A Voice from the Wilderness

In a previous chapter, the birth of John, surnamed the Baptist, is described, also the prophecy of his appearance as a forerunner to declare and make way for the true Messiah. Beyond the statement that “the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of His showing unto Israel,” nothing is recorded concerning his youth, and it is a noticeable coincidence that the Apostolic writers have given almost identical attention to the two infants, Christ and John, apparently regarding the childhood of each as being unworthy of significance beyond the mere prophetic announcement of their respective callings, thus leaving to imagination their boyhood careers, and to tradition the record of their wondrous acts prior to their ministry.

As Joseph passes from our sight after the return to Nazareth, so do Zacharias and Elizabeth disappear from Scripture annals upon the birth of John. There is a painful silence among the sacred historians that makes us pause for explanation. But taking up the broken chain on which the narrative is dependent, examination of its several links discloses some fragments of facts with which to build a half-satisfying connection.

Being the son of a priest, John became also a priest by heirship, and whether his father lived to instruct him, or died leaving him to the care of the priestlycollege in the Temple, his training must have been the same. Being therefore early brought under the charge of the priesthood he became educated in the law of the prophets at the most impressionable age, and having no doubt heard from the lips of his parents the story of his call to be a forerunner of the Messiah, he became enthusiastically impressed with his mission and sought means to especially prepare himself for it. So he retired into the desert, adapted the life of an ascetic, restricted his diet to wild fruits, to locusts and to wild honey, and applied himself to study.

In the early centuries it was common for men who desired to devote themselves to pious deeds and holy reflection, to retire to desert places, to caves and localities remote from human habitation, where they were least likely to come in contact, or to be seen of other men, and there hold communion with nature and their better aspirations. There are numerous examples of this active and holy life in history, such as Elijah, Jeremiah, and in later years of St. Anthony and Peter the Hermit. In Palestine it was not difficult to find subsistence even in the

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wildest, most remote and sterile districts. The country generally abounded with caves which might serve as excellent shelter, while in the clefts of rocks and trees there were great stores of honey, and in the warm season locusts — similar to our grasshoppers — were very abundant, and an article of common diet, as they are yet in Arabia and in portions of Africa. For clothing, a camel’s skin would serve many years, and this might be easily procured, as the people held such cavedwellers in high repute and were glad to minister to their wants.

So John lived in the wilderness of Judea for a period of many years, having probably left the Temple before the attainment of his majority, to spend his life in meditation and a preparation for the duty of bringing the world to repentance through the Messiah who was to come.

When at length he felt himself ready to undertake this great work, the circumstances were auspicious for declaring his gospel to the people. His long withdrawal from society had served to give him an austere appearance, we must believe, and his self-fechooling had resulted in a confidence and hardihood which made him bold in his discourse, so that his speech must have been ablaze with enthusiasm. But more favorable to his purpose was the fear, if not reverent regard, which the people felt for those who practiced austerities and had lived in rigorous asceticism to attain a higher conception of the Deity. Such a one, on emerging from his protracted retirement, was regarded as a most holy man who, having long been in communion with God, was sent as a herald to declare the Divine will. Therefore, the appearance of John, with disheveled hair and only a raiment of camel’s hair about his body, held in place by a leathern girdle, barefooted, bare-armed and uncropped beard, must have been almost appalling. And when he spoke with such earnestness, such wisdom, such pious zeal, the people first stopped to gaze, then to wonder, and while wondering they became convicted

and converted.

The Spirit that Instructed John.

We must not conclude that John was a misanthrope, or the victim of jealousy, but rather that he was called of God to perform a great duty which only years of preparation could qualify him for. God moves in mysterious ways, and it was through the operation of this singular will that John was influenced to repair to the wilderness, and, as already seen, the wisdom of the purpose is manifest. On his emergence, John was not ignorant of the current events, as we might suppose one to be who had long avoided association with men, but on the other hand he was as well instructed in the affairs of the people, the wrongs under which they suffered, the hypocrisy and debauchery -of Herod Antipas, who had succeeded Archelaus, as he was lettered in the law, and he launched his bolts with God-like fearlessness against the corruption of the time, selecting the most prominent targets at which to aim his shafts, at the same time speaking as a prophet, and with warning voice saying: “Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

To the people of Judea these words had peculiar significance. During the thirty years that had elapsed since the death of Herod the Great, mighty events had happened of vast import to the Jews. All Judah was a festival when Herod died, but the rejoicing at the taking off of such a monster was for a very short time. Archelaus, his dissolute son, succeeded him, who had hardly come to the throne when an insurrection broke out in Jerusalem that was not put down until three thousand of the rioters were slaughtered. This bloody inauguration of Archelaus’ reign occurred during the annual celebration of the Passover and set the people in such a ferment of excitement and mourning that the festival was abandoned, a result which every devout Jew regarded as portentous of some great calamity.

