Prophets II Catholic Bible study Lesson 20

Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks
Through His Servants the Prophets

Volume II: Restoration & Redemption

Lesson 20 The Voice in the Wilderness
the Book of Isaiah 40:1–11
the Book of Malachi 3:1–3
the Book of Malachi 4:5–6
the Gospel According to Luke 1:5–17
the Gospel According to Luke 1:67–79
the Gospel According to Matthew 3:1–3
the Gospel According to John 1:19–34
the Book of Isaiah 61:1
the Gospel According to Matthew 11:2–15
the Book of Joel 2:27–32
the Acts of the Apostles 2:14–21

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for Thus Says the LORD—Volume II
cross references in Thus Says the LORD—Volume II
next lesson: A Change in the Priesthood

This online supplemental material coordinates with the lesson on pages 141–148 of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I intend
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
—the Book of Isaiah 55:10–11 (RSVCE)**

welcome to Volume II of our in-depth study of the biblical prophets
We invite you to check out the sample first lesson and video from Volume II of this Turning to God’s Word two-part Catholic Bible study. Our online pages link to the free related lesson videos, a glossary, and cross references in the biblical text, and include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption contains 23 lessons and has been granted an imprimatur. It may be purchased from our website shop. The companion 28-lesson Volume I: A Kingdom Divided also is available for purchase. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” button on any study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Book of Daniel 7:1–28, the Book of Daniel 9:20–24, the Book of Daniel 12:1–8a, the Book of Daniel 13:1–9, the Book of Daniel 13:15–17, the Book of Daniel 13:19–24, the Book of Daniel 13:27–28, and the Book of Daniel 13:36–61
Lesson 19 Old Testament Eschatology continues looking at the Book of Daniel—parts of which are deuterocanonical—to examine the prophet’s mysterious apocalyptic vision of heaven in the seventh chapter. Elements of this vision reappear in the Christian apocalyptic view of heaven found in the final New Testament book of Revelation. Deuterocanonical sections of the Book of Daniel that appear only in Catholic translations of the Old Testament include the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters.

map notes—sorting out all of the Herods
In 63 B.C., Israel was established as a Roman province. The Hasmonean prince Hyrcanus II was installed as Ethnarch but not named king. Julius Caesar later appointed Antipater the Idumean (an Edomite) as the first Roman procurator of the region. Antipater’s son Herod, who brazenly called himself the Great, was appointed king by Rome in 40 B.C., but he failed to gain control until 37 B.C. When Herod the Great died, his son Herod Archelaus began ruling Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. He proved to be so cruel that Rome refused to ratify his reign. The province of Judea then came under direct rule of a Roman prefect, and Herod Antipas, another son of Herod the Great, began to rule Galilee and Perea. Herod the Great is mentioned in the first and second chapters in the Gospel According to Luke, and Herod Archelaus is mentioned by name in the second chapter in the Gospel According to Matthew. All other references to anyone by the name of Herod in the New Testament are to Herod Antipas. Click on the map (right) to enlarge it. The original map is on page 147 of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

a transition into the time of Jesus (01:29:02)
Everything in this study so far has focused on Old Testament prophets who pointed to the coming of Jesus Christ. In this video, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps looks at how Scripture moves from the Old Testament into the time of the New Testament—when the Incarnation of Jesus changes all of history moving forward. To understand that, we’ll be revisiting some key Old Testament prophecies to look at them in a Christian context. The essential figure introducing Jesus to the world in this transition from the Old to the New is John, called the Baptist in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but thought of as a witness in the Gospel According to John. While Jesus’ cousin appears at the beginning of all four Gospels, it’s easy to lose sight of his critical importance as a prophet himself and to miss his unique relationship to Jesus, who comes as priest, prophet, and king. As we look at ways in which Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecy, it will be important to keep in mind that prophecy has different manifestations at different times. St. Jerome, patron of translators and librarians, often is quoted as saying, “Prophets are called seers because they see things the rest of us don’t.” What St. Jerome failed to mention is that although the prophets do indeed see things the rest of us don’t, there’s no guarantee that they’re able to understand the significance of all manifestations of their prophecies.

