Joh 1:19-38 | PNT | STEP | This is the record of John . The writer now plunges at once into his history. He passes by the childhood of the Lord, John's ministry, and comes at once to the time when Jesus, thirty years old, is acknowledged by the Father as the Son of God. When the Jews sent priests and Levites . The Jewish rulers, the Sanhedrin, the court or parliament of seventy-one members who ruled Israel. The delegation sent to John was official. His preaching in the wilderness of Jordan had stirred the whole land, and they were sent to ascertain his character. Matthew, Mark, and Luke use the term "Jews" very seldom (16 times), John often (70 times), a proof that he wrote far away from Palestine and for Gentiles.

John 1:19-38

This is the record of John. The writer now plunges at once into his history. He passes by the childhood of the Lord, John's ministry, and comes at once to the time when Jesus, thirty years old, is acknowledged by the Father as the Son of God.

When the Jews sent priests and Levites. The Jewish rulers, the Sanhedrin, the court or parliament of seventy-one members who ruled Israel. The delegation sent to John was official. His preaching in the wilderness of Jordan had stirred the whole land, and they were sent to ascertain his character. Matthew, Mark, and Luke use the term "Jews" very seldom (16 times), John often (70 times), a proof that he wrote far away from Palestine and for Gentiles. He confessed, etc. Some conjectured that John was the expected Christ; others that he was Elijah who was first to come (Mal 4:5); others that he was "that prophet", the one predicted by Moses (De 18:15); but he declared that he was none of these. Who art thou? When the priests and Levites insisted that John should declare who he was, he quoted Isaiah, and said he was

The voice of one crying in the wilderness. See Isa 40:3.

See PNT Mt 3:3. His work was preparation for the Lord. Were of the Pharisees.

See PNT Mt 3:7. Why baptizest thou then? If he were Christ, or Elijah, or "that prophet", they could understand why he should establish a new religious rite, but if none of these, why should he do so? Their perplexity shows that the baptismal rite was new to them. There is no proof that Jewish proselyte baptism of Gentile converts existed at this period, save the assertion of the Talmud, written two or three centuries after this. Josephus, who wrote in the time of the apostles, is silent about it. I baptize with water.

See PNT Mt 3:11. These things were done in Bethabara. The Revised Version says "in Bethany", a village whose site is now unknown, on the east bank of the Jordan. Bethabara means "the house of the ford". The next day John seeth Jesus. Here Jesus first appears, in person, in John's account, who omits all the details given by Matthew and Luke of his earlier life. He was now thirty years old, and came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized of John. This interview was after the baptism (Joh 1:33), and probably after the Temptation.

Behold the Lamb of God. Innocent like the lamb, to be offered as a lamb, "led as a lamb to the slaughter" (Isa 53:7). The lamb was commonly used as a sin offering (Le 4:32), and when John points to Jesus as "the" Lamb of God he can only mean that God had provided him as a sacrificial offering.

The sin of the world. Not of Jews only, but of Gentiles. John points to Jesus as the world's Savior. This is he of whom I said. See Joh 1:27.

He was before me. Existed before I was born. I knew him not. Knew not that God had chosen him to be the Christ. He knew, however, that he should be manifested in some way through his baptism. I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove. See Mt 3:16, and notes. It was revealed to John that the Christ would thus be revealed. Indeed it was the anointing of the Spirit that made Jesus the Anointed, the Christ. Again the next day after. In John, the account is given of the visit of the priests and Levites, sent by the Sanhedrin to John. "The next day" after this, John sees Jesus and points him out as the Lamb of God, giving a discourse of which, in Joh 1:19-34, we have a synopsis. On the "next day" after this, the third day after the deputation of the Sanhedrin, and the second after the return of Jesus from the wilderness,

John stood, and two of his disciples. One of these two, we learn from Joh 1:40, was Andrew; the other, we have reason to believe, was John, the apostle. Behold the Lamb of God! On the preceding day John had recognized Jesus in a public discourse as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" (Joh 1:29). Now he personally points the disciples to him. Rabbi. A term meaning teacher, or master.

Where dwellest thou? These disciples had followed at the bidding of John. Their question implies a desire to be in the company of Jesus.