EMBASSY FROM JOHN IN PRISON TO JESUS--DEATH OF JOHN--RELATIONS OF HIS
SCHOOL WITH THAT OF JESUS.
Whilst joyous Galilee was celebrating in feasts the coming of the
well-beloved, the sorrowful John, in his prison of Machero, was pining
away with expectation and desire. The success of the young master,
whom he had seen some months before as his auditor, reached his ears.
It was said that the Messiah predicted by the prophets, he who was to
re-establish the kingdom of Israel, was come, and was proving his
presence in Galilee by marvelous works. John wished to inquire into
the truth of this rumor, and as he communicated freely with his
disciples, he chose two of them to go to Jesus in Galilee.[1]
[Footnote 1: Matt. xi. 2, and following; Luke vii. 18, and following.]
The two disciples found Jesus at the height of his fame. The air of
gladness which reigned around him surprised them. Accustomed to fasts,
to persevering prayer, and to a life of aspiration, they were
astonished to see themselves transported suddenly into the midst of
the joys attending the welcome of the Messiah.[1] They told Jesus
their message: "Art thou he that should come? Or do we look for
another?" Jesus, who from that time hesitated no longer respecting his
peculiar character as Messiah, enumerated the works which ought to
characterize the coming of the kingdom of God--such as the healing of
the sick, and the good tidings of a speedy salvation preached to the
poor. He did all these works. "And blessed is he," said Jesus,
"whosoever shall not be offended in me." We know not whether this
answer found John the Baptist living, or in what temper it put the
austere ascetic. Did he die consoled and certain that he whom he had
announced already lived, or did he remain doubtful as to the mission
of Jesus? There is nothing to inform us. Seeing, however, that his
school continued to exist a considerable time parallel with the
Christian churches, we are led to think that, notwithstanding his
regard for Jesus, John did not look upon him as the one who was to
realize the divine promises. Death came, moreover, to end his
perplexities. The untamable freedom of the ascetic was to crown his
restless and stormy career by the only end which was worthy of it.
[Footnote 1: Matt. ix. 14, and following.]
The leniency which Antipas had at first shown toward John was not of
long duration. In the conversations which, according to the Christian
tradition, John had had with the tetrarch, he did not cease to declare
to him that his marriage was unlawful, and that he ought to send away
Herodias.[1] We can easily imagine the hatred which the granddaughter
of Herod the Great must have conceived toward this importunate
counsellor. She only waited an opportunity to ruin him.
[Footnote 1: Matt. xiv. 4, and following; Mark vi. 18, and following;
Luke iii. 19.]
Her daughter, Salome, born of her first marriage, and like her
ambitious and dissolute, entered into her designs. That year (probably
the year 30) Antipas was at Machero on the anniversary of his
birthday. Herod the Great had constructed in the interior of the
fortress a magnificent palace, where the tetrarch frequently
resided.[1] He gave a great feast there, during which Salome executed
one of those dances in character which were not considered in Syria as
unbecoming a distinguished person. Antipas being much pleased, asked
the dancer what she most desired, and she replied, at the instigation
of her mother, "Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger."[2]
Antipas was sorry, but he did not like to refuse. A guard took the
dish, went and cut off the head of the prisoner, and brought it.[3]
[Footnote 1: Jos., _De Bello jud._, VII. vi. 2.]
[Footnote 2: A portable dish on which liquors and viands are served in
the East.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. xiv. 3, and following; Mark vi. 14-29; Jos.,
_Ant._, XVIII. v. 2.]
The disciples of the Baptist obtained his body and placed it in a
tomb, but the people were much displeased. Six years after, Hareth,
having attacked Antipas, in order to recover Machero and avenge the
dishonor of his daughter, Antipas was completely beaten; and his
defeat was generally regarded as a punishment for the murder of
John.[1]
[Footnote 1: Josephus, _Ant._, XVIII. v. 1, 2.]
