§7 Jesus and John the Baptist (John 3:22–30)
Jesus’ interest in “water and the Spirit” (3:5) as the way of initiation into his new community is now explained. As soon as he leaves Jerusalem, Jesus himself takes up a baptizing ministry in Judea. Verse 22, along with 4:1–3, has the appearance of a transitional passage summarizing a stay in Judea of indefinite length (cf. the brief stay at Capernaum in 2:12). But certain details in the summary require further explanation. For example, did Jesus actually baptize people? No, but his disciples did (4:2). Also, the reason for terminating this Judean ministry is said to have been the Pharisees’ perception of a possible rivalry between John the Baptist and Jesus (4:1). Was there any truth to this perception? Verses 23–30 (and indirectly vv. 31–36 as well) represent the Gospel writer’s answer to this second question. The brief summary is thereby expanded into a significant historical and theological reflection on the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist.
John’s baptizing activity is located quite specifically at Aenon near Salim (v. 23). The fact that a definite location is assigned to John but not to Jesus suggests that verses 23–30 may come from early material preserved within the community of John’s followers (cf. the reference to Bethany in 1:28). Aenon (like Bethany) cannot be located with certainty today, but the Gospel writer (or his source) assumes some familiarity with these place-names—probably more with Salim than with Aenon, or else why would Salim have been mentioned at all? Verse 23 confirms the evidence of 1:28 that John did not limit his baptizing ministry to the Jordan River. Aenon was chosen for its ample water supply, probably from natural springs. Whatever its exact location, Aenon was on the west side of the Jordan, for John’s earlier ministry at Bethany is said to have been “on the other side” (v. 26).
The parenthetical note that this was before John was put in prison (v. 24) is redundant in its present position. If John was baptizing, then he was obviously not in prison! The comment is a storyteller’s aside that belongs logically before verse 23 as an explanation of how John can be in the story at all. It comes where it does as an afterthought, but a wholly natural one. The Gospel writer assumes a knowledge of John’s imprisonment, but refers to it only in this indirect way. John the Baptist is not forcibly removed from the scene but allowed to make his own exit and to say his farewell with dignity (vv. 27–30).
John’s final testimony is introduced by a remark of his disciples (v. 26) arising out of a dispute they had had with an anonymous Jew about ceremonial washing (including, presumably, baptism). The nature of the dispute is unclear, but the disciples’ remark perhaps echoes something the Jew had said about the apparent success of Jesus’ ministry of baptism. If so, the scene aptly illustrates the situation referred to in 4:1: Jesus and John are seen as rivals, and Jesus appears to be the more successful of the two. Even while recalling John’s earlier testimony to Jesus in 1:19–34, John’s disciples seem surprised and puzzled by Jesus’ growing popularity (v. 26).
The unity of the chapter is maintained in the reply of John to his disciples (vv. 27–30). John speaks, as Jesus did to Nicodemus, of what is humanly impossible: A man can receive only what is given him from heaven (v. 27; cf. vv. 2, 3, 5). In particular, John bears witness to his own limitations, citing part of the very testimony to which his disciples have just referred (v. 28). John is not the Messiah, but only a messenger sent on ahead to prepare for the Messiah’s coming (cf. 1:20, 23). In his imagination, John sees the present time as a wedding (cf. 2:1–12; Mark 2:19–20; Matt. 22:1–14; 25:1–13), but he himself is not the bridegroom. Jesus is the bridegroom in John’s parable, and John is merely the trusted friend who rejoices when the bridegroom summons him to the festivities (v. 29). As he completes the role of forerunner, John takes on the more modest role of confessor and disciple of Jesus. He becomes a kind of ideal disciple who hears Jesus’ voice (cf. 10:3, 27) and finds his joy made complete (v. 29; cf. 15:11; 16:24).
The real answer to the implied question of John’s disciples comes in verse 30. What they see happening in Judea is historically inevitable: Jesus’ stature will grow, while John’s will diminish. But at the same time, it is what John wants, for his parting words are those of any disciple willing to become small like a child in order to gain the kingdom (cf. Matt. 18:3–4; 23:12; John 3:5). They are intended as words to repeat and to make one’s own.
3:23 / Aenon near Salim: The sixth-century mosaic map from Madeba in Jordan shows two Aenons, one east of the Jordan near where John was baptizing before (“Aenon there now Sapsaphas”) and the other west of the river and further north. The latter is specifically connected with our passage by being labeled “Aenon near Salim,” and agrees with the location eight miles south of Beth-shan assigned in a fourth-century gazetteer of biblical place-names, the Onomasticon of Eusebius (cf. also the fourth-century travel diary of the European pilgrim Egeria). Modern attempts to locate Aenon in Samaria, where there is today a Salim southeast of Nablus and an Ainun nearby, are unconvincing because of John 4:1–4. The narrative hardly makes sense if John was already baptizing in Samaria! Such names would have been common in any case: Aenon comes from the Aramaic word for “springs,” while Salim, like Salem or Jerusalem, is from a Semitic root meaning “peace.” The location assigned by Eusebius and the Madeba map appears not to rest simply on inferences from John’s Gospel and may therefore be regarded as an independent—and plausible—tradition. See J. Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 12–13.
3:25 / A certain Jew: Some important ancient manuscripts read “certain Jews” (NIV margin). This could be correct if the variant rests on a copyist’s mistake. But if a deliberate alteration was made, it is more likely that an original singular was changed to a plural (“Jews” frequently being the disputants in this Gospel) than that a plural was changed to a singular (raising the question What Jew? What was his name?). The absence of the article with either form also suggests that the singular is original, for Jews everywhere else in John’s Gospel are “the Jews” and comprise a well-defined group, while an individual Jew (unless named) would almost inevitably be designated as such without the article.
3:28 / I am not the Christ. The first half of John’s self-quotation refers clearly to 1:20, but the second half is not a word-for-word quote of anything that has appeared earlier (though cf. Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27). John is designated in the prologue as having been “sent” (1:6), whereas the idea that he was sent ahead of the Messiah may be an inference from statements that the Messiah would come “after” him (1:15, 27, 30). The matter is complicated by the assertion in 1:15, 30 that the Messiah is “ahead of” John in quite a different sense, referring to status or dignity rather than time. Alternatively, it is possible that John is quoting verbatim a form of the tradition that did not find its way into chapter 1.