GEJ 1.6

Naturally, the investigators asked John: ‘How long have you known this remarkable man, and how did you learn what you are now saying about Him?’ John answered quite naturally that he too, as a human being, had not known Him before. His Spirit had revealed this to him and had also urged him to prepare people for Him and to wash their great stains of sin away with the water of the Jordan.

John makes known here that he too sees Me in bodily form before him for the first time, and that My Spirit within him has revealed this to him. Naturally, the investigators looked closely at this man and observed Him during the brief baptism with water. At first John had refused to perform it on Me, raising the important objection that I should more properly baptize him, rather than he Me. But at My express insistence that it must happen this way, he yielded and baptized Me nonetheless. As he did so, he saw what I Myself had revealed to him through My Spirit in his spirit when I drove him to Bethabara: how God’s Spirit—that is, My eternally ownmost Spirit—would descend over Me from the heavens full of light, in the visible form of a little bright cloud, in the manner of a descending dove, and would remain over My head. At the same time he also heard the familiar words:

‘This is My beloved Son,’ or: ‘This is My light, My own primordial foundational Being, in whom I, as eternally primordial substantial love, am well pleased. Listen to Him!’

This is why John says: ‘Otherwise I too would not have recognized Him!’

Only after this baptism did John tell the investigators what he had seen and heard. Staking his life on it, he asserted that the One baptized, whom he had already announced as the Lamb of God revealed to him while He was still approaching, was truly the Messiah awaited by all Israel. This is truly the Son of God, that is, the eternally primordial, actual fundamental Being of God in God!

John himself had seen with his own eyes how His Spirit descended over Him and remained over Him—not as though this man had only then received that Spirit through this event. Rather, the appearance took place solely as a testimony for John himself, since he too had not known Him before.

Here, however, the question naturally arises: did these messengers from Jerusalem see and hear nothing of all this? Let the answer be the one that remains eternally the same: It is revealed only to the little ones and the simple; but it remains hidden and veiled from the worldly wise.

Thus the messengers from Jerusalem saw nothing but the baptism with water alone. They were greatly annoyed when John told them what he had seen and heard, while they themselves could perceive none of it. They therefore insulted John and accused him of lying to them. But several of John’s disciples who were present then came forward and testified that John had spoken the entire truth.

But the messengers shook their heads and said: ‘John is your master, and you are his disciples; that is why you also confirm his statement. We, however, are learned and wise in all matters of Scripture, which comes from God through Moses and the prophets. From your words and actions we recognize that you and your master are fools, see nothing and know nothing, and drive many people mad with your foolishness. For this reason, the matter has for some time been most displeasing to the highest authorities of the Temple. The best course will be to put an end to your activities by force!’

But John grew agitated and said: ‘You brood of vipers, you offspring of serpents! Do you think this will let you escape judgment? Look, the axe with which you would destroy us has already been laid at your own root. See how you will escape destruction! Unless you repent in sackcloth and ashes and have yourselves baptized, you will be brought to ruin!’

‘For truly! This was the One of whom I said to you: After me will come He who was before me, for He existed before I did. From His fullness we have all received grace for grace.’ (This has already been mentioned in advance in verses 15 and 16 of this chapter, but its historical setting has not yet been explained more closely.)

After these forceful words from John, some remain and have themselves baptized by him, but the greater part leave in utter rage.

These verses simply report a historical event and have little inner meaning, which can nevertheless be easily recognized from the preceding explanations. It need only be mentioned here that such verses are much easier to understand when they are presented together with the circumstances that were self-evident at the time. When the Evangelist wrote down the Gospel, it was customary to omit, as unnecessary clauses, all circumstances that could be understood and assumed as self-evident, and to record only the main clauses. All the attendant circumstances were left, as we say today, to be ‘read between the lines’. To shed more light on this matter, which deserves close attention in the present day, we will examine in this way the three verses set out alongside this passage. The manner of writing of that time, that is, its syntax, will then become very clearly recognizable.