance with Christian theology.
John the Baptist is described by Mark, Luke, and Matthew as referring to a successor, who will baptize with
the Holy spirit and with fire. While John is presented as describing this successor as coming
after him, the word usually translated
after does not have a chronological meaning, but means instead
after in sequence. It is often used to indicate that the one following is a disciple of the previous one (e.g. Matthew 4:19), but it also can simply mean
behind (Matthew 16:23) or
after (Luke 19:14, "after him"). At the time, the disciple of a Rabbi would be expected to perform menial chores, but as
sandalSandals are an open type of outdoor footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps or thongs passing over the instep and around the ankle...
s were considered unclean, a view still persisting in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
today, not even a disciple would deal with them, only the lowest slave. Thus when the text has John presenting himself as not worthy to carry/untie the sandals of his successor, he is presenting himself as extremely lowly in comparison.
Fire was often a symbol of wrath, and so linking the
Holy Spirit with it superficially appears to clash with portrayals of this
Spirit elsewhere in the New Testament as a gentle thing. Some translations avoid using the word
fire due to this, but when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, it appeared that several of its texts make the connection between
Holy Spirit and wrath, and so most scholars now see the wording here as original, and the other portrayals as misinterpreted. See also Acts 2.
Non-canonical and heterodox accounts
Jesus' baptism figures into non-canonical accounts and into some beliefs considered heretical by orthodox Christianity.
Adoptionism
AdoptionismAdoptionism, also called dynamic monarchianism, was a minority Christian belief that Jesus was born merely human and that he became divine later in his life....
, the belief that the man Jesus was adopted as the Son of God, was one of two popular Christologies in the 2nd century. One type of adoptionism, such as that held by the Jewish Christian
EbionitesThe Ebionites were a Jewish-Christian sect that insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites, which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah but not as divine...
, held that Jesus became the Son of God at his baptism. The other type held that Jesus became the Son of God at his resurrection.
Cerinthus
The first-century proto-Gnostic
CerinthusCerinthus was a gnostic and to some, an early Christian, who was prominent as a "heresiarch" in the view of the early Church Fathers. Contrary to proto-orthodox Christianity, Cerinthus's school followed the Jewish law, used the Gospel according to the Hebrews, denied that the Supreme God had made...
taught that the Christ (a spirit) came to the man Jesus at his baptism, remained distinct from him (while guiding and teaching him), and then left him at the crucifixion.
Historicity
Stephen L. Harris has stated that historians know little about the historical Jesus, but that they generally agree that he was baptized by John the Baptist. Scholars who follow the historical-critical method find this event credible because it satisfies the criteria of multiple attestation and
dissimilarityThe criterion of dissimilarity is used by Bible scholars to mean either:* A slightly more general version of the Criterion of embarrassment , * Criterion of discontinuity ,...
, that is, multiple sources attest to its happening, and it is not the sort of detail that early Christians would make up. Like the crucifixion, it meets what they call the
criterion of multiple attestationThe criterion of multiple attestation or independent attestation is a tool used by some Biblical scholars to help determine whether certain actions or sayings by Jesus in the New Testament are from Jesus or from the Church that followed. John P. Meier describes the purpose behind this criterion...
and the
criterion of embarrassmentThe criterion of embarrassment is an analytical tool that some Biblical scholars use in assessing whether the New Testament's accounts Jesus' actions and words are historically probable. John P. Meier, in his book A Marginal Jew, describes the purpose behind this criterion The criterion of...
. Even scholars who credit very little of the Gospel narratives, such as
Paula FredriksenPaula Fredriksen is a historian and a scholar of religious studies. She holds the position of William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture at Boston University.She has a Ph.D...
, affirm the historicity of Jesus' baptism.
- Multiple Attestation: Three canonical Gospels and various non-canonical sources agree that John baptized Jesus. The fourth canonical Gospel and other canonical and non-canonical sources also attest to John's ministry of baptism. Josephus
Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70...
, for example, recounts John's ministry. Thus Jesus' baptism meets this criterion, while less well-attested elements of the Gospels, such as the Massacre of the InnocentsThe Massacre of the Innocents is an episode of mass infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great, that appears in the Gospel of Matthew . The author, traditionally believed to be Matthew the Evangelist, reports that King Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the village of...
, do not.
- Embarrassment: Scholars of this method give special credence to Gospel accounts that are "dissimilar" to the image that early Christians generally portray of Jesus. This why some refer to this criterion as that of "dissimilarity". Since Jesus was regarded as without sin
Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral rule, or the state of having committed such a violation. Commonly, the moral code of conduct is decreed by a divine entity, i.e...
