The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Ver. 23. — I am the Voice, &c. (Isa. xl. 3), where I have expounded the meaning. Listen to what the Fathers say about it. “ I am a servant, and prepare paths, your hearts, for the Lord,” says Theophylact ; “ I come, he says, to say that He is at the doors who is expected, that you may be prepared to go whithersoever He may bid you,” says Cyril.
Ver. 24. — And they that were sent, &c. John adds this, to suggest the occasion why they examined John the Baptist concerning baptism . These messengers who were sent to John were Pharisees, and therefore were well versed in the Scriptures. Consequently they knew that Messiah would baptize for the remission of sins, because Ezekiel (xxxvi. 25) and Zechariah (xiii. 1) had predicted that He would do so. But concerning other prophets and saints they had not read in Scripture that they would baptize. They ask John therefore to tell them by what authority he baptized, especially since he not only asserted that he was not Christ, but not even a prophet.
Ver. 25. — And they asked him , &c. “These Pharisees,” says S. Cyril, “in their arrogancy insult John, as though they said, Neither Elias, nor Eliseus, nor any of the other prophets dared to take upon themselves the office of baptizing. With what face then, or boldness, dost thou, who art not a prophet, arrogate this office to thyself? ”
Ver. 26. — John answered them, &c. As though he had said, “ God hath sent me to baptize with water, that I might stir you up to repentance and tears, so as to fit you for Christ’s baptism. For He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, for the remission of sins,” as the remaining three Evangelists declare. Therefore John is silent about this.
There standeth one, &c. That is, Christ is living in the midst of you, and yet ye know Him not. That is, you do not recognise Him as Messiah, but look upon Him as a mere man, as vile and abject.
Ver. 27. — He it is who , coming after me, &c. After me Christ shall come to baptize you, that by His baptism He may perfect mine, and may wash and justify them that are penitent. As S. Cyril paraphrases, “I in preparation wash with water those who are polluted with sins as a beginning of repentance, and by this means leading you from what is lower I prepare you for more lofty things. For He who is the giver of greater things, and of the highest perfection , is about to come after me.” Or, as S. Chrysostom says, “ My baptism is only a disposition and preparation for the baptism of Christ. Mine is of water and corporeal, Christ’s is of fire and spiritual.”
Whose shoe’s latchet, &c. As though he said, “ I am not worthy to be reckoned amongst the last of the servants of Christ, on account of the greatness of the Deity which is in Him.”
Ver. 28 . — These things were done in, &c. Bethany is the reading of the Latin, Syriac, Arabic versions, of many codices, including the Vatican, of Bede, Alcuin, the Gloss, &c. But instead of Bethany, Origen, S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, S. Epiphanius, and S. Jerome (in loc. Heb.) read Bethabara, where Gideon slew the Midianites. I observe with Toletus that Bethany and Bethabara were one and the same place, or at least that one was nigh the other, or on opposite banks of the Jordan. This was the place in which the Hebrews, when they came out of Egypt, first crossed the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua, to enter the promised land. For Bethabara means in Hebrew a house of passage ; Bethany, a house of ships . For vessels were waiting here to carry passengers over Jordan. This Bethany is derived from Beth, a house, and any, spelt with alpha, a ship. The Bethany of Martha and Lazarus was a different place, and spelt differently in Hebrew. That Bethany means the house of humility, from Beth, a house, and any, spelt with ain, humility.
John, then, chose this place wherein to baptize for several reasons, because of the abundance of water, also in memory of the ancient passage of the Israelites. S. Jerome says (loc. Hebrceis), “Even at this present time many of our brethren who believe, desiring there to be born again, are baptized in the life-giving flood.” They did this in memory of Christ, who was there baptized by John. This place is distant about four leagues from the Dead Sea.
