Church Fathers Commentary John 1:19-23

"And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet." — John 1:19-23 (ASV)

Origen of Alexandria: This is the second testimony of John the Baptist to Christ; the first began with, "This is He of whom I spoke," and ended with, "He has declared Him."

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, after the introduction of John’s testimony to Christ—is preferred before me—the Evangelist now adds when that testimony was given: And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem.

Origen of Alexandria: The Jews of Jerusalem, being relatives of the Baptist who was of priestly stock, sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. These were men considered to hold a superior rank to the rest of their order by God’s election, and they came from that most favored of all cities, Jerusalem. Such is the reverential way in which they questioned John. We read of no such approach toward Christ, but what the Jews did to John, John in turn did to Christ when he asked Him through his disciples, Are you He that should come, or do we look for another?

St. John Chrysostom: They had such confidence in John that they were ready to believe him on his own word. This is shown by the text, which says they were sent to ask him, Who are you?

St. Augustine of Hippo: They would not have sent messengers unless they had been impressed by his lofty exercise of authority in daring to baptize.

Origen of Alexandria: John, it appears, saw from their question that the priests and Levites suspected he might be the Christ who was baptizing. However, they were afraid to say this openly for fear of being accused of credulity. He wisely decided, therefore, first to correct their mistake and then to proclaim the truth. Accordingly, he first shows that he is not the Christ: And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

We may add that at this time, the people were already impressed with the idea that Christ’s coming was near. This was a consequence of the interpretations that the scribes had gathered from the sacred writings. For example, Theudas had been able to gather a considerable following by pretending to be the Christ, and after him, Judas of Galilee did the same in the days of the census. Because this expectation of Christ’s coming was so strong, the Jews sent to John, intending by the question, Who are you? to find out if he was the Christ.

St. Gregory the Great: He directly denied being what he was not, but he did not deny what he was. Thus, by speaking the truth, he became a true member of Him whose name he had not dishonestly usurped.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, consider this explanation. The Jews were influenced by a kind of human sympathy for John, whom they were reluctant to see made subordinate to Christ. This was because of John’s many marks of greatness: first, his illustrious descent as the son of a chief priest, and second, his rigorous discipline and contempt for the world. In Christ, by contrast, the opposite was apparent: a humble birth, for which they reproached Him, saying, Is not this the carpenter’s son?; an ordinary way of living; and a dress like everyone else wore.

Since John was constantly sending his disciples to Christ, they sent a delegation to John, hoping to make him their master. They thought that by flattery they could induce him to confess that he was the Christ. Therefore, they did not send inferior people to him—like the servants and Herodians they sent to Christ—but priests and Levites. And not just any group, but those from Jerusalem, that is, the more honorable ones. They sent them with the question, Who are you? not because they wanted to be informed, but to persuade him to do as I have said.

John, then, replies to their intention, not to their question: And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. Observe the wisdom of the Evangelist: he repeats this three times to show John’s virtue and the malice and madness of the Jews. For it is the mark of a devoted servant not only to refrain from taking his master’s glory for himself, but to reject it even when many people offer it to him.

The multitude believed John was the Christ out of ignorance, but for these leaders, it was malice. They put the question to him in this spirit, thinking that their flattery would bring him over to their side. For if this had not been their design, when he replied, I am not the Christ, they would have said, "We did not suspect this; we did not come to ask this." When they were caught and their purpose was discovered, however, they proceeded to another question: And they asked him, What then? Are you Elias?

St. Augustine of Hippo: They knew that Elijah was to preach Christ, for the name of Christ was not unknown to any of the Jews. However, they did not think that our Lord was the Christ, and yet they did not imagine that no Christ was coming. In this way, while looking forward to the future, they were mistaken about the present.

St. Gregory the Great: These words gave rise to a very different question. In another place, when our Lord was asked by His disciples about the coming of Elijah, He replied, If you will receive it, this is Elijah. But John says, I am not Elijah. How then is he a preacher of the truth, if he does not agree with what the Truth Himself declares?

Origen of Alexandria: Someone might claim that John was ignorant that he was Elijah. This is what those who use this passage to maintain the doctrine of reincarnation—as though the soul takes up a new body after leaving its old one—would say. They argue that when the Jews asked John if he was Elijah, they were assuming the doctrine of a second body was already certain, as if it were part of their tradition and secret system. To this question, John replies, I am not Elijah, supposedly being unacquainted with his own prior existence.