The reign of Archelaus, whose
rulership as ethnarch was over Judea
and Samaria, was terminated after
nine years by a complaint preferred
against him by his brothers, Antipas
and Philip, charging most infamous
acts of tyranny, on account of which
Augustus banished him to Vienne,
in Gaul, where he died. Perhaps
Augustus had another motive than
the mere punishment of Archelaus,
for directly after pronouncing the
sentence of banishment against the
ethnarch, he attached Judea and Samaria to Syria, and the whole made a
Roman province over which governors, called by the Romans Procurators were
appointed to rule.

Prior to this act there was a semblance of independence and absolute freedom of religious worship accorded the Jews, but with this extension of Roman authority their civil and ecclesiastical rights were utterly destroyed, even the immemorial hereditary office of High Priest being subordinated and made the creation of the Emperor’s pleasure as to appointment and deposition. The office thus became a shuttle-cock, flying from one to another, at the stroke of petty

JOHN THE BAPTIST. — From the Painting by
Antonio Beltraffio.

politicians who could gain the short favor of Augustus. Nor was the procuratorship much less variable, for from the death of Archelaus until the appearance of John the Baptist there were six governors, Pontius Pilate being appointed to the office about four years before the showing forth of John. One of Pilate’s first acts was to remove the army headquarters from Csesarea to Jerusalem, which, of course, brought the standards bearing the image of the Emperor to the Capital city, which was followed by a curious request made by the Jews for a removal of the images. This led to a violent outbreak and threatened slaughter, which was only averted by Pilate yielding to the public demand. But the people, while temporarily appeased, were inflamed by other arbitrary and oppressive orders which rendered them open for revolt, being, in fact, restrained only by the lack of a leader.

This sorry condition of affairs, in connection with the prophecies so well understood, that the time for the promised Deliverer of Israel was now come, and the report that He had actually appeared, inflamed the Jewish population with excited expectation, and when John came preaching that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, the people were ready to hail him as the incarnation of Elias (Elijah) the old prophet, or the Messiah Himself. His appearance was that of a prophet, and his teachings showed remarkable familiarity with the law. When they began to inquire as to his antecedents they found he was of the priestly order, and that his birth had been divinely announced. These facts intensified their enthusiasm, and all of Judea gathered about him to hear his impassioned declarations. As he taught repentance as the first necessary condition for the reception of the Messiah, thousands accepted the faith, confessed their sins and were baptized in the Jordan. The exact form of baptism performed or enjoined by John is not known, especially as it was a rite which seems to have been established by him, and up to this time practiced by no nation or sect. But it was no less readily adopted, whatever the precise form of administration, and thousands accepted it as the seal of their conversion. It may have been a modification of an old obsolete ceremony which the Jews performed upon proselytes from heathenism, but as to this we have no certain authority. It is more probable that the people expected that new forms would be instituted by the Messiah in accordance with the prophecy long before given “that all things should become new.”

Crystal Gates of the Jordan.

All classes, whether Pharisees or Sadducees, the irreconcilable ritualist and the Samaritan liberal, became alike convicted under Joh’n’s powerful teachings, and while some caviled and catechised, he gave every one an answer so conclusive that none were able to dispute.

The thousands whom John led down into the river Jordan for baptism came up not only glorifying God, but were ready to hail hira as the expected Messiah. He had the opportunity to establish himself as such in the belief of the people, but disdaining the promptings of such a vain ambition, if he ever felt it, he declared that he was neither Elias nor the Messiah, but that instead he only declared to them One whom they did not yet know, whose superiority was so

RUINS OF ANCIENT FORTIFICATIONS AT C^SAREA PHIUPPI.

great that he was unworthy even to unloose the thong that bound the sandal to His foot — an office which slaves performed for their masters..

