ACC ~ John 1 v33

WHY JOHN LIVED IN THE WILDERNESS

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: He revealed why he lived in the wilderness. This certainly happened through a special providence of God, in order that he might not have any relationship with the Messiah. And John certainly would have had such a relationship if he had lived in town, since they were of the same age and they were related. The suspicion would have easily arisen that he had testified those words because of that previous relationship and because of their friendship and the fact that they were related. In order to remove this suspicion, John was segregated from adolescence onward and grew up in the wilderness. Therefore, with good reason he said, “I myself did not know him.” I had no familiarity or friendship with him, but I was sent to baptize with water for him so that I might reveal him whom I did not know. He clearly showed that he baptized so that all the Jews who came because of the baptism might have an occasion to hear his doctrine and to see him to whom he testified. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 1.1.33. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:44-45.

JOHN’S PROPHETIC VISION COMES TO FRUITION

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: He who sent me so that I might reveal before everybody that he had come—and therefore he gave me the power to baptize with water—predicted to me that the Spirit would descend on him. These words were said to the Baptist while he was in the wilderness, and immediately he who indeed did [preach and baptize] came. As the Lord then came to John, he immediately received the vision so that he might recognize the Lord. This is why he preached so publicly about his greatness. When he, while administering the baptism, saw in a spiritual vision the Spirit descending, as had been predicted to him, then he was sure that he was seeing the expected result of the prophecy. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 1.1.33. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:46.

WHO SENT JOHN, AND HOW WELL DID JOHN KNOW JESUS?

AUGUSTINE: Who then sent John? If we say the Father, we speak truly. If we say the Son, we speak truly. But to speak more plainly, we say both the Father and the Son sent him…. How, then, didn’t he know him by whom he is sent?… If, then, the Son sent you with the Father, how did you not know who sent you? The one who sent you said, “Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending as a dove and abiding on him, the same is he that baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” Did John hear this so that he might know him whom he had not known, or so that he might more fully know him whom he had already known? If he had been entirely ignorant of him, he would not have said what he did to him when he came to the river to be baptized…. This would have implied that he didn’t know him, but that when the dove descended, he learned to know him…. It is made plain to us therefore that John after a manner knew and after a manner did not initially know the Lord. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5.1-2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:32**.

JOHN DID KNOW JESUS, BUT NOT FOR THAT LONG

CHRYSOSTOM: How then, if he did not know him before the descent of the Spirit, and if he then for the first time recognized him—how then did he forbid him before baptism, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” [1] Actually, this proved that he knew him very well. Yet he did not know him before, or at least for that long—and with good cause, for the amazing things that took place when he was a child, such as the visit of the magi, had happened long before when John himself was very young. And since a lot of time had elapsed in the interval, Jesus was naturally unknown to all. For had he been known, John would not have said, “I come baptizing so that he should be made known to Israel.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17.2. [2]

[1] Mt 3:14.

[2] NPNF 1 14:60**.

JOHN LEARNS MORE ABOUT JESUS AFTER THE APPEARANCE OF THE DOVE. AUGUSTINE: But did he know Christ, or did he not know him? If he did not know him, then why, when Christ came to the river, did he say, “I need to be baptized by you”? In other words, he’s saying: I know who you are. If, then, he already knew him, assuredly he knew him when he saw the dove descending. It is evident that the dove did not descend upon the Lord until after he went up out of the water of baptism…. But if this is not the first time he recognizes him, because he already knew, then why did he say, “I didn’t know him”? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.15. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:30-31**.

JESUS RESERVES THE POWER OF BAPTISM TO HIMSELF

AUGUSTINE: It was not that he did not know him to be the Son of God, or did not know him to be the Lord, or did not know him to be the Christ, or did not, also, in fact, know that he himself would baptize with water and the Holy Spirit; for he knew this too. But that he would baptize in this way, namely, that he would keep for himself the power and would transfer it to no one of his ministers, this is what he learned in the dove. For through this power, which Christ kept for himself alone and transmitted to none of his ministers, although he deigned to baptize through his ministers, through this abides the unity of the Church which is signified in the dove, about which it is said, “One is my dove, the only one her mother has.” [1] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.6. [2]

[1] Song 6:9 (6:8 Vg). See J. Robert Wright, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, ACCS OT 9, 354-55 on this passage. The unity of the church, brought about by the Holy Spirit, was often depicted by a dove; thus the connection here Augustine identifies between the dove, the Spirit and the church.

[2] FC 78:134.

