Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 1:19-34, Not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the Prophet
Priests and Levites from Jerusalem ask John who he is. He denies being the Messiah, Elijah or the Prophet, calls himself the voice in the wilderness, and points to Jesus as the Lamb of God.
John 1:19-34, in every translation this tool compares.
Leaders in Jerusalem send men to ask John the Baptist who he claims to be. He denies being the Messiah, Elijah or the Prophet, and describes himself as the voice from Isaiah preparing the way. When he sees Jesus he names him God's Lamb, who deals with the world's sin, and says he saw the Spirit come down and stay on him.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/elijah-expected\/","n":"Elijah expected","s":"Malachi promised Elijah would come back before the great day of the Lord. By Jesus' time many were waiting for him, and the Gospels keep raising his name.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/prophet-like-moses\/","n":"The prophet like Moses","s":"Moses promised that God would raise up a prophet like him. In Jesus' day people asked whether a new preacher was the Prophet, and some expected the manna and the wonders of the exodus to return with him.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/wilderness\/","n":"The wilderness","s":"The dry, empty country beyond the Jordan where John preached, Jesus was tested and a crowd was fed. It was hard ground, and it was where Israel's story with God began.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/proselyte-baptism\/","n":"Ritual washing and convert immersion","s":"Jews washed often for purity, but one immersion happened only once: the bath a Gentile took on becoming a Jew. John's baptism and the church's took that shape.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sacrifice-and-blood\/","n":"Sacrifice and the daily offering","s":"Animals were offered at the temple for sin, for thanks and for cleansing, and blood sealed covenants. Every day a lamb was offered at dawn and again in the afternoon, and Jews everywhere prayed at those hours.","r":""}
The delegation's three questions name three separate expected figures: the Messiah, Elijah, whose return Malachi 4:5 promised, and the Prophet, the one like Moses of Deuteronomy 18:15-18 (Keener and his notes). By taking Isaiah 40:3 for himself John claims to herald a new exodus (Keener and his notes). Heiser notes that the commands in Isaiah 40:1-2 are plural, addressed to God's heavenly council, and that the voice of 40:3 answers them. A once-for-all immersion belonged to Gentiles converting to Judaism, so baptizing Jews treated them almost as Gentiles (Keener and his notes); Wright says John "treated Israel as a whole as if she were pagan." The Lamb of God is read in several ways: Keener hears the Passover lamb, blended with the Old Testament's sacrificial lambs and perhaps Isaiah 53:7; the ESV Study Bible sees Jesus fulfilling the Passover lamb and the other sacrifices; the CSB Study Bible allows that John may have meant a conquering lamb who brings judgment. This is the first time John uses the Jews for the Jerusalem leadership; most of his negative uses mean the Judean leaders (the cultural backgrounds article on the Jews in John).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 1:19-28 (comments on 1:20-21, 1:22-23 and 1:24-25) and 1:29
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 1:21, 1:23, 1:25, 1:27, 1:28 and 1:29
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 31, Who Will Go for Us?
- N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 7, Stories of the Kingdom (2)
- ESV Study Bible, study note on John 1:29
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 1:29
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article The Jews and Jewish Leaders in John's Gospel
