Baptism of Jesus - Biblical Accounts

Biblical Accounts

In the gospels, the accounts of the Baptism of Jesus are always preceded by information about John the Baptist and his ministry. In these accounts, John was preaching for repentance for the remission of sins and encouraged the giving of alms to the poor (as in Luke 3:11) as he baptized people in the area of the River Jordan around Perea about the time of the commencement of the ministry of Jesus. The Gospel of John (1:28) specifies "Bethany beyond the Jordan", i.e. Bethabara in Perea, when it initially refers to it and later John 3:23 refers to further baptisms in Ænon "because there was much water there".

The four gospels are not the only references to John's ministry around the River Jordan. In Acts 10:37-38, the apostle Peter refers to how the ministry of Jesus followed "the baptism which John preached". In the Antiquities of the Jews (18.5.2) 1st century historian Flavius Josephus also wrote about John the Baptist and his eventual death in Perea.

In the gospels, John had been foretelling (as in Luke 3:16) the arrival of a someone "mightier than I". The apostle Paul also refers to this anticipation by John in Acts 19:4. In Matthew 3:14, upon meeting Jesus, the Baptist states: "I need to be baptized by you." However, Jesus persuades John to baptize him nonetheless. In the baptismal scene, after Jesus emerges from the water, the sky opens and a voice from Heaven states: "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased". The Holy Spirit then descends upon Jesus "like a dove" or "in a bodily form, as a dove" in Matthew 3:13-17 ("as a dove"), Mark 1:9-11 ("like a dove"), Luke 3:21-23 ("in a bodily form, as a dove"). In John 1:29-33 rather than a direct narrative, the Baptist bears witness to the episode. This is one of two cases in the gospels where a voice from Heaven calls Jesus "Son", the other being in the Transfiguration of Jesus episode.

After the baptism, the Synoptic gospels proceed to describe the Temptation of Jesus, where Jesus withdraws to the Judean desert to fast for forty days and nights. But John 1:35-37 narrates the first encounter between Jesus and two of his future disciples, who were then disciples of John the Baptist.

The episode in John 1:35-37 thus forms the start of the relationship between Jesus and his future disciples. In this narrative, the next day the Baptist sees Jesus again and calls him the Lamb of God and the "two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus". One of the disciples is named Andrew, but the other remains unnamed, and Raymond E. Brown raises the question of his being the author of the Gospel of John himself. In the Gospel of John, the disciples follow Jesus thereafter, and bring other disciples to him, and Acts 18:24-19:6 portrays the disciples of John as eventually merging with the followers of Jesus.

There is a possible second reference to his episode towards the end of the Gospel of John, in 12:27 where Jesus submits a petition regarding the glorification of the name of God and receives a response: "Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." The first glorification may be seen as referring to Matthew 3:17 here at the start of the Ministry of Jesus with and the second to his upcoming crucifixion.