Matt. iii. 1. Mark i. 4. word of God came unto John 43 the son of Zacha- The wilder. rias in the wilderness. ness of Judæa. In those days came John the Baptist, preach- o Mark i. 4. ing in the wilderness of Judæa. P John did baptize in the wilderness ", 43 The spirit of prophecy came upon John when he was thirty years of age: this was the time appointed in the law for the commencement of their ministry by the Priests and Levites. He preached in the desert, where the greatest multitudes passed; he wore a garment of camel's hair, the most coarse and common garment, similar to that worn by the prophets of old, to express his contempt for the vanities and ostentations of life. His food was the spontaneous produce of the country, shewing his self-denial, and the subjection of all his appetites ;-his days were passed in the wilderness, far removed from the world, preparing and preaching the way of the Lord. He avoided wine and strong drink, like a Nazarite, being separated and holy to the Lord, Numb. vi. 2, 3. He was to others the example of all that he taught. Whether the locusts he ate were the animals so called, prepared in the manner usual among the Jews, or whether it was a peculiar herb growing about that country, (which seems more probable,) is uncertain. Many have conjectured that the wild honey, the μέλι ἄγριον, ought to be read μελιαγρίαν, which they imagine to be likewise a species of herb, indigenous in Judæa. Witsius, however, considers this opinion as quite unfounded (a). Had a Messenger of a different character been chosen as the forerunner of the Messiah, the Jews would have been confirmed in their preconceived ideas of a temporal prince; but the austerity of the Baptist's habits, his seclusion from the world, and his contempt of all its pleasures and distinctions, were in direct opposition to all those opinions, and ought to have contradicted them. Had he been the ambassador of any worldly sovereign he must have been invested with all the external splendour and pomp which he was appointed to represent;—but as the ambassador of a spiritual Lord, and a spiritual kingdom, all these things were laid aside;-his robe of state was of camel's hair,-the luxuries of his table were the honey of the wilderness,—and the message that he brought from his sovereign was an invitation to repentance and faith. 44 The desert in which St. John preached was not a barren and desolate wilderness (b). According to Lightfoot, he first taught in the wilderness near Hebron (c), but afterwards removed towards Jordan, probably near Jericho; a tract of country which was wild and desert, yet having in it several large cities. Jericho itself contained twelve thousand men, of the courses of the priests; and the road from Jerusalem to that city, and to Peræa, especially near the time of the passover, was frequented by great multitudes, about which time, it is supposed, John began his ministry. The country was very convenient for food, and its (a) On the locusts eaten by John, see a curious criticism in verse, by Dr. Byrom, of Manchester-Byrom's Poems, in Chalmers's edition of the poets, p. 231, vol. xv. (b) "Fuit enim in desertis, hoc est ruri, procul publicis scholis, procul aulâ, procul Hierosolymâ, procul seducentium in frequentibus urbibus voluptatum lenociniis." Witsius Miscell. Sacr. de vitâ Johannis Bapt. p. 501. (c) Lightfoot, chorog. dec. to Mark, Works, vol. iii. p. 294. distintinguishes between the wilderness of Juda, and that of Judæa. p Luke iii. 1. The wilder. ness of Judæa. And he came into all the country about Jordan, Luke iii. S. preaching the baptism of repentance 45 for the remission of sins, vallies abounded in palm trees, which trees, if we may credit Diodorus Siculus (d), yield much wild honey. 45 Lightfoot ascribes the first use of baptism to Jacob, when he admitted into his family, and into the Church of God, the proselytes of Shechem, and other Heathens. "Put away your strange gods, and be ye clean, and change your garments." Aben Ezra interprets the word 1, Gen. xxxv. 2, "and be ye clean," to be man ynw, “the washing of the body," or "baptism :" but this would not prove that the rite of baptism was then used as the commencement of a permanent institution. It might have been an useful and expressive ordinance of Jacob, but no more. The Israelites assert, that all Gentile proselytes were brought into their church by baptism. The question is, whether they were so initiated before the time of John, by a customary rite which might be dispensed with at pleasure, or, by a positive law. Lightfoot quotes Maimonides, who lived only in the fourteenth century, and whose authority, in the absence of other proofs, is not therefore decisive. Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. p. 117. We have no evidence to prove that baptism, among the Jews, was of divine appointment. It was principally administered to the Gentiles, who were considered after that ceremony as new creatures, and worthy of admission into the church. A Jew, if he had lived as a Gentile, even for a day, would undergo this ceremony, which makes it appear more like a legal washing, or purification, than an ordinance divinely instituted. The Jews must have well understood this ceremony as emblematical of the introduction of a more perfect dispensation, which required the greatest purity of heart and life. When the Jews baptized the Heathens, they admitted them into their own church, into a new religion; and John now calls upon the Jews themselves to be baptized, and to become members of another church, under another dispensation, different from that of Moses. In this then consisted, in some measure, the essential difference between the baptism of John, and that of any other teacher. The law required the washing of polluted persons, on account of legal uncleanness: the baptism of John required the purification of those who were legally clean. It exacted obedience to the spirit, not to the letter, of the law. If we consider the Christian dispensation, therefore, as commencing with the preaching of John, we shall find there were three forms of baptism: that of John, who baptized in the name of the Messiah about to come upon the earth;-that of the disciples of Christ, when he was incarnated and living among them ;-and that of the Apostles, who received, at the ascension, an express command from Christ himself to proselytize all nations; and to baptize them "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Ministers of the Church of God have ever since baptized in the same holy name, using the same form of words.-Vide Lightfoot's Works, vol. i. p. 465, 466. (α) Φυέται ἀυτοῖς, ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρῶν, μέλι πολὺ τὸ καλέμενον ἄγριον, ὦ χρῶνται ποτῷ μὲν ὑδατος— they have much honey from the trees, which they call wild honey, which they drink with water."