(and not in need of baptism) and to be greater than John, early Christians would have had no motive to invent such a scene, which would have been an embarrassment to them. The last-written Gospel does not mention Jesus' baptism. Thus Jesus' baptism meets this criterion, while more glorifying elements of the Gospel narratives, such as his virgin birthA virgin birth can refer to:*Parthenogenesis, birth without fertilization*Virgin birth , virgin birth in mythology and religion**Virgin birth of Jesus...
, do not.
Others disagree. Skeptical science writer Frank R. Zindler argues that the references to John in Josephus are a later addition whence no external corroboration for the figure of John exists. Parallels between the figure of John and worship of Oannes of Babylonian mythology have been noted by
Joseph CampbellJoseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
and others casting doubt on the historicity of John.
The Baptism of Jesus in the Gospel of the Hebrews
The Logia of Yeshua, by Guy Davenport and
Benjamin UrrutiaBenjamin Urrutia is an author and scholar. According to the Mormon Literature Database, Urrutia is "the only LDS Basque Israeli American anthropologist, linguist, and science fiction writer in the universe." Urrutia co-edited, with Guy Davenport, The Logia of Yeshua, which collected what they...
, footnote 2, pages 50–51, comments on the
Gospel of the HebrewsThe Gospel of the Hebrews is a lost gospel preserved only in a few quotations of the Church Fathers. It was written in Aramaic dialect but with Hebrew letters, and was the most widely known of the non canonical gospels. The Gospel of the Hebrews was the gospel in use among Hebrew Christian sects,...
, a non-canonical gospel extant only in fragments quoted by other writers, in which, according to Jerome, Jesus' family suggested that he be baptized: "The mother of the Lord and his brothers said to him, 'John the Baptist baptizes for the forgiveness of sins; let us go and be baptized by him.' But he said to them, 'In what way have I sinned that I should go and be baptized by him? Unless, perhaps, what I have just said is a sin of ignorance.'", The commentary says: "Many early Christians seem to have been embarrassed by the fact that Yeshua (
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
) was baptized by Yohannan (
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of Baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel...
). The Gospel of John neglects to mention this baptism ... The
SynopticsThe synoptic Gospels are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures...
try several ploys. Yohannan says
he should be baptized by Yeshua, and not the other way around. Misleading hints are given that someone else, not Yohannan, performed the Immersion. Scholars in general (except for
Robert GravesGraves considered himself a poet first and foremost. His poems, together with his translations and innovative interpretations of the Greek Myths, his memoir of the First World war, Good-bye to All That, and his historical study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess, have never been out of...
and Joshua Podro ...) take for granted that the story of Mariam [
MaryMary , usually referred to by Christians as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Muslims also refer to her as the Virgin Mary or Syeda Mariam which means Our Lady Mary...
] and Yeshua's brothers persuading a reluctant Yeshua to be baptized belongs to the same category ... [but] this story would
add to the embarrassment ... The idea for this very important step in Yeshua's life comes from somebody else ... Yeshua changes his mind. He admits he may be guilty of a sin after all."
Urrutia and Davenport also point out that the Hebrew Gospel was produced by a community that included the family of Jesus, so it is most likely to contain authentic family traditions.
Books
- Guy Davenport
Guy Mattison Davenport was an American writer, translator, illustrator, painter, intellectual, and teacher.-Life:...
, and Benjamin UrrutiaBenjamin Urrutia is an author and scholar. According to the Mormon Literature Database, Urrutia is "the only LDS Basque Israeli American anthropologist, linguist, and science fiction writer in the universe." Urrutia co-edited, with Guy Davenport, The Logia of Yeshua, which collected what they...
, The Logia of Yeshua. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1996.
- France, R.T. The Gospel According to Matthew: an Introduction and Commentary. Leicester: Inter-Varsity, 1985.
- Gundry, Robert H.
Robert Horton Gundry is a Biblical scholar. He received his Ph.D. from Manchester University in 1961 and has taught for several decades at Westmont College in California...
Matthew a Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982.
- Guthrie, Donald. The New Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970.
- Hill, David. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981
- Hurtago, Larry W. "Generation of Vipers." A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature. David Lyle Jeffrey, general editor. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992.
- Jones, Alexander. The Gospel According to St. Matthew. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965.
- Malina, Bruce J. and Richard L. Rohrbaugh
The Context Group is a working group of international biblical scholars who promote research into the Bible using social-scientific methods such as anthropology and sociology...
. Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
- Murray, John. Christian Baptism. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub., 1962.
- Schweizer, Eduard
Eduard Schweizer was a Swiss New Testament scholar who taught at the University of Zurich for an extended period.He wrote a number of influential books, many translated into English, including:*Jesus...
. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975
- Pastor Jong Are You Truly Born Again Of Water And The Spirit. Korea Hephziba Publishing
External links
Baptism of Jesus
Life of JesusA Gospel harmony is an attempt to merge or harmonize the canonical gospels of the Four Evangelists into a single gospel account, the earliest ancient example being the Diatesseron by Tatian in the second century...
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New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
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