Ep. 8: John the Baptist

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MATTHEW 3:1-12, MARK 1:2-8, LUKE 3:1-18

There is something mysterious, even mystical, in the almost absolute silence in the thirty years between his birth and his first call to duty. The story now switches to Zacharias’s son, John, as he explodes onto the scene like his Old Testament precursor, Elijah. Both suddenly appeared to threaten terrible judgment, but also to open possibilities for good. John came suddenly out of the Judean wilderness, as Elijah from the wilds of Gilead. John bore the same strange ascetic appearance as his predecessor. The message of John was the counterpart of that of Elijah. Thus, the history of John the Baptist was the fulfilment of that of Elijah in ‘the fullness of time.’

Roman society was ripe for judgement. Philosophy and religion had nothing to offer, they had been tried and found wanting. Tacitus declared human life one great farce and expressed his conviction that the Roman world lay under some terrible curse. All around was despair, conscious need and an unconscious longing. Can greater contrast be imagined than the proclamation of a coming Kingdom of God amid such a World?

Pilate has just entered the scene; history was ready to unfold. The ancient kingdom of Herod was now divided into four parts; Judea in the south being under the direct administration of Rome, two other tetrarchies under the rule of Herod’s sons (Herod Antipas and Philip), while the small principality of Abilene was governed by Lysanias, though little is known about him.

Herod Antipas reigned over Galilee, the main focus for the ministry of Jesus and of John the Baptist. Like his brother Archelaus, Herod Antipas was an absolute nightmare, with no religious feelings at all and under absolute control by his wife, which will determine his final downfall. He was covetous, avaricious and as cunning as a fox, all common qualities to those in similar positions throughout the Eastern end of the Empire.

This was the political backdrop when John enters the scene from the wilderness of Judea. Roman society was a mess, Israel’s condition was not much better and it was surprising that no attempt had been made by the people to right themselves through an armed uprising. In these circumstances, the cry that the Kingdom of heaven was near at hand and the call to prepare for it must have awakened echoes throughout the land.

John’s outward appearance and methodology corresponded to the character and object of his mission, that of Elijah, whose mission he was now to ‘fulfil’. Concerning this ‘Kingdom of heaven,’ which was the great message of John and the great work of Jesus himself, it is the whole Old Testament summarised and the whole New Testament realised. The idea of it did not lie hidden in the Old to be opened up in the New Testament, but this rule of heaven and Kingship of God was the very substance of the Old Testament; the object of the calling and mission of Israel, the meaning of the Torah and the need to follow it.

This was the distinctive call of Israel, alone among all of the nations of the time. How imperfectly Israel understood this Kingdom. In truth, the men of that period possessed only the term itself; what explained its meaning, filled and fulfilled it, came once more from heaven. According to the Rabbinic views of the time, the terms ‘Kingdom,’ ‘Kingdom of heaven,’ and ‘Kingdom of God’ were equivalent. In fact, the word ‘heaven’ was very often used instead of ‘God,’ to avoid speaking the Sacred Name. This, probably, accounts for the exclusive use of the expression ‘Kingdom of heaven’ in Matthew’s Gospel, the most ‘Jewish’ of the four accounts, where it appears thirty-two times.

John preached on the importance of repentance. How seriously did they listen to him? Did they really understand and fear the final consequences of resisting the coming ‘Kingdom’? Did they follow this call in both hearts and minds? Or else did they imagine that, according to the popular understanding of the time, the vials of wrath were to be poured out only on the Gentiles, while they, as Abraham’s children, were sure of escape? In the words of the Talmud, ‘the night’ (Isaiah 21:12) was ‘only to the nations of the world, but the morning to Israel’.

For there was one thing the Jews were certain of, that all Israel had a part in the world to come and this specifically because of their connection with Abraham. ‘The merits of the Fathers’ is one of the commonest phrases in the mouth of the Rabbis. Abraham was represented as sitting at the gate of Gehenna, to deliver any Israelite who otherwise might have been consigned to its terrors. They were in terrible error and John warned them that God was able to raise up children unto Abraham from those stones that strewed the riverbank!

Since he was urging repentance, it was only natural that the hearers wondered whether John himself was the Messiah. It was said that ‘If Israel repented but one day, the Son of David would immediately come.’ But here John pointed them to the difference between himself and his work and the person and mission of the Messiah. John’s mission was in preparation, the Messiah’s mission was that of final decision. After this came the harvest.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)