John had probably been preaching to immense crowds and baptizing in the Jordan for a period of six months, before the One whom he had come to announce, and for whose presence he had no doubt been anxiously longing, made His appearance before the Baptist. Jesus, now thirty years of age, and therefore eligible for priestly consecration — had He been of the priestly order — had passed the time appointed for His seclusion, and laying aside the implements of his trade, was ready to go forth upon His ministry. It is difficult to believe that John and Jesus were unacquainted with each other; their relationship as well as the annual Passover and other Jewish festivals which took them to Jerusalem, would certainly bring them together, and each understanding the divine appointment of the other would, except under extraordinary circumstances, or divine purpose, cause them to court the society of one another. Yet from the gospel text we are almost led to believe that they were strangers, whose introduction had been left to God.

Baptism of Jesus.

Thus while John was preaching and baptizing, surroundea by immense congregations, packed so closely together that the identity of a single individual was almost impossible in such a sea of faces, there was one who yet attracted the Baptist’s attention. Not by His intrusive manner, His loud babbling. His persistence in crowding His way through to a conspicuous place, His annoying questions or loud shouting. No, by none of these; but by His sweet face, meek manners, quiet deportment, and the graciousness of all His ways, which marked Him as one in whom the grace of God seemed to have its lodging. And when this devout-appearing stranger moved toward the preacher and asked that the ceremony of baptism might be administered to Him, John recognized Him, through inspiration if not acquaintanceship, and before the assembled thousands acknowledged His Messiahship, saying, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” To this, with reverence of manner and meekness of speech, Jesus softly replied:

” Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Then John and Jesus walked down together beyond the water’s edge into the stream that had been the scene of so many miracles, and which had filled so large a space in Jewish history-, into the waters that had parted at the lashing of Elijah’s girdle, and which separated at the touch of the feet of those who bore the ark, at Joshua’s command, towards Jericho; whose bed was the repository of memorial stones, whose ford was a hiding place for Gideon when he rose up to overwhelm the Midianites; into the Jordan, the eastern boundary of the promised land and which has ever since been a symbol of the dividing line between this world and heaven. And when the two were in the waters John gave baptism to our Saviour who, coming up out of the flood, gave voice to prayer; and as He prayed, lo! behold the heavens opened wide to let out an angelic chorus of praise, and down came fluttering on whitest pinions a snowy dove, the type of purity, of innocence, of spiritual blessedness, and rested upon the head of the Holy One. Then from the violet-banked, and jewel- emblazoned parapets of Paradise swept down the divine acknowledgment and benediction:

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The baptism of Jesus by John had a twofold significance, in that it was a sign of the obedience of Jesus to the law, and to injunctions laid by custom; His amenability to all the conditions imposed on others seeking a full fellowship with the church. He permitted the ceremony in order to set the seal of His approval of the act as a type not only of conversion, but of regeneration, a prefigurement of His after labor and sacrifices for the world’s redemption.

Although thousands must have witnessed the miraculous acknowledgment of His Messiahship, yet the meekness of the God-man, the quiet sweetness of His manners, as opposed to the conception of the Jews, who expected their Deliverer to appear clothed in a majesty terrible to behold and bearing in His hands thunderbolts of vengeance with which to destroy their enemies, prevented them from accepting this manifestation as a conclusive proof of His Messiahship. Nor did Jesus tarry among the crowd to give them further evidence of His divine attributes and holy purposes. But He knew that the preparation for His active ministry was now complete and He only awaited the direction of His father for His showing forth to the people.

The Teachings of John.

John himself does not appear to have had any opportunity for conversing with Jesus after the baptism, nor did he have a spiritual insight into the scheme of salvation — the doctrines which Jesus would employ as a foundation for His teachings. Indeed, in some respects the preaching of John was not apposite to the cause which Christ represented, for John came preaching repentance only and not regeneration. His gospel was love, and yet it is strongly impregnated with the intolerance felt by all ancients for their enemies. Exclamations such as “O, ye generation of vipers!” “He shall baptize you with fire!” and other like wrathful expressions, are indicative of a nature that is not wholly purged of hatred towards enemies, and is the immediate opposite to that of Christ. Again, it would appear that in the hour of his affliction, when in the great gloomy castle prison of Machaerus, John seems to have doubted the Messiahship of Jesus, for Matthew tells us that he sent two disciples to put to our Lord the question:” Art thou He that should come? or look we for another?”

