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JOHN 4:1 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
John 4John 4:2
“When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,”
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John — the notice of the Pharisees' attention signals rising opposition, the same force that will eventually drive the narrative toward crucifixion. John's Gospel presents Jesus' ministry as involving baptism (unlike the Synoptics), but Jesus will soon withdraw from public baptizing activity. The evangelist's aside that Jesus himself did not baptize (though his disciples did) is theologically significant: baptism is not the source of regeneration but the sacramental response to belief in Jesus.

Church Fathers on John 4:1

The Evangelist, after relating how John checked the envy of his disciples, on the success of Christ’s teaching, comes next to the envy of the Pharisees, and Christ’s retreat front the them. When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard, &c.

Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation

Truly had the Pharisees’ knowledge that our Lord was making more disciples, and baptizing more than John, been such as to lead them heartily to follow Him, He would not have left Judea, but would have remained for their sake: but seeing, as He did, that this knowledge of Him was coupled with envy, and made them not followers, but persecutors, He departed thence. He could too, had He pleased, have stayed amongst them, and escaped their hands; but He wished to show His own…

Augustine · 4th century

He did it too to pacify the envy of men, and perhaps to avoid bringing the dispensation of the incarnation into suspicion. For had he been taken and escaped, the reality of His flesh would have been doubted.

Chrysostom · 4th century
Read all 21 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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