CHAPTER VI.

JOHN THE BAPTIST.

AN extraordinary man, whose work, in the absence of documents, remains to us in part enigmatical, appeared about this time, and without question had some relations with Jesus. These rather tended to make the young prophet of Nazareth deviate from his path; but they brought much valuable aid to his religious influence, and at all events furnished his disciples with a very strong authority to recommend their master in the eyes of a certain class of Jews.

About the year 28 of our era (the fifteenth of the reign of Tiberius), there spread through all Palestine the fame of a certain Johanan, or John, a young ascetic full of zeal and passion. John was of the priestly race,1 born, it would seem, at Juttah, near Hebron, or at Hebron itself. Hebron "the patriarchal city," situated close to the desert of Judæa, and a few hours' journey from the great Arabian desert, was at that time what it is to-day, one of the bulwarks of Semitic life in its austerest form. From his infancy John was a Nazarite, that is to say, subjected by vow to certain abstinences (Luke i. 15). The desert, by which he was

1 Luke i. 5; see also a citation from the Ebionite Gospel, preserved by Epiphanius (Adv. hær. xxx. 13).

2 Luke i. 39. It has been suggested, and is not unlikely, that in the "city of Juda" here mentioned we find the town of Juttah (Josh. xv. 55; xxi. 16). Robinson (Biblical Researches, i. 494; ii. 206) found this Juttah, still bearing the same name, two short hours to the south of Hebron.

(so to speak) enveloped, attracted him from the very first (Luke i. 80). Here he led a life like that of a Hindoo Yogi, clad in skins or in cloth of camel's-hair, having for food only locusts and wild honey.1 A certain number of disciples were grouped around him, sharing his life and brooding upon his severe doctrine. We might imagine ourselves transported to the banks of the Ganges, if special features had not revealed in this recluse the last descendant of the great prophets of Israel.

Since the Jewish nation had begun to reflect with a kind of despair upon its mysterious destiny, the imagination of the people had turned back eagerly to the ancient prophets. Now, of all the personages of the past, whose memory came like the dreams of a troubled night to awaken and agitate the people, the greatest was Elijah. This giant of the Prophets, in his stern. solitude of Carmel, sharing the life of wild beasts, dwelling in the hollows of the rocks, whence he issued like a thunderbolt to make and unmake kings, had become, by successive transformations, a sort of superhuman being, sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, and one who had not tasted death. It was generally believed that Elijah would return and restore Israel.2 The austere life which he had led; the terrible memories he had left behind him, whose impression is still vivid in the East; that sombre portraiture which even in

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1 Matt. iii. 4; Mark i. 6; fragment of the Ebionite Gospel in Epiphanius, Adv. hær. xxx. 13.

2 Mal. iii. 23, 24. Eccles. xlviii. 10. Matt. xvi. 14; xvii. 10-13. Mark vi. 15; viii. 28; ix. 10-13. Luke ix. 8, 19. John i. 21, 25.

The ferocious Abdallah, pasha of St. Jean d'Acre, had nearly died of fright at having seen him in a dream, standing upright upon his mountain. In Christian churches he is seen in pictures surrounded by severed heads; and Moslem believers live in awe of him.

our own days causes trembling and death,—all this mythology, full of vengeance and terrors, powerfully struck the imagination, and stamped as with a birthmark all the creations of the popular mind. Whoever aspired to any great influence over the people must imitate Elijah; and, as solitary life had been a marked characteristic of that prophet, "the man of God" was depicted in the features of a hermit. All holy personages must have had their days of penance, of solitary life, and of austerity. The desert retreat thus became the condition and the prelude of high destinies.

No doubt this idea of imitation had greatly influenced John's mind (Luke i. 17). The anchorite life, so opposed to the spirit of the ancient Jewish people, having naught to do with vows, such as those of the Nazarites and the Rechabites, was invading Judæa on all sides. The Essenes dwelt near the birthplace of John, on the shores of the Dead Sea.2 Abstinence from flesh, wine, and sexual indulgence was regarded as the novitiate of the prophets. It was thought that the leaders of a sect should be recluses, having their own rules and institutions, like the founders of religious orders. Teachers of the young were also at times a sort of anchorites, something like the spiritual instructors (gourous) of Brahmanism. In fact, was there not in this a remote influence of the silent sages (munis) of India? Had not some of those wandering Buddhist monks who overran the world, as the first Franciscans did afterwards, preaching by their show of sanctity, and

