“Behold, his mother and his brethren said unto him, John the Baptist baptizeth for the remission of sins; let us go and be baptized of him. But he said unto them, What sin have I committed, that I should be baptized of him, unless it be that in saying this I am in ignorance?”[208]
This is a very singular passage. We do not know the context, but we may presume that our Lord yields to the persuasion of his mother. Such is the tradition preserved in another apocryphal work, the “Preaching of St. Paul,” issuing from an entirely different source, from a school hostile to the Nazarenes.[209]
Another fragment continues the account after a gap.
“And when the Lord went up out of the water, the whole fountain of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said unto him, My Son, I looked for thee in all the prophets, that thou mightest come, and that I might [pg 143]rest upon thee. For thou art my rest, thou art my first-begotten Son, who shalt reign throughout eternity.”[210]
But this is not the only version we have of the narrative in the Gospel of the Hebrews. St. Epiphanius gives us another, which shall be placed parallel with the corresponding account in St. Matthew.
| GOSPEL OF THE HEBREWS. | ST. MATTHEW iii 13-17. |
| “The people having been baptized, Jesus came also, and was baptized by John. And as he came out of the water, the heavens opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit of God descending under the form of a dove, and entering into him. And a voice was heard from heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, and in thee am I well pleased. And again, This day have I begotten thee. And suddenly there shone a great light in that place. And John seeing it, said, Who art thou, Lord? Then a voice was heard from heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Thereat John fell at his feet and said, I pray thee, Lord, baptize me. But, he would not, saying, Suffer it, for so it behoveth that all should be accomplished.”[211] | “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and cometh thou to me? And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” |
That the Gospel stood as in this latter passage quoted in the second century among the orthodox Christians of Palestine is probable, because with it agrees the brief citation of Justin Martyr, who says that when our Lord was baptized, there shone a great light around, and a voice was heard from heaven, saying, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Both occur in the Ebionite Gospel; neither in the Canonical Gospel.[212]
This Gospel was certainly known to the writer of the Canonical Epistle to the Hebrews, for he twice takes this statement as authoritative. “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day, have I begotten thee?” and more remarkably, “Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee.”[213] In the latter passage the [pg 145] author is speaking of the calling of priests being miraculous and manifest; and then he cites this call of Christ to the priesthood as answering these requirements.
The order of events is not the same in the Gospel of Twelve and in that of St. Matthew: verses 14 and 15 of the latter, modified in an important point, come in the Ebionite Gospel after verses 16 and 17.
There is a serious discrepancy between the account of the baptism of our Lord in St. Matthew and in St. John. In the former Canonical Gospel, the Baptist forbids Christ to be baptized by him, saying, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” But Jesus bids him: “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then Jesus is baptized, and the heavens are opened. But in St. John's Gospel, the Baptist says, “I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record, that this is the Son of God.”[214]