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1.2.2 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
The Origin of Christianity
John the Baptist - His Connection with the Common People
In his belief that the kingdom of God was at hand, John was not alone, as we have seen. He only voiced what was at the time a widespread conviction, and for that very reason his announcement found ready credence. And yet his influence seems to have been confined largely to the common people. They flocked to him in great numbers, but the leaders of the nation, the "chief priests and the scribes and the elders," appear to have held aloof.
There is nothing surprising in this. If the kingdom was approaching, it was well enough for the publicans and sinners to repent of their sins and endeavor to prepare themselves for it, but no duty of the kind devolved upon the religious aristocracy among the chosen people.
Having satisfied themselves that John was not the Messiah, and that he had no definite information to impart respecting him, there was no reason why they should concern themselves further with him, any more than with any one else who might declare the kingdom to be approaching and emphasize the need of purity and righteousness on the part of the people at large.
And so we are not surprised to find that our sources contain no indication that they ever took any steps against him. They seem to have treated him in the main, as was to have been expected, with utter indifference. But this goes to confirm the impression made by our sources, that John did not concern himself with political affairs. There is no trace of a political purpose in any of his recorded utterances, and his ad vice to the soldiers, who asked him what they should do apparently thinking that there might be some special work for them to perform in connection with the approaching kingdom: "Do violence to no man, neither exact anything wrongfully, and be content with your wages," certainly does not indicate that he was looking for a political and social revolution; nor do his words addressed to the people in general: "Begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham," sound as if his mind were occupied with the national aspects of the kingdom which he preached.
It is significant, in fact, that John has nothing whatever to say about the nature of the future kingdom, that he draw no pictures of it, and refers to it only as a reason for his exhortation to repentance. He was concerned not the future conditions and developments, but only with present reformation, which he felt to be the immediate and pressing need of the hour in view of the nearness of the judgment.
That reformation, as John preached it, concerned not mere external observance, but the heart as well. It involved the exercise of mercy, justice, honesty, fidelity, and humility [Luke 3, 10-14].
And yet there is no clear assertion in his recorded utterances of a general religious and ethical ideal of such a character as to effect a thorough reconstruction of the prevailing notions of the age.
Evidently he felt very keenly the artificiality and externality of the religious and ethical ideals of his countrymen and yet he seems not to have been prepared to enunciate a clean-cut and thoroughgoing principle which should effectually modify them. It is also noticeable, and the fact may throw light upon his failure to enunciate such a principle, that in his recorded utterances he never criticizes nor questions in any respect the validity of the Jewish law, written or unwritten, nor is he ever accused of doing so.
It would seem, indeed, that he resembled the Pharisees in his emphasis upon the strictest observance of that law, if we may judge from the habits of his disciples, who, in distinction from the disciples of Jesus, fasted often. [Mark 2:8, Matthew 9:14, Luke 5:33]
The preaching of John was not of such a character as to leave any lasting impression upon the Jews. It was neither far-reaching enough nor sufficiently radical to effect a genuine and permanent reformation. He had nothing to offer the people that could arouse their enthusiasm and enlist their devotion. His announcement of the coming of the kingdom attracted their attention, and they went out to him, hoping doubtless that they might actually witness its establishment, or at least learn about it. But John could not show them the kingdom, nor could he give them any very explicit information respecting it; and time passed, and still the kingdom whose approach he had proclaimed, and in which the interest of his hearers chiefly centered, did not reveal itself, and all remained as it had been. Save for a quickened sense of moral responsibility, and possibly a heightened sense of moral responsibility, and possibly a heightened conception of ethical values, which he can hardly have failed to impart to some at least of those to whom he spoke, the condition of the people at large, their life, their hopes, their ideas and ideals, were apparently about the same after he had passed off the scene as before he began his work.
That some were prepared by his preaching for the preaching of Jesus there can be no doubt. Though his work was not of a character to abide, some must have found it easier to understand Jesus because of the moral sentiments that John had succeeded in arousing. And this Jesus recognized, and because of it he was led to pay John the tribute and to show him the honor which alone have made him immortal.
But one thing the experience of John abundantly proves, if in the presence of the numerous apocalyptic writings of the age any proof be needed, and light is thrown by it upon the career of Jesus. No religious teacher could hope to attract the attention and to hold the interest of the Jewish people in general at the time of which we are speaking, unless his teaching related itself to the expected kingdom of God; unless he had something of importance to communicate respecting it,, or something of importance to do in connection with its establishment.
No religious reformation could have any hope of success, except as it rooted itself in the people's thought and hope of that kingdom. It was as a preacher of the kingdom that John first attracted notice, and it was as a preacher of the kingdom that Jesus first riveted attention upon himself.
Used by permission of the publisher.
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