JESUS BECOMES A RABBI IN THE SOUTHERN JORDAN VALLEY

MATTHEW 3:16–17

When Jesus’s disciples spoke with him, they often addressed him as Rabbi (e.g., Matt. 26:25; Mark 9:5; 11:21; John 1:38, 49), a title he came to possess on the day of his baptism. Whatever else changed for Jesus on that day, this was the day he was ordained as a rabbi. We will see why that title was important to the work of Jesus and what message the setting of Jesus’s baptism adds to that day.

During the early part of the first century, the title rabbi was undergoing a transition.9 It had been used as an honorary title given to wise Jewish teachers. By the time Jesus was called Rabbi, the title conferred something similar to an academic degree on a student who had progressed sufficiently during several years of study under a scribe who had already demonstrated mastery of traditional Jewish interpretation. Thus, unlike the priesthood, it was not a person’s family heritage but his scriptural understanding that made him eligible for this honor. The common people looked to their rabbi to provide authoritative and binding meaning of the Scriptures, as blind Bartimaeus submitted to Jesus as his rabbi (Mark 10:51).

Although at that time the authority to speak on the Scriptures was only recognized after approval was given by a senior rabbi,10 Jesus brought his complete understanding of the Scriptures from God himself. The training and ordination of the Messiah was not limited to the ideas and traditions that had been developed by other rabbis. Nor was it a man limited with his own opinions who pronounced Jesus worthy of his title of authority. Rather, heaven opened, the Spirit of God descended like a dove on Jesus, and the sky filled with the voice of the heavenly Father announcing his approval (Isa. 11:2–3; Matt. 3:17). This ordination of a rabbi was distinctly different from any other ordination because it declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Rabbi of all rabbis.

The church at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, denoting the consecration of Jesus into his rabbinic authority.

Mt. Nebo (view looking east from Bethany on the other side of the Jordan), where Balaam prophesied the coming of the Messiah (Num. 24:17).

It was not only the fact that this happened with Jesus’s baptism but where it happened that merits our attention. Since John was baptizing at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan (John 1:28), we connect Jesus’s baptism to the southern Jordan River valley.11 This was the setting for an important prophecy about the Messiah that came from an unlikely source. During the days of Moses, the Israelites encamped on the plains of Moab just northeast of the Dead Sea. This so terrified the Moabites that they hired Balaam, a man well known for the practice of divination, to curse the Israelites. But Balaam was no match for the Lord, who influenced Balaam so that all he could do was bless the Israelites. On his fourth attempt to curse Israel, Balaam spoke of a special child of Jacob. “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel” (Num. 24:17). What the Lord had spoken through Balaam was now being fulfilled at Bethany beyond the Jordan with the baptism of Jesus. So it was that Jesus came to be recognized as a rabbi and Messiah in order that the people of Israel might regard his words as having divine authority. And so it was that Jesus was publicly proclaimed rabbi and Messiah in this place where the promise of his coming had been proclaimed.

Jesus’s Baptism at Bethany on the Other Side of the Jordan

This Deir Alla inscription (eighth century BC) makes reference to curses pronounced by Balaam.
© Dr. James C. Martin. The Amman Museum. Photographed by permission.