But how is it reasonable to imagine this? If John was a prophet enlightened by the Spirit, and had revealed so much concerning the Father and the Only-Begotten, how could he be so in the dark about himself as not to know that his own soul had once belonged to Elijah?

St. Gregory the Great: But if we examine the truth accurately, what sounds inconsistent will be found not to be. The angel told Zechariah concerning John, He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah. Just as Elijah will preach the second coming of our Lord, so John preached His first. As the former will come as the forerunner of the Judge, so the latter was made the forerunner of the Redeemer.

John was Elijah in spirit, not in person. What our Lord affirms of the spirit, John denies of the person. There is a certain appropriateness in this: namely, that our Lord would speak spiritually of John to His disciples, while John, in answering the worldly multitude, would speak of his body, not of his spirit.

Origen of Alexandria: He answers the Levites and priests, I am not, guessing what their question meant. The purpose of their examination was to discover not whether the spirit in both was the same, but whether John was the very Elijah who was taken up, now appearing again—as the Jews expected—without being born again. The person I mentioned before, who holds this doctrine of reincarnation, will say it is inconsistent that the priests and Levites would be ignorant of the birth of the son of so dignified a priest as Zechariah, especially since he was born in his father’s old age, contrary to all human probability. This is particularly so given that Luke declares that fear came on all that dwelt round about them.

But perhaps, since Elijah was expected to appear before the coming of Christ near the end of the age, they might have been asking the question figuratively: "Are you the one who announces Christ's coming at the end of the world?" To which he answers, I am not. In fact, there is nothing strange in supposing that John’s birth might not have been known to everyone. For just as in the case of our Savior many knew He was born of Mary, and yet some wrongly imagined He was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets, so it was with John. Some were aware that he was the son of Zechariah, and yet others may have been in doubt as to whether he was the expected Elijah.

Again, since many prophets had arisen in Israel, but one was especially looked for—the one of whom Moses had prophesied, The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among you, from your brethren—him you shall listen to—they ask him in the third place, not simply if he is a prophet, but with the definite article, Are you that Prophet?

Each of the preceding prophets had signified to the people of Israel that he was not the one Moses had prophesied about—the one who, like Moses, was to stand between God and humanity and deliver a covenant from God to His disciples. They did not, however, apply this title to Christ, but thought "that Prophet" was to be a different person. John, however, knew that Christ was that Prophet, and therefore he answered "No" to this question.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, it was because John was more than a prophet, for the prophets announced Him from afar, but John pointed Him out as actually present.

St. John Chrysostom: You see them here pressing him still more strongly with their questions, while he, on the other hand, quietly puts down their false suspicions and establishes the truth in their place, saying, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

St. Augustine of Hippo: So spoke Isaiah; the prophecy was fulfilled in John the Baptist.

St. Gregory the Great: You know that the only-begotten Son is called the Word of the Father. In our own speech, we know that the voice sounds first, and then the word is heard. Thus, John declares himself to be the voice, that is, because he precedes the Word, and through his ministry, the Word of the Father is heard by humanity.

Origen of Alexandria: Heracleon, in his discussion on John and the Prophets, infers that because the Savior was the Word and John was the voice, the entire prophetic order was merely sound. To this we reply, if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle? If the voice of prophecy is nothing but sound, why does the Savior send us to it, saying, Search the Scriptures?

But John calls himself the voice, not that cries, but of one that cries in the wilderness—namely, of Him who stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He cries out so that those at a distance may hear him and understand from the loudness of the cry the greatness of the message being proclaimed.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, it is because he declared the truth plainly, while all who were under the law spoke obscurely.

St. Gregory the Great: John cries in the wilderness because it is to a forsaken and destitute Judea that he brings the comforting news of a Redeemer.

Origen of Alexandria: The voice crying in the wilderness is needed so that the soul, forsaken by God, may be called back to making the way of the Lord straight, no longer following the crooked paths of the serpent. This applies both to the contemplative life, which is enlightened by truth without any mixture of falsehood, and to the active life, which follows correct perception with suitable action. Therefore, he adds, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.

St. Gregory the Great: The way of the Lord is made straight to the heart when the word of truth is heard with humility. The way of the Lord is made straight to the heart when one’s life is shaped by the commandment.