The news of John's death was brought to Jesus by the disciples of the
Baptist.[1] John's last act toward Jesus had effectually united the
two schools in the most intimate bonds. Jesus, fearing an increase of
ill-will on the part of Antipas, took precautions and retired to the
desert,[2] where many people followed him. By exercising an extreme
frugality, the holy band was enabled to live there, and in this there
was naturally seen a miracle.[3] From this time Jesus always spoke of
John with redoubled admiration. He declared unhesitatingly[4] that he
was more than a prophet, that the Law and the ancient prophets had
force only until he came,[5] that he had abrogated them, but that the
kingdom of heaven would displace him in turn. In fine, he attributed
to him a special place in the economy of the Christian mystery, which
constituted him the link of union between the Old Testament and the
advent of the new reign.
[Footnote 1: Matt. xiv. 12.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xiv. 13.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. xiv. 15, and following; Mark vi. 35, and following;
Luke ix. 11, and following; John vi. 2, and following.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xi. 7, and following; Luke vii. 24, and following.]
[Footnote 5: Matt. xi. 12, 13; Luke xvi. 16.]
The prophet Malachi, whose opinion in this matter was soon brought to
bear,[1] had announced with much energy a precursor of the Messiah,
who was to prepare men for the final renovation, a messenger who
should come to make straight the paths before the elected one of God.
This messenger was no other than the prophet Elias, who, according to
a widely spread belief, was soon to descend from heaven, whither he
had been carried, in order to prepare men by repentance for the great
advent, and to reconcile God with his people.[2] Sometimes they
associated with Elias, either the patriarch Enoch, to whom for one or
two centuries they had attributed high sanctity;[3] or Jeremiah,[4]
whom they considered as a sort of protecting genius of the people,
constantly occupied in praying for them before the throne of God.[5]
This idea, that two ancient prophets should rise again in order to
serve as precursors to the Messiah, is discovered in so striking a
form in the doctrine of the Parsees that we feel much inclined to
believe that it comes from that source.[6] However this may be, it
formed at the time of Jesus an integral portion of the Jewish theories
about the Messiah. It was admitted that the appearance of "two
faithful witnesses," clothed in garments of repentance, would be the
preamble of the great drama about to be unfolded, to the astonishment
of the universe.[7]
[Footnote 1: Malachi iii. and iv.; _Ecclesiasticus_ xlviii. 10. See
_ante_, Chap. VI.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xi. 14, xvii. 10; Mark vi. 15, viii. 28, ix. 10,
and following; Luke ix. 8, 19.]
[Footnote 3: _Ecclesiasticus_ xliv. 16.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xvi. 14.]
[Footnote 5: 2 _Macc._ v. 13, and following.]
[Footnote 6: Texts cited by Anquetil-Duperron, _Zend-Avesta_, i. 2d
part, p. 46, corrected by Spiegel, in the _Zeitschrift der deutschen
morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, i. 261, and following; extracts from
the _Jamasp-Nameh_, in the _Avesta_ of Spiegel, i., p. 34. None of the
Parsee texts, which truly imply the idea of resuscitated prophets and
of precursors, are ancient; but the ideas contained in them appear to
be much anterior to the time of the compilation itself.]
[Footnote 7: _Rev._ xi. 3, and following.]
It will be seen that, with these ideas, Jesus and his disciples could
not hesitate about the mission of John the Baptist. When the scribes
raised the objection that the Messiah could not have come because
Elias had not yet appeared,[1] they replied that Elias was come, that
John was Elias raised from the dead.[2] By his manner of life, by his
opposition to the established political authorities, John in fact
recalled that strange figure in the ancient history of Israel.[3]
Jesus was not silent on the merits and excellencies of his forerunner.
He said that none greater was born among the children of men. He
energetically blamed the Pharisees and the doctors for not having
accepted his baptism, and for not being converted at his voice.[4]
[Footnote 1: Mark ix. 10.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xi. 14, xvii. 10-13; Mark vi. 15, ix. 10-12; Luke
ix. 8; John i. 21-25.]
[Footnote 3: Luke i. 17.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xxi. 32; Luke vii. 29, 30.]