And yet on the other hand John preached a boundless love, and a charity which almost passeth understanding: “He that hath two coats let’ him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat let him do likewise. Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages, nor exact any more than that which is promised you.” His self-abnegation is no less

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conspicuous, and his whole life is a type of perfect manhood. In the early part of his ministry he appears to have perceived only the shadow of a spiritual existence; nowhere did he preach that repentance brought a heavenly reward, being in the clouds of half-material, half spiritual belief respecting the destiny of the race, like his forefathers, the rabbis, as well as the common people: catching a most uncertain perception of the hereafter, just enough to keep him confused, yet sufficient to preserve him from materialism. But in his testimony to the Messiahship we discover a light breaking through the vail that concealed from him a knowledge of the glorious condition of the blessed beyond the grave, for he said,” He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on Him.”

A Crowned Villain Denounced.

After the baptism of Jesus, He was ready to enter upon an active ministry, and departeii from John to undergo His first trials on the mountain of Quarantana, as will be presently described. But John continued his exhortations in Galilee, both preaching and baptizing. So great was the excitement which he created that even Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, went out to hear him, and became so favorably influenced that he was upon the point of acknowledging conviction, and doubtless would even have been baptized but for John’s bold denunciation of the tetrarch’s crimes. Herod had gained some popularity with his subjects by reason of several liberal acts that had distinguished the early part of his administration, but he lost whatever good opinion that had thus been formed by a most impolitic as well as criminal act. He had married the daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia Petraea, but soon tiring of her, and yet without procuring a divorcement, he made overtures of marriage to Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip, who had been excluded from any share in the possessions of Herod the Great, his father. But Herodias had lived several years as wife to Herod Philip, by whom she had a daughter named Salome. Both mother and daughter were ambitious, and thought no act too monstrous if by it they might rise to power. Hence, as Herod Philip was not above a private station, the overtures of the tetrarch were received with favor, and an infamous alliance was accordingly formed between the false wife and her paramour, Herod Antipas. This brazen, shameless, outrageous cohabitation, as well as base wrong thus done to Herod Philip, highly incensed the Jews, and the circumstance coming to the knowledge of John, he denounced with characteristic vehemence the crime of the tetrarch. This exposure in public speech so incensed Herod that he ordered John to be seized and cast into the fortress prison at Machserus, in Persea, but probably with no intention of punishing him with death, for within himself he could not but admire John, and no doubt accepted his teachings as divinely inspired. It may be, however, that Pilate, who was always full of misgivings and utterly without moral courage, had become alarmed at the influence of John, seeing that he was violently assailing the corruption of the rulers and had an immense following, presumably ready to do his bidding, and prevailed on Herod to place the Baptist under restraint, or to order his execution, if there were signs of revolt or resistance shown at his arrest. But whatever may have been the promptings or the secret intentions, Herod saw proper to remove John far distant from the scene of his labors and to incarcerate him in the strongest and best defended fortress within the limits of his domains.

But before John was taken from
the region in which he had won .so
large a following, though many of
his disciples still continued to preach
the doctrines which he promulgated,
the crowds gradually lessened and
soon went over to Jesus, who was now
performing wondrous works along
the shores of Lake Tiberias, and
whose foot.steps were being followed
by vast multitudes. Some of the
disciples of John, who, perhaps, had
not heard Jesus, or who did not comprehend His true nature, bearing
some jealousy because of His .success,
came to John at Enon, complaining
of the greater influence of Jesus;
but instead of sharing their jealousy,
as a worldling would have done, the
nobility of his nature is again manifested in another acknowledgment of the infinite greatness of Christ. Therefore,
not sorrowfully, not regretfully, but joyfully, he tells his disciples, “He [Jesus
must increase, but I must decrease.”

The righteous Baptist was kept in prison for several months, during which time he was occasionally brought before Antipas and his friends to be made sport of, and Christ apparently intimates in the words, “They did to him whatsoever they pleased,” that he was subjected to .some manner of torture, as was Samson; but John, like Paul, maintained his composure under all indignities, and so deported him.self that he finally won from Herod an admiration for his greatness and nobility, which found manifestation in a grant of many liberties not

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BAPTIST. — From the Paiuting by Beruardino
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usually permitted to prisoners. He was allowed to receive his friends and even to instruct those who came to listen to his words of wisdom.

