Christ and John the Baptist
"THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is
written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
(_Mark_ i. 1,2, 3.) As in Matthew, at the very outset, the second Gospel
starts out to show that Christ is the one foretold by the prophets, and
that a direct reference is made to him by Isaiah, as one who was to
be preceded by another who was to prepare the way for his advent.
Cotemporaneous history, and a critical examination of the words of the
prophet, will dispel the delusion.
Hezekiah, king of Judea, was improvident enough to show to the son of
the king of Babylon, then on a visit to him, all his treasures, and
riches of every description; and "there was nothing in his house, nor in
all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed him not." When Isaiah was told by
the king himself what he had done, the prophet spoke and said: "Hear the
word of the Lord of hosts: Behold, the days come, that all that is in
thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this
day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.
And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget,
shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the
king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the
Lord which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace
and truth in my days." (_Isaiah_ xxxix. S, 6, 7, 8.) The Babylonian
captivity-is here referred to.
Isaiah then proceeds to declare that after great suffering, in their
servitude under the Assyrians, the Lord would deliver the Jewish people,
and that they should again be a great and prosperous nation. "Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her
iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double
for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway
for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill
shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough
places plain." (_Isaiah_ xl. 1,2, 3, 4.)
With what tenderness the prophet speaks to his countrymen, to assure
them that their captivity will not last forever! Divested of poetical
language and figures, the Lord says: In your lost condition in slavery
("wilderness") you shall hear the voice of the Lord to comfort you. Be
prepared, for he will provide the means ("highway") for your deliverance
from captivity. The words wilderness, desert, and highway are symbolical
terms, representing the lost condition of the Jews and the promise made
by the Lord, that he would provide means for their deliverance from
their enemies. What follows, holds forth to the Jews a glorious future.
"Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be
made low." That is, the down-trodden and oppressed children of Israel
shall once more take the stand of an independent nation; and the proud
and lofty Assyrian shall in his turn be humbled, and come under the yoke
of the conqueror. The idea which underlies the language of the prophet
is, that the Jews will be ultimately restored to their own country, and
again become a prosperous people; and as is characteristic of all these
Jewish prophecies, the expressions, "and the crooked shall be made
straight, and the rough places plain," are mere expletives, to obscure
the sense, and increase the ambiguity. Like the oracles of Greece, a
simple idea is concealed beneath figures and metaphors, and the mind
distracted by the introduction of thoughts that have no meaning, and no
connection with the subject.
Josephus, after giving a full account of this prophecy from Isaiah says,
it was subsequently fulfilled in the captivity and restoration of the
Jews, and that when he wrote, the words of the prophet had passed into
history. (_Antiq_., book x. chap. 2, sec. 2.) The Lord, by the prophet,
is addressing the Jews of that day about matters which directly
concerned them, and what was said had no more to do with John the
Baptist preaching on the Jordan, in the neighborhood of the Arabian
desert, than it had with the travels of Livingstone over the sands of
Africa. The John referred to in Mark is a historic character, and all we
know about him we learn through Josephus.
In his day he was a reformer. Shocked at the low condition of the
Jews, who had reached the lowest deep in crimes and vices of all kinds,
through the corruption of the priesthood, and tyranny of their civil
Governors, he undertook to reform abuses, and elevate the moral standard
of the nation. Standing on the banks of the Jordan, crowds from the
surrounding country came to hear him denounce the sins of the people,
and be baptized. He preached repentance, and those who did repent he
purified with the mystic waters of the Jordan.
In the time of John, the Jewish people had become restive, and chafed
under the government of Rome. The elements of rebellion were then at
work, which, a few years later, led to open revolt, and the total
ruin of the nation. While the Jews overran with discontent, the Roman
Governors were filled with suspicion. Herod took alarm at the course
of John, and caused him to be seized and confined in the castle of
Macherus, situated on the borders of the desert, where he was afterwards
put to death. All that is known of him is found in the following extract
from Josephus:
"Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came
from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against
John, that was called the _Baptist_; for Herod slew him, who was a good
man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness
towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism;
for that washing [with water] would be acceptable to him if they made
use of it, not in order to the putting away [or remission] of some sins
[only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the
soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now, when
[many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved
[or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great
influence John had over the people might put it into his power and
inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything
he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent
any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties,
by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too
late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious
temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to
death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was
sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure against
him." (Josephus, _Antiq_., book xviii. chap. 5, sec. 2.)
It was this passage, and the one from Isaiah, "The voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord," that
suggested the story of Christ coming from Galilee to the Jordan to be
baptized by John, and the scenes that followed. As Josephus, in the
passage just quoted, speaks of what John was doing on the Jordan, and
what occurred there, it is strange he takes no notice of the wonderful
things which took place at the time Christ was baptized, as described in
Matthew. But, as we have shown, the prophecy of Isaiah has nothing to do
with John the Baptist.
The story that the life of John was the price paid for a jig danced
before Herod, is not only false and absurd, but in one sense impossible.
Herod was a Roman officer, and received his appointment from Rome. As
the Governor of a province, he acted under, and was governed by law.
To take life without sufficient cause, from mere wantonness or caprice,
subjected him to punishment and removal from office. Herod might put
John to death as a promoter of sedition, but not to gratify the spite
of a woman who had been accused of incest. Pilate dared not deliver
over Christ to be crucified, until after he was charged by the Jews with
conspiring against the government of Caesar. His claim to be king of the
Jews, which was made a charge against him, was the warrant which Pilate
had to surrender him to a merciless mob, which would not be satisfied
with anything less than his blood. The author of Matthew, it is clear,
was ignorant of the topography of Judea, the history of the Jews, and
knew nothing of the fundamental principles of the Roman law.