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Taken as part of the Bible book club I attend. We started with John a few weeks ago but this is the first time I decided to take notes like this and post them here.

Key Parts

• “The next day” John spoke before about “there is one among you”, implying he didn’t know who the messiah was either. He realises that today.
• “Lamb of God” references Passover, sacrificial lamb (Leviticus) and Isaiah 52:13-15 the “Suffering Servant”, 53. 53:7 “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” … 53:12 “yet he bore the sin of many”.
• “Takes away the sin of the world” Implications re: Paul here? Cf. Unification of Gentile and Jew.
• “He was before me” links with the prologue re: Christ’s pre-existence.
• “I myself did not know him” Interesting statement given its likely John and Jesus knew each other personally (cf. Luke 1:36 “your relative”).
  • Could be referring to Jesus’ Messianic Identity (ie. not revealed prior to this divine revelation).
  • Could be highlighting humility (read: acknowledgement of limited human knowledge).
• “I came baptising with water for this reason” This gives a concrete reason as to why John was performing baptisms - the purpose of his ministry.
  • His baptisms were not just about personal repentance and cleansing.
  • Divinely ordained purpose: prepare the way for the Messiah and to make him known. We infer this given John doesn’t explicitly state who told him to begin this ministry, cf. v33.
  • Preparatory: designed to create an atmosphere of repentance and anticipation such that Israel would be ready to recognise and receive Jesus as Messiah.
• “Testified” Personal experience.
• “Spirit descending from heaven” Divine manifestation.
• “Like a dove” Symbol of peace, references to Noah (olive branch; Jesus is regularly associated with the branch metaphor, Rom 11:16, think there’s something in Colossians too). Allusive and literal imagery.
• “Remained on him” Indicates permanent endowment of Spirit upon Jesus; anointing him.
• “I myself did not know him …”
  • Repetitive parallelism with v31.
  • Semantic parallelism: John’s baptism was a preparatory act, both explain the reason why John is baptising - the idea John was sent by God to make Jesus known.
• “One who sent me” Generally agreed that this refers to God the Father. John’s ministry was divinely commissioned.
• “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit”
  • The sign God gave John in order that he may recognise the Messiah. Divinely given criterion.
  • Contrasts John’s and Jesus’ ministry: water vs spirit; superior, more profound, etc.
• “And I myself have seen” Reiterates eyewitness experience.
• “Testified that this is the chosen one” Fulfills John's mission, as given by God: make the Messiah known.

Themes

• Builds on the prologue: “before me” (pre-existence) and “Lamb of God” (divine mission, sacrifice and atonement).
• Continues the theme of “Witness”: this testimony is the climax of John’s witness.
• Beginning of Jesus’ public ministry: John has paved the way and revealed Christ. His witness has led people to Christ.
• John the Baptist’s main purpose.
  • Preparation: his message of repentance and baptism prepared the hearts of the people of Israel. It created a sense of anticipation and readiness for the Messiah.
  • Identification: by creating Messianic expectations, when John baptised Jesus, the descent of the Spirit provided a clear divine sign that identified him as the one John was preparing the way for. John’s baptism provided a context within which Jesus’ Messianic identity could be made public and understood.
• Jesus is the Messiah.

Scepticism

Pros of scepticism:

• Since Jesus and John personally knew each other, could John’s act of revealing Jesus as Messiah constitute a conflict of interest. Was it collusion?
• In the passage, John states twice “I myself did not know him” but we interpret that to mean he is referring to Jesus’ Messianic nature.
• The motive is clearly to promote certain ideas and / or gain influence.
• John is the only witness to the dove descending on Jesus (that we know of, at least).

Cons of scepticism:

• It is not known how well John and Jesus actually knew each other. When he says “I did not know him”, it could be literal. The repetition could imply that they knew they were related but perhaps never met?
• There are inherent risks to this type of public spectacle. Even if not immediate, it’s clear from John’s fate. This doesn’t necessarily refute collusion but it is an important consideration.
• The atmosphere of repentance and the prior work of baptising make collusion an unlikely conclusion. It feels unlikely that “conmen” would risk execution considering the low potential gains obtained from this act.