John 1:32

Ver. 32. “ And John bore witness saying: I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove, and it abode upon Him. ”

This declaration is introduced with a peculiar solemnity by the words: “ And John bore witness. ” Here, indeed, is the decisive act, as Hengstenberg calls it, the punctum saliens of the entire ministry of John the Baptist, his Messianic testimony properly so called. With what sense had John seen? With the bodily eye, or with the inner sense? This is to ask whether the fact mentioned here took place only in the spiritual world, or also in the external world. According to the narratives of Mark (Mark 1:10-11), and of Matthew (Matthew 3:16-17), it was the object of the perception of Jesus only. “And behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit...” (Matt.): “And straightway coming out of the water he saw...” (Mark). In Luke the narrative is completely objective: “ It came to pass that.....the heaven was opened ” (Luke 3:21-22). But the narrative in Matthew makes the Baptist also participate in this heavenly manifestation by the form of the declaration of God: “ This is my Son;” not as in Mark and Luke: “ Thou art my Son.” The divine declaration in Matthew addresses itself, therefore, not to Jesus who is the object, but to him who is the witness of it, namely, John. Now, if it was perceived simultaneously by Jesus and by John, it must have had an objective reality, as the narrative of Luke says. The following is, perhaps, the way in which we can represent to ourselves the relation between the perception of Jesus and that of John: The divine communication, properly so called (the declaration of the Father and the communication of the Spirit), was given from God to Jesus, and the latter had knowledge of the fact at once by the impression which He received, and by a vision which rendered it sensible to him. As to John, he was associated in the perception of this symbolic manifestation, and thereby initiated into the spiritual fact, of which it was as if the covering. Thus the voice which said to Jesus: “ Thou art my Son,” sounded within him in this form: “ This is my Son.” Neander cannot admit that a symbolic communication, a vision, could have found a place in the relation between Jesus and God. But this rule is applicable only to the time which followed the baptism. It has been wrongly concluded from the expression, I have seen, that, according to the fourth Gospel, the vision was only perceived by John, to the exclusion of Jesus. It is forgotten that the forerunner, in his present account, has no other aim but to justify his testimony. For this purpose he does not have to speak of anything else than that which he has himself seen. This is the reason why he relates the fact of the baptism only from the point of view of his own perception.

In the fact here described, we must distinguish the real gift made to Jesus, which is indicated by the narrative in these words: the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him; and the symbolic representation of this gift intended for the consciousness of Christ and for that of John: the visible form of the dove. The heaven as we behold it with the bodily eye, is the emblem of the state perfect in holiness, in knowledge, in power, in felicity. It is, consequently, in the Scriptures the symbol of the place where God manifests His perfections, in all their splendor, where His glory shines forth perfectly, and from which the supernatural revelations and forces proceed. John sees descending from the sky, which is rent, a luminous form like a dove, which rests and abides upon Jesus. This symbol is nowhere employed in the Old Testament to represent the Holy Spirit. In the Syrian religions, the dove was the image of the force of nature which broods over all beings. But this analogy is too remote for the explanation of our passage. The words of Matthew 10:16:

“ Be ye harmless as doves,” have no direct relation to the Holy Spirit. We find some passages in the Jewish Rabbis, where the Spirit who hovered over the waters (Gen 1:3) is connected with the Spirit of the Messiah, and compared to a dove, which hovers over its young without touching them (see Lucke, p. 426). Perhaps this comparison, familiar to the Jewish mind, is that which explains for us, most naturally, the present form of the divine revelation. This emblem was admirably adapted to the decisive moment of the baptism of Jesus. It was a matter, indeed, of nothing less than the new creation, which was to be the consummation of the first creation. Humanity passed at that instant from the sphere of the natural or psychical life to that of the spiritual life, with a view to which it had been created at the first, 1 Corinthians 15:46. The creative Spirit which had of old brooded with His life-giving power over chaos, to draw from it a world full of order and harmony, was going, as if by a new incubation, to transform the first humanity into a heavenly humanity. But that which must here be observed is the organic form which the luminous apparition assumes. An organism is an indivisible whole. At Pentecost, the Spirit descends in the form of “ cloven tongues (διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι)” which distribute themselves among the believers. This is the true symbol of the way in which the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church, distributing to each one His gifts according as He pleases (1 Corinthians 12:11). But at the baptism of Jesus, the fact is another and the emblem is different. The Spirit descends upon Christ in His fullness. “ God,” it is said in John 3:34, “ gives not to Him the Spirit by measure. ” Comp. Isaiah 11:1-2, where the seven forms of the Spirit, enumerated in order to designate His fullness, come to rest upon the Messiah. We must notice, finally, the term to abide, which is a precise allusion to the word נוּחַ, H5663, in this passage of Isaiah (John 11:2). The prophets received occasional inspirations: the hand of the Lord was upon them; then, withdrawing Himself, the Spirit left them to themselves. It was thus, also, with John the Baptist. But Jesus will not only be visited by the Spirit; the Spirit will dwell in Him, and will even one day be poured forth from Him, as if from His source, upon believers; this is the reason why in John 1:33 the idea of abiding is placed in close connection with that of baptizing with the Holy Spirit. The reading ὡσεί emphasizes more strongly even than the simple ὡς the purely symbolic character of the luminous appearance. The μένον of the Sinaitic MS. is a correction arising from the καταβαῖνον which precedes. The proposition is broken off designedly (καὶ ἔμεινεν), in order to make more fully apparent the idea of abiding, by isolating it from what precedes. The construction of the accusative ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν, upon Him, with the verb of rest to abide, springs from the living character of the relation, (comp. John 1:1; John 1:18). But had John the Baptist properly interpreted the vision? Had he not ascribed to it a meaning which it did not have? This last possible doubt is answered by the fact related in the following verse.