Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 1:24-28

"And they had been sent from the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize in water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, [even] he that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing." — John 1:24-28 (ASV)

Above, we saw John bear witness to Christ when he was questioned about matters concerning himself; here, he is questioned about matters concerning his office.

Four things are presented:

1. Those who question him.
2. Their questions: and they asked him.
3. His answer, in which he bore witness: John answered them, saying.
4. The place where all this happened: these things were done in Bethany.

His interrogators were Pharisees. Therefore, the Evangelist says, and those who had been sent were from the Pharisees. According to Origen, what is being said from this point on describes a different testimony given by John. Furthermore, those who were sent from the Pharisees are not the same as the priests and Levites sent by the Jews in general, but others who were specifically sent by the Pharisees. According to this view, it says: and those who had been sent, not by the Jews, as the priests and Levites had been, but were others, were from the Pharisees. So he says about this that because the priests and Levites were educated and respectful, they asked John humbly whether he was the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet. But these others, who were from the Pharisees, are divisive and demanding, consistent with their name, and used disdainful language. Thus they asked him, Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?

But according to others, such as Gregory, Chrysostom, and Augustine, these Pharisees are the same priests and Levites who had been sent by the Jews. For there was a certain sect among the Jews that was separated from the others because of its external religious practices; and for this reason its members were called Pharisees, that is, "the separated ones." In this sect there were some priests and Levites, and some of the people. And so, in order that the delegates might possess greater authority, they sent priests and Levites who were Pharisees, thus providing them with the dignity of the priestly class and with religious authority.

The Evangelist adds, and those who had been sent were from the Pharisees, to disclose, first, the specific reason for their question about John’s baptizing, which was not the reason they were sent. It is as if he were saying that they were sent to ask John who he was. But they asked, Why do you baptize? They did this because they were from the Pharisees, whose religion was being challenged.

Second, as Gregory says, it is to show the intention with which they asked John, Who are you? (John 1:19). For the Pharisees, more than all the others, showed themselves to be crafty and insulting to Christ. Thus they said of him: He casts out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils (Matthew 12:24). Further, they consulted with the Herodians on how to trap Jesus in his speech (Matthew 22:15). And so in saying, and those who had been sent were from the Pharisees, he shows that they were disrespectful and were questioning him out of envy.

Their questions concerned his office of baptizing. Therefore, he says that they asked him, Why then do you baptize?

Here we should note that they are asking not to learn, but to obstruct. For since they saw many people coming to John because of the new rite of baptism, foreign both to the rite of the Pharisees and to the Law, they became envious of John and tried all they could to hinder his baptism. But being unable to contain themselves any longer, they revealed their envy and said, Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet? It is as if to say: You should not baptize, since you deny that you are any of those three persons in whom baptism was prefigured, as was said above. In other words, if you are not the Christ, who will possess the fountain by which sins are washed away, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, that is, Elisha, who made a dry passageway through the Jordan (2 Kings 2:8), how do you dare baptize?

They are like envious people who hinder the progress of souls, who say to the seers, "See no visions" (Isaiah 30:10).

His answer is true, and so he says that John answered, I baptize with water. It is as if to say: You should not be disturbed if I, who am not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, baptize, because my baptism is not final but imperfect.

For the perfection of baptism requires the washing of the body and of the soul. The body, by its nature, is indeed washed by water, but the soul is washed by the Spirit alone. So, I baptize with water, that is, I wash the body with a physical element; but another will come who will baptize perfectly, namely, with water and with the Holy Spirit. He is God and man, who will wash the body with water and the spirit with the Spirit, in such a way that the sanctification of the spirit will be distributed throughout the body. For John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:5).

Then he bears witness to Christ: but there is one who stands in your midst, whom you do not know.

1. First, in relation to the Jews.
2. Second, in relation to himself, at the same is he who will come after me, who ranks ahead of me.

He relates Christ to the Jews when he says, but there is one who stands in your midst. It is as if to say: I have done an incomplete work, but there is another who will complete my work, and he stands in your midst.

This is explained in a number of ways. First, according to Gregory, Chrysostom, and Augustine, it refers to the ordinary way Christ lived among men, because according to his human nature he appeared to be like other men: He, being in the form of God, did not account equality with God something to be grasped, but rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6). And according to this he says, there is one who stands in your midst, that is, in many ways he lived as one of you: I am in your midst (Luke 22:27), whom you do not recognize, that is, you cannot grasp the fact that God was made man. Likewise, you do not recognize how great he is according to the divine nature which is concealed in him: God is great, and exceeds our knowledge (Job 36:26). And so, as Augustine says, the lantern was lighted, namely, John, so that Christ might be found. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed (Psalms 131:17).

It is explained differently by Origen, and in two ways. First, as referring to the divinity of Christ. According to this, there is one who stands, namely, Christ, in your midst, that is, in the midst of all things, because he, as the Word, has filled all from the beginning of creation: I fill heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24). Whom you do not know, because He was in the world... and the world did not know him (John 1:10). It is explained another way as referring to his causality of human wisdom. But there is one who stands in your midst, that is, he shines in everyone’s understanding, because whatever light and whatever wisdom exists in human beings has come to them from participating in the Word. And he says, in your midst, because in the middle of the human body lies the heart, to which a certain wisdom and understanding is attributed. Hence, although the intellect has no bodily organ, yet because the heart is our chief organ, it is customary to take it for the intellect. So he is said to stand among men because of this likeness, insofar as he enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9). Whom you do not know, because the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:5).

