{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/009/0090291.htm","path":"chr/ecf/009/0090291.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/009/0090291.htm","text":"15. How the Baptist Answers the Question of the Pharisees and Exalts the Nature of Christ. Of the Shoe-Latchet Which He is Unable to Untie.\nJohn 4906 answered them, saying, \u201cI baptize with water, but in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, even He who cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.\u201d Heracleon considers that John\u2019s answers to those sent by the Pharisees refer not to what they asked, but to what he wished, not observing that he accuses the prophet of a want of manners, by making him, when asked about one thing, answer about another; for this is a fault to be guarded against in conversation. We assert, on the contrary, that the reply accurately takes up the question. It is asked, \u201cWhy baptizest thou then, if thou art not the Christ?\u201d And what other answer could be given to this than to show that his baptism was in its nature a bodily thing? I, he says, \u201cbaptize with water;\u201d this is his answer to, \u201cWhy baptizest thou.\u201d And to the second part of their question, \u201cIf thou art not the Christ,\u201d he answers by exalting the p. 366 superior nature of Christ, that He has such virtue as to be invisible in His deity, though present to every man and extending over the whole universe. This is what is indicated in the words, \u201cThere standeth one among you.\u201d The Pharisees, moreover, though expecting the advent of Christ, saw nothing in Him of such a nature as John speaks of; they believed Him to be simply a perfect and holy man. John, therefore, rebukes their ignorance of His superiority, and adds to the words, \u201cThere standeth one among you,\u201d the clause, \u201cwhom ye know not.\u201d And, lest any one should suppose the invisible One who extends to every man, or, indeed, to the whole world, to be a different person from Him who became man, and appeared upon the earth and conversed with men, he adds to the words, \u201cThere standeth one among you whom you know not,\u201d the further words, \u201cWho cometh after me,\u201d that is, He who is to be manifested after me. By whose surpassing excellence he well understood that his own nature was far surpassed, though some doubted whether he might be the Christ; and, therefore, desiring to show how far he is from attaining to the greatness of the Christ, that no one should think of him beyond what he sees or hears of him, he goes on: \u201cThe latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.\u201d By which he conveys, as in a riddle, that he is not fit to solve and to explain the argument about Christ\u2019s assuming a human body, an argument tied up and hidden (like a shoe-tie) to those who do not understand it,\u2014so as to say anything worthy of such an advent, compressed, as it was, into so short a space.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol IX: Epistle to Gregory and Orige...","type":"page"}