The disciples of Jesus were faithful to these principles of their
master. This respect for John continued during the whole of the first
Christian generation.[1] He was supposed to be a relative of Jesus.[2]
In order to establish the mission of the latter upon testimony
admitted by all, it was declared that John, at the first sight of
Jesus, proclaimed him the Messiah; that he recognized himself his
inferior, unworthy to unloose the latchets of his shoes; that he
refused at first to baptize him, and maintained that it was he who
ought to be baptized by Jesus.[3] These were exaggerations, which are
sufficiently refuted by the doubtful form of John's last message.[4]
But, in a more general sense, John remains in the Christian legend
that which he was in reality--the austere forerunner, the gloomy
preacher of repentance before the joy on the arrival of the
bridegroom, the prophet who announces the kingdom of God and dies
before beholding it. This giant in the early history of Christianity,
this eater of locusts and wild honey, this rough redresser of wrongs,
was the bitter which prepared the lip for the sweetness of the kingdom
of God. His beheading by Herodias inaugurated the era of Christian
martyrs; he was the first witness for the new faith. The worldly, who
recognized in him their true enemy, could not permit him to live; his
mutilated corpse, extended on the threshold of Christianity, traced
the bloody path in which so many others were to follow.
[Footnote 1: _Acts_ xix. 4.]
[Footnote 2: Luke i.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. iii. 14, and following; Luke iii. 16; John i. 15,
and following, v. 32, 33.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xi. 2, and following; Luke vii. 18, and following.]
The school of John did not die with its founder. It lived some time
distinct from that of Jesus, and at first a good understanding existed
between the two. Many years after the death of the two masters, people
were baptized with the baptism of John. Certain persons belonged to
the two schools at the same time--for example, the celebrated Apollos,
the rival of St. Paul (toward the year 50), and a large number of the
Christians of Ephesus.[1] Josephus placed himself (year 53) in the
school of an ascetic named Banou,[2] who presents the greatest
resemblance to John the Baptist, and who was perhaps of his school.
This Banou[3] lived in the desert, clothed with the leaves of trees;
he supported himself only on wild plants and fruits, and baptized
himself frequently, both day and night, in cold water, in order to
purify himself. James, he who was called the "brother of the Lord"
(there is here perhaps some confusion of homonyms), practised a
similar asceticism.[4] Afterward, toward the year 80, Baptism was in
strife with Christianity, especially in Asia Minor. John the
evangelist appears to combat it in an indirect manner.[5] One of the
Sibylline[6] poems seems to proceed from this school. As to the sects
of Hemero-baptists, Baptists, and Elchasaïtes (_Sabiens Mogtasila_ of
the Arabian writers[7]), who, in the second century, filled Syria,
Palestine and Babylonia, and whose representatives still exist in our
days among the Mendaites, called "Christians of St. John;" they have
the same origin as the movement of John the Baptist, rather than an
authentic descent from John. The true school of the latter, partly
mixed with Christianity, became a small Christian heresy, and died out
in obscurity. John had foreseen distinctly the destiny of the two
schools. If he had yielded to a mean rivalry, he would to-day have
been forgotten in the crowd of sectaries of his time. By his
self-abnegation he has attained a glorious and unique position in the
religious pantheon of humanity.
[Footnote 1: _Acts_ xviii. 25, xix. 1-5. Cf. Epiph., _Adv. Hær._, xxx.
16.]
[Footnote 2: _Vita_, 2.]
[Footnote 3: Would this be the Bounaï who is reckoned by the Talmud
(Bab., _Sanhedrim_, 43 _a_) amongst the disciples of Jesus?]
[Footnote 4: Hegesippus, in Eusebius, _H.E._, ii. 23.]
[Footnote 5: Gospel, i. 26, 33, iv. 2; 1st Epistle, v. 6. Cf. _Acts_
x. 47.]
[Footnote 6: Book iv. See especially v. 157, and following.]
[Footnote 7: _Sabiens_ is the Aramean equivalent of the word
"Baptists." _Mogtasila_ has the same meaning in Arabic.]