CHRIST RECEIVES THE SPIRIT SO WE CAN RECEIVE THE SPIRIT

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The divine Scripture testifies that human beings were made in the image and likeness of God who is over all. [1] … For the Spirit at once began to put life into what he had formed and to impress his own divine image on it there. [2] … Subsequently, however, the likeness to God was defaced through the inroad of sin and the impress was no longer bright as it was. It had grown fainter and darkened because of sin. And when sin became so great… that human nature was stripped of its ancient grace, the Spirit departed altogether. Then this creature endowed with reason fell into the most extreme kind of foolishness, ignorant even of its Creator. But then the maker of all, after enduring a lengthy amount of time, finally pities the corrupted world. Because he is good, he hurried to gather together his runaway flock upon earth in order to bring it to those who dwell above. He agreed to transform [3] human nature anew to its pristine image through the Spirit. For in no other way was it possible for the divine impress to again shine forth in men and women as it once had. Let us now look at this plan and how he implanted in us the inviolate grace. Let us see how the Spirit again took root in humanity and in what way nature was reformed into its prior condition….

Since the first Adam did not preserve the grace given him by God, God the Father intended to send us from heaven the second Adam. For he sends in our likeness his own Son who is by nature without variableness or change, and who in no way knew any sins. [4] He did this so that even as through the disobedience of the first Adam we became subject to divine wrath, so through the obedience of the Second Adam, we might both escape the curse, and its evils might come to nothing. [5] But when the Word of God became man, he received the Spirit from the Father as one of us. He did not receive anything for himself individually since he himself was the Giver of the Spirit. And so, he who knew no sin might, by receiving it as man, preserve it for our nature, and might again in-root in us the grace which had left us. This is the reason I think it was that the holy Baptist profitably added, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven, and it rested upon him.” For it had fled from us because of sin, but he who knew no sin became as one of us so that the Spirit might be accustomed to abide in us, having no occasion of departure or withdrawal in him. Therefore through himself he receives the Spirit for us, and renews to our nature, the ancient good. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.1. [6]

[1] Gen 1:27.

[2] Gen 2:7.

[3] Or “transelement.”

[4] 2 Cor 5:21.

[5] Rom 5:19.

[6] LF 43:141-43**.

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE DOVE OF NOAH

CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: This Holy Spirit came down when the Lord was baptized so that the dignity of him who was baptized might not be hidden…. The heavens too were opened because of the dignity of him who descended. For see, he says, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and lighting upon him. [1] The Spirit descended voluntarily. For it was appropriate, as some have interpreted, that the primacy and firstfruits of the Holy Spirit promised to the baptized should be conferred upon the humanity of the Savior first since the Spirit is the giver of such grace. But perhaps he came down in the form of a dove, as some say, to exhibit a figure of that dove who is pure and innocent and undefiled—who also helps the prayers of the children she has begotten and who brings forgiveness of sins. It was emblematically foretold that Christ should be made known in this way in the appearance of his eyes. For in the Song of Songs she cries concerning the Bridegroom, and says, “Your eyes are as doves by the rivers of water.” [2]

The dove of Noah, according to some, was in part a figure of this dove. [3] In the time of Noah, salvation came to them by means of wood and water along with the beginning of a whole new generation. And, the dove returned to him towards evening with an olive branch. Just as this happened, they say, so the Holy Spirit also descended upon the true Noah, the author of the second birth, who draws together into one the wills of all nations. The various dispositions of the animals in the ark were in fact a figure of him too—him at whose coming the spiritual wolves feed with the lambs, in whose church the calf, and the lion, and the ox, feed in the same pasture, as we behold to this day the rulers of the world guided and taught by churchmen. The spiritual dove therefore, as some interpret, came down at the season of his baptism so that he might show that it is he who by the wood of the cross saves those who believe, he who when evening comes grants salvation through his death. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 17.9-10. [4]

[1] Mt 3:16.

[2] Song 5:12.

[3] Tertullian On Baptism 8:“Just as after the waters of the deluge, by which the old iniquity was purged—after the baptism, so to say, of the world—a dove was the herald which announced to the earth the assuagement of celestial wrath … so to our flesh, as it emerges from the font after its old sins, flies the dove of the Holy Spirit, bringing us the peace of God, sent out from heaven where the church is, the typified ark” (ANF 3:673). Compare also Hippolytus The Holy Theophany, §§ 8, 9, a treatise with which Cyril has much in common.

[4] NPNF 2 7:126*.

Jn