-Diod. Sic. lib. 19. ap Lightfoot. Matt. iii. 2. Mark i. 2. Luke iii. 4. Luke iii. 5. Luke iii. 6. Mark i. 5. Matt. iii. 5. Matt. iii. 6. Mark i. 5. ness of Judæa. And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of The wilderheaven is at hand. q As it is written in the prophets, 9 Behold, I q Mal. iii. 1. As it is written in the book of the words of Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. $ And there went out unto him all the land of Matt. iii, 5. Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and all the region round about Jordan, And were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, con- 46 Malachi predicted of the Elias who was to come, that he should turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers (a). The Angel predicted of John the same things. The event corresponded to the prediction. When John began to preach to Israel, the Jews were divided into three principal, and innumerable smaller sects, differing both in religious opinions and ceremonies. The Pharisees and Sadducees were inflamed with the most bitter hatred against each other. The expounders of the law were at variance. The dissensions in the synagogues disturbed the repose of families. Children and their parents disputed; all was confusion. The ministry of the Baptist withdrew the people from under the banners of the leaders of these sects, and directed them to the One Great Teacher, who was now at hand to decide all controversies, and unite them to himself.—Witsius de vitâ Johan. Bap. Misc. Sacr. vol. ii. p. 518. 47 The different addresses of St. John to those who came to him, given in this section, could not have been delivered at one time. They may be supposed to contain the sum and substance of his general preaching. We may observe, that all the exhortations of John refer to the spiritual dominion of the Messiah over the hearts and consciences of men. He never once speaks of it as a temporal or earthly power. He exhorts to repentance and confession of sin, μɛrávoia, a total renewing of the spirit of the mind—a change of the whole man. In the same way all those of the present day, who have lived (a) The passage in Malachi, ch. iii. 1, is supposed by Dr. Owen to have been both corrupted and altered by the Jews, both in the Hebrew copies, and in the copies of the Septuagint, and to have been originally exactly as three of the Evangelists have delivered the citation of it to us.-Owen's Inquiry into the State of the Septuagint Version, p. 54. The wilder ness of Judæa. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Matt, ili. 7. Sadducees come to his baptism— Then said he to the multitude that came forth Luke iil. 7. to be baptized of him t Matt. xii. 34. he said unto them, 'O generation of vipers, who Matt, iii. 7. hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? * Or, answer. able to amend. ment of life. Bring forth therefore fruits * meet for repentance: Matt. iii. 8. And think not to say within yourselves, "We Matt. iil. 9. u John viii. 39. have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of Matt. lii. 1. x Matt. vii. 19. the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into James ii, 15. the fire. And the people asked him, saying, What shall Luke iii. 10. we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that Luke iii. II. John iii. 17. hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise, Then came also publicans to be baptized, and Luke iii. 12. said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than Luke iii, 13. that which is appointed you. unmindful of their spiritual covenant with God, are called upon by the ministers of God's word to adopt that mode of returning to their Almighty Father, pointed out by the Baptist: and, by a true repentance and confession of sins, to renew their baptismal vow, and become spiritual members of his spiritual church. In Luke iii. 14, we read that certain soldiers came to John the Baptist, while he was preaching in all the country about Jordan, and demanded of him, saying, "And what shall we do?" An important question in Christian morality. It has been asked, who these soldiers were? For it does not appear that the Roman soldiers then stationed in Judæa were engaged in any war. Now it happens that the expression used by the evangelical historian is not spariwtai, or "soldiers," but sparεvóμevol, that is, "men, who were actually under arms, or, marching to battle." It is not to be supposed that he would use this word without a sufficient reason, and what that reason is we may readily discover, on consulting Josephus's account of the reign of Herod the Tetrarch of Galilee. He tells us (a), that Herod was at that very time engaged in a war with his father-in-law, Aretas, a petty king of Arabia Petræa, whose daughter he had married, but who had returned to her father in consequence of Herod's ill-treatment. The army of Hercd, then on its march from Galilee, passed of necessity through the country where John was baptizing; and the military men, who questioned him, were a part of that army. So minute, so perfect, and so latent a coincidence, was never discovered in a forgery of this or any other age (b). (a) Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. 18. c. 5. sect. 1, 2. (b) For the above illustrative coincidence we are indebted to Michaelis, (vol. i. ch. ii. sect. 11. p. 51.) Luke lil, 14. Luke iii. 15. Luke iii. 16. Mark i. 8. ness of Judæa. man in fear. + Or, allow And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, The wilder. saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them,* Do violence to no man, neither accuse any ⋆ Or, put no falsely; and be content with your wages. And as the people were in expectation, and ance. all men & mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not; * Or, in sus pense. Or, reasoned, or,debated. John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed Matt. iii, 11. baptize you have baptized you with water Matt. iii. 11. unto repentance, but Mark i. 7. there cometh one mightier than I after me, the Matt. iii. 11. whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall Matt. iii. 12. Luke iii, 18. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people. MATT. iii. 3, 5, 6, 11. Mark i. 3. 3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice a Isa. xl. 3. of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judæa, 6-baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 11 I indeed baptize you with water-he that cometh after me is mightier b Mark i. 5. than I. Luke iii. 16. John i. 26. MARK i. 3-8. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, e Isa. xl. 3. с Luke iii. 4. John 1. 23. Or, unto. make his paths straight. 4 and preach the baptism of repentance || for the remission of sins. 5 and were 6 And John was d clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about a Matt. iii, 4. his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; 7 And preached, saying, 8 I indeed-but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. LUKE iii. 16, 17. 16 with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: 17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. |