Observe, Christ was baptized on the 6th of January. It was fifty-five days afterwards that John bore this witness to Christ, or about the 1st of March, when Jesus was absent. On the day following Jesus presented Himself before John, when John renewed his testimony , saying, Behold the Lamb of God. (See Epiphan . Hares. 51.)
Whence there follows (ver. 29), The next day again John saw, &c. Observe that after Jesus was baptized He went into the desert, where He fasted for forty days, as is plain from S. Matthew iii. Then He came down from the Mount of Temptation, and returned to John, to visit and hear him ; but especially that John might in His presence confirm the testimony which in His absence he had given to the messengers of the Jews ; that he might point Him out with his very finger, and leave no place for hesitation to any.
Behold the Lamb of God. Nonnus paraphrases, “ He lifted up his finger, and pointed Him out as He drew near to the people who beheld Him.” “ The word Behold,” says S. Chrysostom, “ is used because many were inquiring for Him : therefore he pointed Him out being present, saying, “This is He of whom I have been speaking.”
Lamb , Greek, ὁ ἀμνός, the Lamb divinely prefigured and predicted by Isaiah. “ He is led as a lamb to the slaughter,” &c.
Christ is thus called the Lamb by John the Baptist, and by His Apostle, S. John the Evangelist, in the Apocalypse. 1. Because He was prefigured by the Paschal Lamb, and by the daily morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb to God in the Temple, and by the other lambs which were offered for sin, according to the Law, and yet they could not take away sins. Wherefore they represented Christ, who was to take away sin by His Blood. So Origen, &c.
2. Because Christ was called a Lamb by Isaiah and Jeremiah (xi. 19), who was to be offered for the redemption of the world.
3. He is called a Lamb because of his lamb-like innocence, meekness, patience, and obedience, even unto death, which, like a lamb, He bore in silence. As S. Peter says, “Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.”
Christ truly is called the Lamb of God, i.e., the offspring, not of sheep, but of God, who by the will of God was offered for man’s redemption. Thus the sacrifice which Abraham offered is called God’s sacrifice, as Theophylact says. Or because He was offered up to God Himself. Or the Lamb of God is the Divine Lamb, because of the Deity which was in Him. Or as Clement of Alexandria says, because He was made for us the child and babe of the Father. So we call children, lambs . These are the words of Clement, “ Since the Scripture calls boys and infants lambs, he called God who is the Word, who for us was made man, who wished in all things to be made like unto us, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Infant of the Father ” (Paedag. lib. i, c. 5).
Moreover, Christ for His strength and His victory is called the “ Lion of the tribe of Judah.” He was a Lamb in His Passion, a Lion in His Resurrection.
Who taketh away the sin : taketh away , both as regards the stain which sin in act imprints upon the soul, and as regards the guilt of sin, which makes the sinner liable to hell. This He takes away by making expiation, and bearing the punishment in Himself, thus in justice and equity satisfying for sin by His death upon the cross. John said this, that no one might think Christ came to his baptism to wash away His own sins, as others did ; for He had no sin, but was most innocent and most holy. Therefore God made Him the victim for the sins of the whole world, that He might sanctify all who repent and believe in Him. As S. Augustine says, “ He who had no participation in our sinfulness is He who takes away our sin.”
Sin: this is the reading of the Greek, Latin, and Syriac. The Arabic reads sins ; but the sense is the same. By sin here is to be understood the first and universal sin of Adam, that is, original sin, which he by generation transmitted to all his posterity, and out of which all actual sins, whether venial or mortal, spring. Christ therefore , in taking away sin, takes away its source as well as its filth. So Bede, S. Thomas, Jansen, &c. As Isaiah saith, “ The Lord laid upon Him the iniquities of us all.” And, “ He shall bear their iniquities ; ” and 1 John ii. 2, “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
As S. Cyril says, “ One is slain for all, that the whole human race may be won to God the Father.” For there is in Christ a perpetual power of making expiation for sin in all ages and all nations, and in all men who are willing to receive His faith, His baptism, His repentance.