Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§11.4 Beginning from the Baptism of John
use. 148 This is again properly described as 'eschatological'. But how 'final' was
it? Resurrection and judgment on a cosmic scale sound final enough. But what
lay beyond the purification and the birth pangs — both actually images of new
beginnings? What was to happen to the trees that bore the fruit of repentance?
What did the gathering of the wheat into the granary signify?
It is well that we pose such questions now, since they are a further reminder
that the 'eschatological' character of John's preaching of judgment has been too
much taken for granted without the meaning of 'eschatological' being adequately
clarified. The matter is of prime importance for us, since the 'eschatological'
character of Jesus' preaching has become so disputed of late, and since the question
of influence from the Baptist at this point above all others cannot be escaped.
Indicative of both the possibilities and the problems in this case is the fact
that John's talk of one who would 'baptize in (Holy) Spirit and fire' was taken up
in Christian tradition in an attenuated form ('baptize in Holy Spirit') and attributed
to Jesus (Acts 1.5; 11.16)!
d. The One to Come
Least clear of all is the only other important feature of John's message — his expectation
of who was to come. 'There comes after me one who is stronger than
me. I am not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals. . . . He will baptize you
with Holy Spirit . . .'. 149 Whom did John expect? Of the main solutions offered,
150 none is wholly satisfactory.
(1) God is a possibility not to be lightly discarded. 151 In Mai. 3.1, a passage
which is thoroughly bound up with the Baptist tradition (Mark 1.2; Matt. 11.10/
Luke 7.27), the messenger goes before the Lord. The Baptist tradition in the
Lukan birth narrative reflects the same expectation (Luke 1.17, 76). And the exercise
of (final) judgment is regularly attributed to God himself — as in Isa.
30.27-28. Probably decisive here, however, is the consideration that the talk of
'one stronger than me', and of being unworthy to untie his sandals (Mark 1.7
pars.), is really appropriate only to a comparison between two comparable figures.
It is difficult to imagine John so trivializing the relation between God and a
human being. 152
148. 1QH 11(=3).7-12; 1 En. 62.4; Mark 13.8; Rev. 12.2.
149. Mark 1.7-8 pars. Note the parallel to Mark 1.7 pars, in Acts 13.25.
150. See the brief review in Davies and Allison, Matthew 1.312-14; Webb's discussion
is too schematic and indecisive (John the Baptizer 219-60, 282-88).
151. See particularly Ernst, Johannes der Täufer 50, 305, 309; Reiser, Jesus and Judgment
182-84; Chilton, Jesus' Baptism 47-48.
152. 'God does not wear sandals' (Stauffer, 'Jesus' 32). See further Meier, Marginal Jew
369