John the Baptist, an iconic painting from the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai and dated to the 6th Century.
Autumn 26 A.D
Bethany Beyond the Jordan
No one knows exactly where this “Bethany beyond the Jordan” was. There are strong arguments for two proposed sites. One places it closer to the Sea of Galilee while the other places it closer to the Dead Sea opposite Jericho. I favor the location nearer the Dead Sea for several reasons. One is the proximity to Jerusalem. It would seem more logical that John the Baptist was baptizing in this area. It also places the site of this “Bethany beyond the Jordan” at the place where Elijah ascended to Heaven in a whirlwind. This would have ties to the statement that John the Baptist was in the spirit of the Elijah to come. Another reason is the timing of Jesus’ movements at the death of Lazarus. Messengers came to Jesus with news of Lazarus’s illness. Jesus tarried two days before saying to his disciples they would travel to the Bethany of Mary and Martha, which is about two miles from Jerusalem. When Jesus arrives in the Bethany of Mary and Martha, he is told Lazarus has been dead four days. It is a day’s journey from the alleged Bethany beyond the Jordan site to the Bethany of Martha and Mary. Thus, a massager took a day to arrive and inform Jesus that Lazarus was ill. Jesus waited two days and then took a day to travel to the grave – four days.
Now another difficulty with places here is in the King James Version it is not translated as Bethany, but as Bethabara. No one knows where Bethabara was either. Ancient villages, towns and cities have ways of disappearing from history. They could disappear because of some disaster or, in many cases, because different peoples occupied the area over time and the names changed. Therefore, if we accept the King James translation, it is possible that Bethabara is not a place, but a location. Bethabara means “house of the ford, a place on the east”. So when it is said John was baptizing at “Bethabara beyond the Jordan” it is possible it means John was baptizing at a place east beyond the Jordan or at a ford of the Jordan, it may be there were multiple such locations where John plied his trade.
However, the oldest extent manuscripts have the name Bethany, not Bethabara and the statement “at Bethany beyond the Jordan” would indicate the author did not want this place confused with the Bethany of Martha and Mary. As a result, we have had many arguments over the centuries of where this Bethany is and whether the name Bethany was a corruption of some other name of similar sound. I think we need to be careful not to get too absorbed in trying to figure out where a place was located when no one knows rather than concentrating on the events and their import.
John the Baptist was six months older than his cousin Jesus, but this does not mean John started his own ministry when he was thirty years old too. John could have begun his preparing of the way several years before Jesus came to be Baptized and he could have moved up and down along the Jordan during that time to reach more people.
(We will discuss locations and distances a bit more when we come to the Wedding at Cana passage.)
John 1:15-34
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, “This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.” (Reference Luke 3:16, Matthew 3:11 and Mark 1:7.) And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
And he said, “I am not.”
“Are you that prophet?”
And he answered, “No.”
Then said they to him, “Who are you that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What say you of yourself?”
He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.” (Isaiah 40:3--“A voice of one calling in the desert, prepare
the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”)
And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him, “Why baptize you then, if you be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet?”
John answered them saying, “I baptize with water: but there stands one among you, whom you know not. He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”
These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
There is an interesting, and perhaps confusing, exchange between John and the groups who came to question him. First, it is not clear how many different groups came or how often. The opening of this passage would indicate it was a recurring dialogue. John has not been shy in crying out that Jesus was the one he had meant would come after him. It would then appear that some priests and members of the priestly tribe came and questioned him on at least one occasion. It is also clear a higher authority, probably the Sanhedrin, sent them.
Why did they come? I would think for two reasons. One, they were curious about this fellow who was drawing such crowds and two, they knew the Scriptures and were looking for the Messiah, perhaps John was he. (Remember the Scripture told us the people were already asking that question.) John pretty quickly put it to rest that he was not the Messiah.
So why did they ask him if he was Elijah?
Because they knew Malachi had prophesied that God would send Elijah back before the Messiah.
"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5-6 (NIV)
Perhaps then John was actually Elijah, but John says he isn’t. This is true. John came in “the spirit of Elijah”. He is a type of Elijah and he was preparing the way for the Messiah, but for the first coming, not the ”great and dreadful day of the Lord”, which refer to the second coming. However, the prophesy in Malachi does apply to both.
In the latter days, Elijah will return and Israel’s sons will have their hearts turned to God the Father and to Jesus as the Messiah at last. But John came as Elijah preparing the hearts to receive Jesus as the Messiah and they did not receive. As a result, God did strike the land with a curse and the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD and the Jews were scattered to the four corners of the world.
Yet, they didn’t stop with that question. They asked a third, “Are you The Prophet?” John was indeed a prophet, the last Old Testament style prophet, but he was not The Prophet. So, who was The Prophet?
The Muslims will tell you this was Mohammad. I will tell you it was not. The Prophet was Christ. Now, how can that be? Why would they ask if he was The Christ and then ask if he was The Prophet when he denied being Christ? This is because they didn’t understand the prophesy of The Prophet anymore than they understood there would be two appearances of the Messiah.
Moses in Deuteronomy 17 and 18 speaks of the King, the priests and the prophet, the three-in-one posts fulfilled in Christ. Moses says:
The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die." Deuteronomy 18:14-16 (NIV)
What did the Israelites ask? Well, they feared if they heard the voice of God speaking to them they would die and so they asked Moses to be a mediator between God and them. This Prophet who Moses speaks of will be a mediator between God and us, another position fulfilled in Christ.
The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, ‘After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me’. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.”
And John bare record, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, ‘Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost’. And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.”
(See my comments in the section on Jesus’ Baptism regarding John’s comment, “I myself did not know him…etc.”)
No comments:
Post a Comment