1 Ascension of Isaiah, ii. 9-11.

2 Pliny, Hist. Nat. v. 17; Epiphan. Adv. hær. xix. 1, 2; Sauley, Voyage autour de la mer Morte, i. 142 et seq.

8 Daniel i. 12-17; x. 2, 3. Enoch lxxxiii. 2; lxxxv. 3. 4 Esdras ix. 24, 26; xii. 51.

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converting people who knew not their language, turned their steps toward Judæa, as they certainly had toward Syria and Babylon? Of this we have no knowledge. Babylon had become for some time a true focus of Buddhism; Boudasp (Bodhisattva) was reputed a Chaldæan sage, and the founder of Sabæism. This, as its etymology indicates, was baptism,2 - that is to say, the religion of many baptisms, -the origin of the sect still existing called "Christians of St. John," or Mandæans, whom the Arabs call el-Mogtasila, "the Baptists." It is very hard to unravel these vague resemblances. The sects floating between Judaism, Christianity, Baptism, and Sabæism, which we find in the region beyond the Jordan during the first centuries of our era, offer to criticism the most singular problem, in consequence of the confused accounts of them which have come to us. We may believe, at all events, that many of the external practices of John, of the Essenes, and of the Jewish spiritual teachers of this time were derived from influences then recent, coming from the far East. The fundamental practice which gave to the sect of John its character, and has given him his name, has always had

1 I have developed this hint in the Hist. génér. des langues Sémitiques, III. iv. 1; Journ. Asiat., February and March, 1856.

2 The Aramaan verb saba, origin of the name "Sabian," is equivalent to baptize (βαπτίζω).

8 I have discussed this more at length in the Journal Asiatique, Nov.Dec., 1853; Aug.-Sept., 1855. It is to be remarked that the Elkesaïtes, a Sabæan (or Baptist) sect, occupied nearly the same region as the Essenes, the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, and were confounded with them. (Epiph. Adv. hær. xix. 1, 2, 4; xxx. 16, 17; liii. 1, 2. Philosophumena, IX. iii. 15, 16; X. xx. 29.)

* See notices by Epiphanius of the Essenes, Hemerobaptists, Nazarenes, Ossæans, Nazaræans, Ebionites, Sampsæans (Adv. hær. i. ii.), and by the author of the Philosophumena on the Elkesaïtes, ix. x.

Epiphan. ibid. xix. xxx. liii.

its centre in lower Chaldæa, and constitutes a religion which has continued there to this day.

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This practice was baptism, or total immersion. Ablutions were already familiar to the Jews, as they were to all the religions of the East.1 The Essenes had given them special extension.2 Baptism had become an ordinary ceremony at the introduction of proselytes into the bosom of the Jewish religion, - a sort of initiatory rite. But never before the Baptist had there been given to immersion either this form or importance. John had chosen his field of labour in that part of the desert of Judæa which lies near the Dead Sea. At the periods when he administered baptism, he betook himself to the banks of the Jordan (Luke iii. 3), either to Bethany or to Bethabara, on the eastern shore, probably opposite Jericho, or to a place called Ænon ("the Fountains ")" near Salim, where there was much water. Here con

1 Mark vii. 4; Josephus, Antiq. XVIII. v. 2; Justin, Tryph. 17, 29, 80; Epiphanius, Adv. hær. xvii.

2 Josephus, Wars, II. viii. 5, 7, 8, 13.

Mishna, Pesachim, viii. 8. Babyl. Talmud, Jebamoth, 46 b; Kerithuth, 9 a; Aboda zara, 57 a. Masseket Gerim (ed. Kirchheim, 1851), 38–40. 4 Matt. iii. 1; Mark i. 4.

5 John i. 28; iii. 26. All the ancient MSS. have "Bethany;" but as no Bethany is known hereabout, Origen (in Joann. vi. 24) proposes "Bethabara," a correction widely accepted. The two names are alike in meaning, seeming to indicate a ferry.

6 "Enon" is the Chaldæan plural anawan, "springs."

7 John iii. 23. The situation is doubtful. The Synoptics uniformly place the scene of John's baptism on the bank of the Jordan (Matt. iii. 6; Mark i. 5; Luke iii. 3); but the circumstance emphasised in the Fourth Gospel, that "there was much water there," is void of sense if we suppose the spot to be close to the river. Taking together verses 22, 23 of John iii., and verses 3, 4 of chap. iv., we are led, besides, to think that Salim was in Judæa. It seems that near the ruin Ramet-el-Khalil, near Hebron, there is a locality which meets all these conditions (Sepp, Jerusalem und das Heilige Land, Schaffhausen, 1863, i. 520 et seq.). Jerome would place