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When Jesus desired John to baptize him, what did the latter do?
Matthew: “John forbade him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee” ([iii, 14]).
According to Matthew, John was not only acquainted with Jesus, but cognizant of his divine mission, which cannot be harmonized with his statement in the Fourth Gospel.
Dr. Geikie admits that John and Jesus were strangers to each other. He says: “Though cousins, the Baptist and the Son of Mary had never seen each other” (Life of Christ, vol. i, p. 389).
This is not only a rejection of Matthew’s statement, but a repudiation of the first chapter of Luke, one of the most important chapters of the New Testament; for it is utterly impossible for reason to harmonize these alleged revelations concerning the miraculous conceptions and divine missions of John and Jesus to their parents and the fact that John remained for thirty years in absolute ignorance of Jesus’ existence.