Mark 1.7-8,
Matthew 3.11-12,
Luke 3.10-20,
John 1.26-28.
Previously I dealt with what John the baptist had to say to religious folks—people who already followed God, or at least were active in temple and synagogue. John didn’t come to preach to them; they already had prophets, and shouldn’t need to come to John and repent. He came to reach the people who had no relationship with God, who needed to get ready for their coming Messiah.
But you might notice Luke describes John’s message to the religious folks as being directed towards everyone. Religious and irreligious alike.
- Luke 3.7-14 KWL
- 7John is saying this
- to the crowds coming to be baptized by him:
- “You² viper-spawn!
- Who warned you² to escape the wrath of God?
- 8Fine then: Produce worthy fruits,
- from repentant people.
- Don’t start to tell yourselves²,
- ‘We have a father in Abraham’:
- I tell you² God can raise up children for Abraham
- from these rocks.
- 9The axe already lays at the root of the tree.
- So every tree not producing good fruit
- is cut down and thrown into fire.”
- 10The crowds are questioning John,
- saying, “So what can we do?”
- 11 In reply John tells them,
- “You² who have two tunics:
- Share with those who don’t.
- You² who have food:
- Do likewise.”
- 12Taxmen come to be baptized
- and tell John, “Teacher, what can we do?”
- 13John tells them,
- “Do nothing more than you were ordered.”
- 14 Soldiers are questioning John,
- saying, “And we, what can we do?”
- John tells them, “You² could stop shaking people down,
- or stop accusing them falsely.
- Be content with your paychecks.”
I explained the whole worthy fruits, making Abraham’s children from rocks, and axe at the foot of the tree stuff in the previous article. Here Luke includes John’s corrections to the people who came to him for baptism.
In general the problem is stinginess. The crowds needed to share their food and clothing with the needy. Yes, the Law had a sort of welfare system built in so farmers would leave gleanings for the needy, Lv 19.9-10 and so every third-year’s tithes would go to the needy. Dt 14.28 But then, same as now, people don’t bother to do any more than their obligations, and share food and clothing only with people we consider worthy—not so much needy. Loving our neighbor Lv 19.18 gets limited to thinking pleasant thoughts about them, not doing for them. It’s an attitude which always needs breaking.
The taxmen (KJV “publicans,” although Julius Cæsar abolished the publican rank in 30BC; NLT “corrupt tax collectors”) were customs agents. They sat in booths at ports and city gates, and charged everyone a fee to get in. Merchants especially: Usually 2 to 5 percent of whatever they were selling. (Which added up, especially when you transported goods from city to city.) Taxmen were usually already-wealthy men who bought their commissions from the city officials (usually Roman), because it was such a lucrative job. One of the perqs was the ability to set the rates above what the city required, and pocket the difference. Or cheat the merchants with faulty scales, and again pocket the difference. It’s why they were so hated. And why they knew they needed to repent. “Don’t steal” is one of the 10 commandments, y’know.
Lastly soldiers. Who were likely—and kinda surprisingly—Roman soldiers. This is the first time we see gentiles really getting involved in the gospel, but Luke wanted to make it clear in his gospels (both Luke and Acts) that God’s kingdom is likewise for gentiles. And interestingly, John initially responded to them with what they could do, not commands: They could be more fair and just in their duties, instead of hassling the locals and trying to rob them. As gentiles, they weren’t under the Law, so John couldn’t command them to follow it in quite the same way. But like the taxmen, they also knew they needed to repent.
The greater one is coming.
First-century End Times kooks were called προσδοκῶντος/prosdokóntos, “anticipators.” They did a little more than just look forward to Messiah’s first coming, whenever that was. They were actively looking for End Times stuff—and regularly got things wrong. As we know from the stuff the Pharisees and Qumranis wrote, and from the way the Judeans treated Jesus in the gospels, they had a lot of wonky beliefs—and as a result they missed Jesus completely. Something Christian “prophecy scholars” likewise run the risk of doing.
- Luke 3.15 KWL
- The people are anticipators,
- and everyone is privately discussing John:
- “Perhaps he might be Messiah?”—
In the gospel of John, Judean Pharisees even sent out a team to question John, which I write about elsewhere. They wanted to know where John fell in their End Times timeline: Is he Messiah, the Prophet, or the second coming of Elijah? According to John, no, no, and no. (According to Jesus, who knows better, no, kinda, and yes.)
John was only Messiah’s forerunner, and he wanted this made clear to the anticipators. Messiah is much stronger than he was.
- Mark 1.7-8 KWL
- 7John is proclaiming to them,
- “One stronger than me comes after me.
- I’m not meant to stoop down
- and loose his sandal strap.
- 8I baptize you² in water.
- He’ll baptize you² in the Holy Spirit.”
- Matthew 3.11 KWL
- “Indeed I baptize you² in water for repentance.
- And coming after me is one stronger than me.
- I’m not meant to carry his sandals.
- He’ll baptize you² in the Holy Spirit and fire.”
- Luke 3.16 KWL
- In reply John tells everyone, “Indeed I baptize you² in water.
- And one stronger than me comes.
- I’m not meant to loose his sandal strap.
- He’ll baptize you² in the Holy Spirit and fire.”
- John 1.26-27 KWL
- 26John answers them, saying, “I baptize in water.
- In your² midst, one has stood among you².
- You’ve² not known him.
- 27{He’s} the one coming after me,
- {who has got in front of me}.
- I’m not worthy to loose his sandal strap.”