In a fourth way, it is explained as referring to the prophetic foretelling of the Messiah. In this sense the answer is directed chiefly to the Pharisees, who continually searched the writings of the Old Testament in which the Messiah was foretold, and yet they did not recognize him. According to this it says, there is one who stands in your midst, that is, in the Sacred Scriptures which you are always considering: Search the Scriptures (John 5:39); whom you do not know, because your heart is hardened by unbelief, and your eyes blinded, so that you do not recognize as present the person you believe is to come.

Then John compares Christ to himself: the same is he who will come after me.

1. First, he states the superiority of Christ as compared to himself.
2. Second, he shows the greatness of this superiority: the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten.

He shows the superiority of Christ in comparison to himself both in preaching and in dignity. Now, regarding the order of preaching, John was the first to become known. Thus he says, the same is he who will come after me, to preach, to baptize, and to die, because, as was said: You will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way (Luke 1:76). John preceded Christ as the imperfect precedes the perfect, and as a disposition precedes the form; for as is said, the spiritual is not first, but the animal (1 Corinthians 15:46). For the entire life of John was a preparation for Christ; so he said above, I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness (John 1:23). But Christ preceded John and all of us as the perfect precedes the imperfect and the exemplar precedes the copy: If any one wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24); Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example (1 Peter 2:21).

Then he compares Christ to himself regarding dignity, saying, who ranks ahead of me, that is, he has been placed above me and is above me in dignity, because as he says, He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).

He touches on the greatness of his superiority when he says, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten. It is as if to say: You must not suppose that he ranks ahead of me in dignity in the way that one man is placed ahead of another; rather, he is ranked so far above me that I am nothing in comparison to him. And this is clear from the fact that it is he the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten, which is the least service that can be done for a person.

It is clear from this that John had made great progress in the knowledge of God, so much so that from considering God’s infinite greatness, he completely humbled himself and said that he himself was nothing. Abraham did the same when he recognized God, saying, I will speak to my Lord, although I am but dust and ashes (Genesis 18:27). Job also said, when he had seen the Lord: Now I see you, and so I reprove myself, and do penance in dust and ashes (Job 42:5). Isaiah also said, after he had seen the glory of God, Before him all the nations are as if they are not (Isaiah 40:17). And this is the literal explanation.

This is also explained mystically. Gregory explains it so that the sandal, made from the hides of dead animals, indicates our mortal human nature, which Christ assumed: I will stretch out my sandal to Edom (Psalms 59:10). The strap of Christ’s sandal is the union of his divinity and humanity, which neither John nor anyone can unfasten or fully investigate, since it is this which made God man and made man God. And so he says, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten, that is, to explain the mystery of the incarnation perfectly and fully. For John and other preachers unfasten the strap of Christ’s sandal in some way, although imperfectly.

It is explained in another way by recalling that it was ordered in the Old Law that when a man died without children, his brother was obligated to marry the wife of the dead man and raise up children for his brother from her. And if he refused to marry her, then a close relative of the dead man, if willing to marry her, was to remove the sandals of the dead man as a sign of this willingness and marry her; and his home was then to be called the home of the man whose sandals were removed (Deuteronomy 25:5). And so according to this he says, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten, that is, I am not worthy to have the bride, that is, the Church, to which Christ has a right. It is as if to say: I am not worthy to be called the bridegroom of the Church, which is consecrated to Christ in the baptism of the Spirit; but I baptize only in water. Thus it is said: He who has the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:29).

The place where these events happened is mentioned when he says, These things were done in Bethany, beyond the Jordan.

A question arises about this: since Bethany is on the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem (John 11:1; Matthew 26:6), how can he say that these things happened beyond the Jordan, which is quite far from Jerusalem?

Origen and Chrysostom answer that it should be called Bethabora, not Bethany, which is a village on the far side of the Jordan, and that the reading "Bethany" is due to a copyist’s error. However, since both the Greek and Latin versions have Bethany, it should rather be said that there are two places called Bethany: one is near Jerusalem on the side of the Mount of Olives, and the other is on the far side of the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The fact that he mentions the place has both a literal and a mystical reason. The literal reason, according to Chrysostom, is that John wrote this Gospel for certain people, perhaps still alive, who would recall the time and had seen the place where these things happened. And so, to lead us to greater certainty, he makes them witnesses of the things they had seen.

The mystical reason is that these places are appropriate for baptism. For in saying Bethany, which is interpreted as "house of obedience," he indicates that one must come to be baptized through obedience to the faith. To bring all the nations to have obedience to the faith (Romans 1:5). But if the name of the place is Bethabora, which is interpreted as "house of preparation," it signifies that a person is prepared for eternal life through baptism.

There is also a mystery in the fact that this happened on the far side of the Jordan. For Jordan is interpreted as "their descent," and according to Origen it signifies Christ, who descended from heaven, as he himself says, I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me (John 6:38). From which it is said: I am like a river of the Dorix . Through him, however, everyone coming into this world is made clean, according to: He who has washed us from our sins in his own blood (Revelation 1:5).

Furthermore, the river Jordan aptly signifies baptism. For it is the border between those who received their inheritance from Moses on one side of the Jordan, and those who received it from Joshua on the other side. Thus baptism is a kind of border between Jews and Gentiles, who journey to this place to wash themselves by coming to Christ so that they might put off the debasement of sin. For just as the Jews had to cross the Jordan to enter the promised land, so one must pass through baptism to enter into the heavenly land. And he says, beyond the Jordan, to show that John preached the baptism of repentance even to those who transgressed the Law and were sinners; and so the Lord also says, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:13).