Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

John 1:35

John 1:35. And I knew him not. The first clause of this verse, like that of John 1:31, is attended with peculiar difficulty, for it is hardly possible to imagine that, intimately connected as the families of Jesus and of the Baptist were, the former should have been for thirty years personally unknown to the latter. Moreover, Matthew 3:14 seems distinctly to imply not only that such personal acquaintanceship existed before the baptism, but that the Baptist even then knew Jesus as greater than himself. Here, however, he says that until after the descent of the Spirit he ‘knew Him not.' Without noticing the other explanations which have been given, we may observe that the solution of the difficulty is to be found in keeping distinctly before us the official and not personal light in which both Jesus and the Baptist are presented to us here. No denial of personal knowledge of Jesus has any bearing upon the point which the Baptist would establish. He is himself an official messenger of God, intrusted with a commission which he is to continue to discharge until such time as he is superseded by the actual arrival of Him whose way he prepares. But this latter is also the ‘Sent' of God, and has particular credentials to produce. Until these are produced, the herald of His approach cannot ‘know' Him in the only character in which he has to do with Him. No private acquaintanceship with Him and, we may even say, no private convictions as to His Messianic character will justify that recognition of Him before which alone the herald may give way. The great King from whom the herald and the Ambassador are alike sent has named a particular sign which shall attest the position of the latter, and close the labours of the former. That sign must be exhibited before the herald of the Ambassador's approach will be warranted to withdraw. Until then the one ‘knows' not the other.

But he that sent me to baptize in water, he said unto me. Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. As to the sign, comp. John 1:32. It is the token that in Jesus are fulfilled the prophecies of the Old. Testament with regard to the pouring out of the Spirit in the Messianic age, and especially to the impartation of the Spirit to the Messiah Himself (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18), prophecies which describe the crowning glory of the latter days. John's baptism could only point to the laying aside of sin; that of Jesus brought with it the quickening into spiritual life (comp. on John 3:5). It is to be noticed that the words ‘Holy Spirit' are here used without the article. The object is to fix our attention, not upon the Spirit in His personality, but upon the power of that spiritual influence which He exerts. It would be better to translate, ‘the power of the Holy Spirit,' were it not difficult to use such an expression, in conformity with the idiom of the English tongue, in the many passages where this particular form of the original is employed.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

John 1:35

Old Testament

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