Origen, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, Part II, Complete

Translated by Allan Menzies.

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Page 8

6. Messianic Discussion with John the Baptist.

Then the Jews sent priests and levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ. [4837] What legates should have been sent from the Jews to John, and where should they have been sent from? Should they not have been men held to stand by the election of God above their fellows, and should they not have come from that place which was chosen out of the whole of the earth, though it is all called good, from Jerusalem where was the temple of God? With such honour, then, do they enquire of John. In the case of Christ nothing of this sort is reported to have been done by the Jews; but what the Jews do to John, John does to Christ, sending his own disciples to ask him, [4838] "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" John confesses to those sent to him, and denies not, and he afterwards declares, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness;" but Christ, as having a greater testimony than John the Baptist, makes His answer by words and deeds, saying, "Go and tell John those things which ye do hear and see; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them." On this passage I shall, if God permit, enlarge in its proper place. Here, however, it might be asked reasonably enough why John gives such an answer to the question put to him. The priests and levites do not ask him, "Art thou the Christ?" but "Who art thou?" and the Baptist's reply to this question should have been, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." The proper reply to the question, "Art thou the Christ?" is, "I am not the Christ;" and to the question, "Who art thou?"--"The voice of one crying in the wilderness." To this we may say that he probably discerned in the question of the priests and levites a cautious reverence, which led them to hint the idea in their minds that he who was baptizing might be the Christ, but withheld them from openly saying so, which might have been presumptuous.

[4837] John i. 19, 20.

[4838] Matt. xi. 3.

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