working together for the future of faith
	Abbreviations | Bibliography | Copyright | FFF Home | Get Involved | JDB Home | Search | Email FFF

/1:4/ John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. /5/ And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. /6/ Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

=Matt 3:1,4-6
/3:1/ In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, /2/ "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." /3/ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'" /4/ Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. /5/ Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, /6/ and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

=Luke 3:1-3
/3:1/ In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, /2/ during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. /3/ He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,

Now the beginning of their gospel goes like this:

/1/ In the days of Herod, king of Judea, John appeared in the Jordan river baptizing with a baptism that changed people's hearts. /2/He was said to be a descendant of Aaron the priest, a son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. /3/And everybody went out to him.

By mutilating Matthew's genealogy, they make the beginning say, as we have already stated:

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, during the high-priesthood of Caiaphas, they say, this man named John appeared in the Jordan river baptizing with a baptism that changed people's hearts, and so on.


/1/ It so happened that John was baptizing, and Pharisees and all Jerusalem went out to him and got baptized. /2/And John wore clothes made of camel hair and had a leather belt around his waist. /3/His food, it says, consisted of raw honey that tasted like manna, like a pancake cooked with oil.

Thus they change the word of truth into a lie and instead of "locusts" they put "pancake cooked with honey."
[Complete Gospels]

 

(2) John 1:19-23

/1:19/ This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" /20/ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah." /21/ And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." /22/ Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" /23/ He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,'" as the prophet Isaiah said.

RCL: Year B, Advent 2
ECUSA: & RC: Year B, Advent 2

John the Baptist is given more attention throughout Luke/Acts than in any other NT writing:

In Luke 1:5-25 and 57-80 John has a miraculous conception and from his birth is marked as someone with a special role in God's purposes.

Luke 3:1-22 provides an extensive description of John prior to the baptism of Jesus.

In 5:33-39 Luke uses the material from Mark about the divergence in religious practice between John's disciples ("always fasting and offering prayers") and Jesus' disciples ("yours just eat and drink"). Instead of reading that simply as a question directed to Jesus by the crowds, perhaps it should be understood (as Luke's readers most likely appreciated) as a reference to the sustained rivalry between John's people and the Jesus people? Did John's disciples observe more traditional Jewish practices, while the Jesus people gathered for Eucharists in which the fellowship of the kingdom was experienced (but which their critics derided as "just eat and drink").

Luke 7:18-35 directly addresses the relationship of John and Jesus. Luke asserts the primacy of Jesus, while affirming the importance of John. Yet Luke is also making the point that the least in the Kingdom is greater than John. Once again the contrast between the asceticism of John's followers and the exuberant celebrations of the Jesus people is clear.

Luke 9:7-9,18-21 preserves a tradition that some thought Jesus to be John returned to life following his murder by Herod Antipas.

When introducing the Lord's Prayer (11:1), Luke has the disciples request Jesus to teach them how to pray just like John had taught his disciples how to pray. This detail is only found in Luke. Matthew's account simply has Jesus deciding to give some instruction on prayer (and the contrast is not with the prayer tradition of John's people, but with those of the Gentiles). Once again we glimpse a profound tension between John's followers and the Jesus movement.

Luke 16:16 treats John as the final prophet, and the one whose ministry marks the transition from the time of Law and the Prophets. In contrast, Luke presents Jesus as the one ushering in the Kingdom era. Luke's version of this tradition differs significantly from Matthew's (Matt 11:1-15): Matthew dates the breaking in of God's Kingdom "from the time of John the Baptist until now." He also explicitly identifies John with the Elijah figure expected to appear at the end of time. Luke does not allow John to be the Elijah figure since he will keep that function for Jesus himself.

In the Book of Acts the first of several references to John is found in Acts 1:4-5. Here (as if anticipating 19:1-7) Jesus contrasts John, who baptized with water, to the coming "baptism with the Holy Spirit."

Jesus' baptism by John is mentioned as the beginning of his ministry in several speeches: Peter calling for a new apostle to replace Judas (1:21-22), Peter preaching to Cornelius (10:34-38), and Paul's sermon to the Pisidian Jews (13:23-25).

In Acts 11:15-17, Peter cites the difference between John's water baptism and the Spirit baptism of early Christianity when defending his decision to baptize Cornelius and his household.

The second-last reference to John the Baptist occurs in Acts 18:24-28. In this passage two of Paul's associates put a fellow Christian missionary through a crash course in theology. Apollos "had been taught the way of the Lord and was on fire with the Spirit." Better still, "he used to speak and teach about Jesus correctly." However, Apollos had one shortcoming: "he knew only the baptism of John."

Finally we have Acts 19:1-7, where the disciples of John need to move beyond John's "baptism of repentance" (presumably expressed in fasting and prayers?), to a more eucharistic faith that celebrates the gift of the Spirit at the shared table ("just eating and drinking" to their detractors?). In this unique passage, Luke portrays Paul coming across a small community that is centered around the teachings of John the Baptist. This is the only time that the NT admits such groups existed and were rivals to the Jesus communities within Judaism. This episode allows Luke to assert the primacy of the Jesus movement over John's followers: John's people (described as disciples) are quite unaware of the Holy Spirit until Paul lays hands on them. Like the conversion of the first Gentiles (Acts 10), there is miraculous confirmation of their inclusion in the kingdom as they speak in tongues and prophesy. Significantly, Luke tells us there were about 12 people involved: sufficient for a properly ordered apostolic community.

John Dominic Crossan