Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

EVANS The Baptism of John in a Typological Context 59

(Theudas and the Egyptian Jew)—indicates, and prophetic, as coherence

with the language and themes of the prophets Malachi and Isaiah indicates.

This language and imagery appear to be thoroughly systemic in John's

ministry and message, which leads to the conclusion that the burden of this

man's ministry was eschatological and prophetic. The day of the Lord is at

hand, judgment is coining, and repentance is required. The symbolism of

the stones and the Jordan River coheres with the call to repentance, sug-

gesting that a new beginning was possible. Thus, John's message was not

simply negative, warning of a final judgment; it was in essence positive,

promising restoration and redemption. It is the latter dimension that comes

to the forefront in the continuation of the Baptist's ministry under the lead-

ership of his disciple Jesus.^18 The negative and the positive are set up as

alternatives, a phenomenon frequently encountered in the Prophets:

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and

gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquench-

able fire. (Mt. 3.12 = Lk. 3.17)

The 'winnowing fork' is an instrument of segregation, separating the

wheat from the chaff. What will survive is a remnant, a theme that is seen

in the Prophets, especially in Isaiah. This remnant is identified as those

who repent, which in Semitic parlance means to 'return' to the Lord and to

His covenant.^19

However, we must not conclude that all of John's baptizing was

eschatological and initiatory. According to the Fourth Gospel, 'John also

was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there'

(Jn 3.23). Not only is this place not the Jordan River and so lacks its

18. On the strong probability that Jesus had been a disciple of John's, see J.P.
    Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. II. Mentor, Message, and
    Miracles (ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1994), pp. 116-30.


19. John's (and Jesus') call to repentance is thoroughly Jewish and prophetic,
    reflecting the meaning of y\Vi ('to return' or 'repent' in Scripture) and rmtin
    ('returning' or 'repentance' in later Hebrew literature; e.g. CD 19.16; 4Q427 1 3; 'Abot
    4.11: 'Repentance and good works are as a shield against retribution'), not the Greek
    equivalent HETCCVOIOC, which literally means to change one's mind. The Prophets
    frequently call for repentance (as in Isa. 1.27: 'Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and
    those in her who repent, by righteousness') or complain because Israel has not repented
    (as in Jer. 5.3: 'O LORD...they have refused to repent'; or Jer. 9.5: 'they commit
    iniquity and are too weary to repent'). Isaiah, Jeremiah (repeatedly), Ezekiel, Joel, and
    Jonah (in reference to Nineveh) explicitly call for national repentance.