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Joh_1:24 ff. The inquiry, which proceeds still further, finds a pragmatic issue in pharisaic style (for the Sanhedrim had chosen their deputies from this learned, orthodox, and crafty party). From their strict scholastic standing-point, they could allow ( οὖν ) so thoroughly reformatory an innovation as that of baptism (see on Mat_3:5), considering its connection with Messiah’s kingdom, only to the definite personalities of the Messiah, Elias, or the promised prophet, and not to a man with so vague a call as that which the Baptist from Isa_40:3 ascribed to himself,—a passage which the Pharisees had not thought of explaining in a Messianic sense, and were not accustomed so to apply it in their schools. Hence the parenthetical remark just here inserted: “And they that were sent belonged to the Pharisees,”—a statement, therefore, which points forwards, and does not serve as a supplementary explanation of the hostile spirit of the question (Euthymius Zigabenus, Lücke, and most others).
The reply corresponds to what the Baptist had said of himself in Joh_1:23, that he was appointed to prepare the way for the Messiah. His baptism, consequently, was not the baptism of the Spirit, which was reserved for the Messiah (Joh_1:33), but a baptism of water, yet without the elementum coeleste; there was already standing, however, in their midst the far greater One, to whom this preparatory baptism pointed. The first clause of the verse, ἐγὼ βαπτ . ἐν ὕδατι , implies, therefore, that by his baptism he does not lay claim to anything that belongs to the Messiah (the baptism of the Spirit); and this portion refers to the εἰ σὺ οὐκ εἶ ὁ Χριστός of Joh_1:25. The second clause, however, μέσος , etc., implies that this preliminary baptism of his had now the justification, owing to his relation to the Messiah, of a divinely ordained necessity (Joh_1:23); since the Messiah, unknown indeed to them, already stood in their midst, and consequently what they allowed to Elias, or the prophet, dare not be left unperformed on his part; and this part of his answer refers to the οὐδὲ Ἠλίας οὐδὲ ὁ προφήτης in Joh_1:25. Thus the question τί οὖν βαπτίζεις is answered by a twofold reason. There is much that is inappropriate in the remarks of expositors, who have not sufficiently attended to the connection: e.g., De Wette overlooks the appropriateness of the answer to the Elias question; Tholuck contents himself with an appeal to the “laconic-comma style” of the Baptist; and Brückner thinks that “John wished to give no definite answer, but yet to indicate his relation to the Messiah, and the fact of his pointing to Him;” while Bäumlein holds that the antithetical clause, ὃς βαπτίσει ἐν πνεύμ . ἁγ ., which was already intended to be here inserted, was forgotten, owing to the intervening sentences; and finally, Hilgenfeld, after comparing together Matthew and Luke, deduces the unhistorical character of the narrative. Heracleon already was even of opinion that John did not answer according to the question asked of him, but as he αὐτὸς ἐβούλετο . In answer to him, Origen.
ἐγώ ] has the emphasis of an antithesis to the higher Baptizer ( μέσος δὲ , etc.), not to ὑμεῖς (Godet). Next to this, the stress lies on ἐν ὕδατι . This is the element (see on Mat_3:11) in which his baptism was performed. This otherwise superfluous addition has a limiting force, and hence is important.
μέσος without the spurious δὲ is all the more emphatic; see on Joh_1:17. The emphasizing of the antithesis, however, has brought this μέσος ] to the front, because it was the manifestation of the Messiah, already taking place in the very midst of the Jews, which justified John in baptizing. Had the Messiah been still far off, that baptism would have lacked its divine necessity; He was, however, standing in their midst, i.e. ἀναμεμιγμένος τότε τῷ λαῷ (Euthymius Zigabenus).
ὃν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε ] reveals the reason why they could question as they had done in Joh_1:25. The emphasis is on ὑμεῖς , as always (against Tholuck); here in contrast with the knowledge which he himself had (see on Joh_1:28, note) of the manifested Messiah: you on your part, you people, have the Messiah among you, and know Him not (that is, as the Messiah). In Joh_1:27, after rejecting the words αὐτός ἐστιν and ὃς ἔμπροσ . μου γέγονεν (see the critical notes), there remains only ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος (Joh_1:15), and that in fact as the subject of μέσος ἕστηκεν , which subject then receives the designation of its superiority over the Baptist in the οὗ ἐγὼ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἄξιος , κ . τ . λ . Concerning this designation, see on Mat_3:11.
ἐγώ ] I for my part.
ἄξιος ἵνα ] worthy that I should loose; ἵνα introduces the purpose of the ἀξιότης . Comp. ἱκανὸς ἵνα , Mat_8:8, Luk_7:6.
αὐτοῦ ] placed first for emphasis, and corresponding to the ἐγώ . On αὐτοῦ after οὗ , see Winer, p. 140 [E. T. p. 184]. Τούτου would have been still more emphatic.