Book of the Bee

Historical scan page 117

OF JOHN THE BAPTIST \ AND THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST. 89 Herod the younger the fourth part. And Herod loved Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. CHAPTER XLI1. OF JOHN THE BAPTIST, AND OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD2. John the Baptist lived thirty years in the desert with the wild beasts ; and after thirty years he came from the wilderness to the habitations of men. AA From the day when his father made him flee to the desert, when he was a child, until he came (again), he covered himself with the same clothes both summer and winter, without changing his ascetic mode of life. And he preached in the wilderness of J udaea, saying, e Repent, the kingdom of God draweth nigh ; ’ and he baptised them with the baptism of repentance for the remission of their sins. He said to them, ‘ Behold, there cometh after me a man who is stronger than I, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. I baptise you with water for repentance, but He who cometh after me is stronger than I; He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire:’ thereby referring to that which was about to be wrought on the apostles, who received the Holy Spirit by tongues of fire, and this took the place of baptism to them, and by this grace they were about to receive all those who were baptised in Christ. Jesus came to John at the river Jordan to be baptised by him ; but John restrained Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptised by Thee, and art Thou come to me?’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is meet thus to fulfil the words of prophecy.’ When Jesus had been baptised, as soon as He had gone up from the water, He saw that the heavens were rent, and the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him, and a voice from heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ On this day the Trinity was revealed to men ; by the Father who cried out, and by the Son who was baptised, and by the Holy Spirit which came down [ja] upon Him in the corporeal form of a dove. Touching the voice which was heard from heaven, saying, ‘ This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him,’ every one heard the voice; but John only was worthy 1 In the Oxford MS. chap. xlv. 2 Matt. chap. iii. [II. 2.] n