The Dance of Death.

Perceiving how Herod Antipas was becoming gradually more friendly towards John, and seeing also how highly he was regarded by the high priest at Jerusalem, Herodias, first stung to anger by John’s reproof of the tetrarch, resolved now to bring about his execution, and she began, not openly, but covertly, to poison Herod’s mind against the Baptist. Her infamous efforts were the more powerful now because of a war which Aretas, father of the repudiated wife, threatened against Herod to punish him for the shameful abandonment of his daughter, whose position as wife to the tetrarch had been usurped by the adulterous Herodias.

Though baffled for a time, the opportunity came at last for Herodias to glut her revenge on the holy man who had been her accuser. Herod Antipas had now occupied the throne for a period of about thirty years, and as it had been his custom to celebrate each anniversary, he assembled his court officers and a large number of his friends for the annual festival commemorative of his accession to the tetrarchy. It was a royally grand occasion: the palace of Tiberias was aflame with splendid illumination; flowers — for it was summer time — hung from the windows in such profusion as fairly to embower the great and magnificent building; birds flung their songs from out golden cages through the courts and down the corridors and over the tables spread with every conceivable luxury. Musicians, concealed under the shades of rare plants, poured out rich melodies, while unbridled men, sheiks from Arabia, captains from the guards, generals from Rome, lords from the court, and rich men from every part of Galilee, gathered before the bounteous board to drink wine to the health and long life of the lecherous tetrarch.

- Herodias was not present, for women were not generally admitted to such festivities, but she sent her daughter Salome, who was brazen enough to violate custom and claim the right of a princess to appear before Herod on any occasion. The feast was ended and the wine was so far drunk that an orgy was now to be inaugurated. It was a festival like that which Ahasuerus prepared to introduce the unveiled Vashti to his ignoble friends. So, in came Salome with only such raiments as served to show her form most perfectly, and gracefully tripping before Herod, with obeisance to him and then the guests, began to dance in wild, lascivious motions that were particularly pleasing to the half-drunken assemblage. It was a ballet in which the dancer told a mythological story by pantomime of feet and arms, and so skillfully did she act her part that the revelers were mad with applause and approbation. But the most pleased of all was Herod himself, who, to express his delight, in maudlin munificence offered to present her whatsoever she might ask, even to the half of his kingdom. What generosity! Why, could she make a prompt selection when there were so many things appealing to her cupidity? So she smiled and passed out to confer with her infamous mother, the Jezebel of the period. Herodias did not have long to meditate, she had now but one desire — revenge. She therefore advised: “Go back quickly and ask the head of John the Baptist.” The daughter knew no ambition different from that of her mother, and her soul was burdened with no less guilt, and her heart was as vile. So she hastened back to Herod and made her bloody request. Half-drunken and vainglorious, yet the tetrarch shuddered and turned pale before the tigress that had trapped him. Alarm took the place of joy. Could a king violate his promise before a lordly company? What is moral courage to a king? Why, only a matter to be talked about when the sky is clear. The titled, the rich, the dignified though besotted guests had heard his offer, therefore must his so-called honor be kept for an hour, even if the price of it be reprobation, obloquy, contumely and objurgation for all time and the curse of God through eternity. But the evil in him triumphed, and calling a soldier to his side he whispered in his ear an order to bring to him the head of the holy man.

When the messenger of death came to his prison cell, John was ready for him; his whole life had been one of preparation for the summons, and death could not be to him any other than a welcome visitor. And he bowed himself to the sword of the executioner, but his spirit soared away to a freedom never before enjoyed, and to home which since childhood he had never known. And soon after receiving the order, the guard returned to Herod bearing the bleeding head of the last great prophet, which was handed to Salome on a salver, who in turn carried it to her polluted mother. Did this monstrous crime go unpunished? No; God never forgets such offences against nature. Herod lived on a few years to be haunted by the memory of his atrocious act, but his kingdom was taken fi-om him and incorporated with Syria, and at length both Herod and Herodias went down together in a common ruin, ending their miserable lives in banishment at Lugdunum, A. D. 39. Salome left the country at once and went to her aged husband, Philip, the tetrarch of Trachonitis, who, dying soon after, she again married, the second time to Aristobulus, King of Chalcis. History is silent as to her after life, but that it was one of great bitterness and wretchedness we may well believe.

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