John 3:22-26

CHAPTER 9

JESUS PREACHING IN THE COUNTRY

John 3:22-26. “After these things, Jesus and His disciples came into the Judean country, and He there tarried with them, and baptized.” Our Lord, having begun His ministry in Jerusalem in the purification of the temple, avails Himself of the vast multitudes attending the Passover to preach His glorious gospel, and corroborate it by working miracles; after the Passover, He goes out into the country, there continuing His preaching, meanwhile His disciples baptizing His converts; as it was the prerogative of Jesus to baptize with the Holy Ghost.

“And John was baptizing in Enon, near unto Salim, because there were many waters there; and they continued to come and be baptized; for John had not yet been cast into prison.” Jesus, accompanied by His disciples, went out into the country north of Jerusalem, there prosecuting His ministry, and John, having left Bethany, east of the Jordan, had come back to the west side, and is now preaching in Enon near Salim, this being a valley running down into the Jordan from the west. Enon is a Chaldaic word, in the plural number, which means “springs,” “because there were many waters there” i.e., a land abounding in springs; to this our dragoman testified when he pointed it out to us. The multitudes attending John's ministry needed abundant supply of water for their animals and culinary operations, while John wanted an ample quantity for his baptismal administrations. The destitution of water in so many localities in that semi-tropical country Occasions frequent allusions to it, such as we do not have in a land like ours, everywhere abounding in an ample supply of this indispensable providence.

“Then there was a dispute from the disciples of John with the Jews concerning purifying.” Here we have a clear definition of baptism, as in a number of other passages, which we will meet in the gospel of our Savior. The context here shows most unequivocally that this dispute involved the relative importance of the baptisms administered by John and the disciples of Jesus, while we see that purifying is the clear, salient, and unequivocal definition of this word baptism, in reference to which there has been much controversy. You will find the same definition in Mark 7 and Luke 11. The Old Testament economy exhibits two grand symbolic hemispheres the bloody sacrifices typifying the work of Christ, and the watery ablutions that of the Holy Ghost. We are now in a grand transition period, and a time celebrated for purifications, the Johannic dispensation constituting the intermediate link between the law and the gospel, John being the last of the prophets, and thus preaching the valedictory of the Old Dispensation, and the honored harbinger of the New, introducing to the world the Savior, for whom they had looked four thousand years; baptizes all of his converts, thus symbolizing the purification necessary to enter his own dispensation, which is the initiatory of the kingdom. Now, our Savior, having been inaugurated into His ministry by John the Baptist, proceeds to unfurl the blood-stained banner of the kingdom which John had assured them was at hand, and have His converts baptized by His disciples, thus symbolizing a higher promotion and a deeper and richer grace than the initiatory gospel which John preached. As the ministry of John and Jesus brought to Israel the greatest revivals they had ever seen, these grand and glorious benedictions, which were falling in copious showers from God out of heaven, are abundantly and beautifully symbolized by water baptism, here (verse 25) denominated purifying. This definition was very familiar, and well understood by all the Jews, who, from the days of Moses, had been accustomed to these aquatic ablutions for the removal of ceremonial defilement, which they were liable to contract in many ways; e.g., coming in contact with Gentiles, dead bodies, lepers, and unclean animals. Hence, to the Jewish mind, there was a deep and obvious significance in these baptisms with water.