Luke 1:80

Ver. 80. The historical conclusion, Luke 1:80, corresponds with that in Luke 1:66. As the latter sketches with a stroke of the pen the childhood of John, so this gives a picture of his youth, and carries us forward to the time when he began his ministry. The term he grew refers to his physical development, and the expression following, waxed strong in spirit, to his spiritual development, that is to say, religious, moral, and intellectual. The predominant feature of this development was force, energy (he grew strong in spirit). Luke, doubtless, means by this the power of the will over the instincts and inclinations of the body. The spirit is here certainly that of John himself; but when a man developes in a right way, it is only by communion with the Divine Spirit that his spirit unfolds, as the flower only blows when in contact with the light.

This spiritual development of John was due to no human influence. For the child lived in the deserts. Probably the desert of Judea is meant here, an inhabited country, whose deeply creviced soil affords an outlet to several streams that empty themselves into the Dead Sea. This country, abounding in caves, has always been the refuge of anchorites. In the time of John the Baptist there were probably Essenran monasteries there; for history says positively that these cenobites dwelt upon both shores of the Dead Sea. It has been inferred from this passage that John, during his sojourn in the desert, visited these sages, and profited by their teaching. This opinion is altogether opposed to the design of the text, which is to attribute to God alone the direction of the development of the forerunner. But more than this. If John was taught by the Essenes, it must be admitted that the only thing their instructions did for him was to lead him to take entirely opposite views on all points. The Essenes had renounced every Messianic expectation; the soul of John's life and ministry was the expectation of the Messiah and the preparation for His work. The Essenes made matter the seat of sin; John, by his energetic calls to conversion, shows plainly enough that he found it in the will. The Essenes withdrew from society, and gave themselves up to mystic contemplation; John, at the signal from on high, threw himself boldly into the midst of the people, and to the very last took a most active and courageous part in the affairs of his country. If, after all, any similarities are found between him and them, John's originality is too well established to attribute them to imitation; such similarities arise from the attempt they both made to effect a reform in degenerate Judaism. The relation of John to the Essenes is very similar to that of Luther to the mystics of the middle ages. On the part of the Essenes, as of the mystics, there is the human effort which attests the need; on the part of John, as well as of Luther, the divine work which satisfies it.

The abstract plural in the deserts proves that this observation is made with a moral and not a geographical aim.

The word ἀνάδειξις, showing, denotes the installation of a servant into his office, his official institution into his charge. The author of this act, unnamed but understood, is evidently God. It follows from Luke 3:2, and from John 1:31-33, that a direct communication from on high, perhaps a theophany, such as called Moses from the desert, was the signal for John to enter upon his work. But we have no account of this scene which took place between God and His messenger. Our evangelists only relate what they know.