Ἰσχυρότερός/is’hyróterós, “stronger,” is also translated “mightier” (KJV) or “more powerful” (NIV) or words which indicate Jesus has more power than John. Christians tend to think of this in terms of supernatural power. Other than prophecy—God identified Messiah to him, once prenatally Lk 1.41 and later with a sign Jn 1.33 —we don’t see John do any miracles. Doesn’t mean he never did any; it only means they’re not included in the gospels. But y’know, Christians get weird when it comes to power. Humans covet it so much.
“Stronger” only means John believed Messiah capable of achieving way more than John could. John baptized in water, but Messiah baptizes in Spirit and fire. The ancients believed the universe was made of air, earth, fire, and water—and that spirits were made of fire. (I know; you’d think air.) No, we don’t believe that anymore. Spirits aren’t physical. But to the ancients there’d be an immediate connection between the Holy Spirit and fire—and a significant contrast to a water baptism. This alone would demonstrate how Jesus is stronger than John.
To emphasize Messiah’s strength, John overemphasized his own weakness: He’s οὐκ ἱκανὸς/uk ikanós, “not capable of” or “not meant to.” In the gospel of John it’s οὐκ ἄξιος/uk áxios, “not right to” or “not worthy to.” The translators of the KJV, in order to make the gospels sync up better, interpreted ikanós as “worthy” too, but ikanós isn’t about whether you merit doing a job, but whether it’s even for him to do—and John felt it wasn’t.
John considered himself unworthy. Jesus did not. It’s why he came to earth: To make us worthy. He let John baptize him, and ordered his followers to keep baptizing people John-style. He esteemed John greatly. Mt 11.11 Let’s pay more attention to Jesus’s estimation than John’s self-debasement. John may have legitimately felt that way, but it’s not accurate.
As for that baptism in the Spirit and fire, I discuss how that works elsewhere.
Messiah makes a clean sweep.
This metaphor is only found in two gospels:
- Matthew 3.12 KWL
- “The winnowing-shovel is in his hand,
- and he’ll thoroughly clean his threshing-floor.
- He’ll gather up his grain in the silo.
- He’ll burn up the straw with endless fire.”
- Luke 3.17 KWL
- “The winnowing-shovel is in his hand
- to thoroughly clean his threshing-floor.
- He’ll gather together the grain in his silo.
- He’ll burn up the straw with endless fire.”
Other bibles tend to go with “fan” to translate πτύον/ptýon, “shovel,” because medieval Europeans used a fan for the job. Our winnowing machines also use fans, a lot of the time. But the way ancient middle easterners did it was to shovel up grain, toss it into the air, and let the wind blow away the chaff (the seed-husks and straw). Do this enough times, and what you’ll have on the threshing-floor is mostly the edible seeds, which then go into the silo, and as needed be ground into flour.
The rest? Well, some straw could be used for animal feed and adobe, but ordinarily it’d be burnt. In comparison John described πυρὶ ἀσβέστῳ/pyrí asvésto, “endless fire,” the sort of trash fire which you never put out because there was constantly trash to burn. Chaff burns up quickly, but the fire keeps going. And whenever the folks in the bible started talking about endless fire, what they meant was hell, and the sort who’d go into it: The undesirable, versus the desirable. The unrepentant, versus the repentant. Those who want nothing to do with God, and those who love him.
This is still good news Lk 3.18 for the anticipators of Messiah’s first coming back then, and the anticipators of Jesus’s second coming in the present. We expect, as they did, to be the useful, productive grain. Not the empty, nutritionless husks. Hope we are.
Wrapping up John.
Luke makes a reference to what later becomes of John, which I discuss in more detail in its place. He tells of it even before he gets to Jesus’s baptism.
Briefly: This “Herod” and “Herodia” in Luke, are masculine and feminine forms of the same family name; they refer to Herod Antipas and Herodia Salomé. Her dad was his elder brother; her mom was his first cousin; so he’s her uncle/cousin. She was previously married to her other uncle/cousin, Antipas’s brother Herod Philip. Antipas stole her from Philip and married her. It’s all incestuous and icky. Legal under Roman law, but violated the Law of Moses, Lv 18.16 so John had publicly rebuked it. Mk 6.18 So Salomé hated him.
No, John wasn’t within Antipas’s jurisdiction. But Roman provinces weren’t sovereign states, and Antipas could’ve sent people to arrest anyone in the Roman Empire. If no other official raised any objection about John being under his protection, that’d be that. John could rot in lockup for all anyone cared.
- Luke 3.18-20 KWL
- 18John evangelizes the people with much more—
- and many other such exhortations.
- 19 Quarter-king Herod Antipas,
- embarrassed by John about his brother’s wife Herodia Salomé,
- and everything evil Herod did,
- 20shuts John up in prison,
- adding this to everything.
- John 1.28 KWL
- These events happen in Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan,
- where John is baptizing.
As for John, he just pinpoints where the Pharisees interviewed John. The Textus Receptus calls it Βηθαβαρᾷ/Vithavará (KJV “Bethabara”), though the ancient Christian writer Origen of Alexandria admitted most John copies he encountered had Βηθανίᾳ/Vithanía, “Bethany,” in them. But since Origen had been to Israel and had never been to a Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River—and because he kinda liked the name “Bethabara,” because he thought it meant “House of Preparation” (but it doesn’t; it means “House of Crossing Over”), he advocated for Bethabara, and it incorrectly caught on. No, it’s not the same Bethany where Lazarus and family lived; that Bethany is 1.4 km outside Jerusalem. This is a whole other city named Bethany. And no, it’s not the Bethabara, or Beit Avára, within the tribe of Benjamin, on the west side of the river. Js 18.22, Jg 7.24
Whatever they called it in John’s day, the location tends to be identified as al-Maghtas, Jordan. Tradition claims it’s also where Elijah crossed the Jordan before ascending to heaven. 2Ki 2.6-14 So, kind of an appropriate place for someone like Elijah to do his ministry.
