I have endeavoured to show you that it is not the _superiority_ of the Christ to the forerunner which he chiefly dwells upon. That difference had been sufficiently brought out by the earlier evangelists. He insists that the superiority of the Christ rested on His _priority_; that the later in order of manifestation was the first in order of being; that of His fulness John and all previous prophets had received; that of Him, as the Word of God, as the Light of men, they had all borne witness. Whether Jesus was or was not the Word made flesh,--whether He did or did not prove that in Him was the Life of all things, and that He was the Light of men,--are questions which the Evangelist undertakes to resolve for us in the course of his narrative. Upon that point the Baptist may at times have had a strong conviction; at times he might be doubtful. But that there was such a Word of God, such a Light of men, and that He would make Himself manifest, this was the groundwork of his prophecy; by this proclamation he proved himself to be of the same class with Isaiah and Ezekiel; by this he showed that a kingdom of heaven must be at hand, in which the least might be greater than he.
How our Lord spoke to a ruler of the Jews concerning that kingdom, and the qualifications for entering into it and seeing it--how he connected it with a birth by water and by the Spirit--we have heard in the first part of this chapter. The narrative which occupies the remainder of it carries us back to John. Not long after the passover at which the conversation with Nicodemus took place, Jesus, we are told, went with His disciples into the country part of Judæa--the land of Judæa being here set in contrast, not with Galilee, but with the city of Jerusalem, at which He had been during the feast. '_There He tarried with them and baptized._' This expression is used loosely; it is qualified in the next chapter. '_Jesus_,' it is said, '_Himself baptized not, but His disciples_.' Still it was regarded, to all intents and purposes, as His baptism. It was naturally compared with that of John; for he was still at large, and was '_baptizing in Ænon, near to Salim, where there was much water_.' Perhaps the numbers that went out to him had diminished; but it is obvious from the context that he was still an object of attraction to many; '_they came to him, and were baptized_.'