oops—Matthew misspeaks on the video
On the video that accompanies this lesson, Matthew mispronounces the name Elisha. Both Elijah and Elisha begin with the same sound. This makes it difficult to distinguish between the pronunciation of the two names. In English, Elijah is pronounced ee-LIE-jah, while Elisha is pronounced ee-LIE-shah. On the video, Matthew makes the all-too-common mistake of pronouncing Elisha as ee-LEE-shah. Matthew knows better and apologizes for the slip.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the ranges for the sets of questions in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption. You can follow along as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 20, “The Voice in the Wilderness,” on pages 141–148 in the study book.

more about this voice in the wilderness
The first biblical text in this lesson, the Book of Isaiah 40:1-11 is the opening biblical text for Lesson 7 Deutero-Isaiah Proclaims the End of the Exile in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption. The text from the Book of Isaiah shows up in the New Testament when Jesus’ cousin (called the Baptist in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but more accurately thought of as a witness in the Gospel According to John) specifically cites this prophecy when he’s asked to describe himself. There are several things about this passage that are easily overlooked, the most important perhaps is that John describes himself as a voice, not as a person. The disembodied voice is bringing a message of comfort, something that sets Jesus’ cousin apart from most of the other past prophets, who from Elijah until Jesus appeared to focus almost exclusively on the consequences of the people’s sin. Learn more about Jesus’ cousin and his interaction with the priests and Levites in Lesson 2 And This Is the Testimony of John in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about punctuation differences?
In the video for this lesson and the one for Lesson 7 Deutero-Isaiah Proclaims the End of the Exile, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps calls attention to the way that the Book of Isaiah 40:3 is punctuated when it’s quoted by Jesus’ cousin in the Gospel According to John 1:23. The original versions of this prophecy (in both Testaments) wouldn’t have included any punctuation, so the change can be viewed as an indication of how the translators of each book interpreted the passage—which ultimately amounts to their best guesses. (This difference between the Old and New Testaments is apparent in all of the more common English translations.) In the Old Testament, the emphasis is on the idea of the need to prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness. In the New Testament, it’s the voice itself that’s crying in the wilderness, announcing the need for the way of the LORD to be made straight.

? What might this punctuation difference indicate about the way that translators view Isaiah’s prophecy when it moves from the Old Testament to the New?
? What about the historical situation at the time of the prophet Deutero- (Second) Isaiah argues for the way of the LORD needing to be prepared in the wilderness?
? How has that situation changed by the time of Jesus?
? What about Jesus’ cousin John (called the Baptist in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but more accurately thought of as a witness in the Gospel According to John) might have suggested to translators of the New Testament that the voice was located in the wilderness?
? What about Jesus’s cousin is similar to the description of the prophet Isaiah found in the Second Book of the Kings 1:8 and in the admonition in the Book of Zechariah 13:4?
? How might it be fitting that the symbolic journey to God’s holy city (Jerusalem) prior to the time of Jesus be represented as perilous and impossibly difficult?
? What does the prophet Deutero- (Second) Isaiah say about all life, and how does he contrast this with the word of God?
? Consider whether Deutero- (Second) Isaiah had any idea that the word of God would be a person.
? In Christian understanding, what does “the way” represent?
? According to Deutero- (Second) Isaiah, who’s doing the work of preparing this way?

why haven’t people already prepared the way?
This is a fair question, considering that Deutero- (Second) Isaiah addressed his original prophecy to an Old Testament audience prior to the end of the Babylonian Exile. While Deutero- (Second) Isaiah’s audience undoubtedly understood the way to be the route back to Jerusalem from Babylon, Christians frequently superimpose New Testament understanding on Deutero- (Second) Isaiah’s prophecy to interpret it as describing the route that humanity needs to take to reach the new Promised Land of heaven. Men and women didn’t prepare that way prior to Jesus because humanity was incapable of doing so. It was God who needed to come and take care of his people. This understanding leads to a surprising interpretation about who the voice in the wilderness is addressing.

what Matthew says—a kick-start to Jesus’ ministry
In the video overview for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps suggests that it’s Jesus’ encounter with his cousin John that’s somehow responsible for Jesus beginning his public ministry. Jesus’ cousin is essential to the transition from the Old Testament to the New, something that can be seen as readily apparent when Jesus’ cousin shows up at the beginning of all four of the Gospels.

a New Testament look at prophecy from the Book of Malachi
The Book of Malachi 3:1–3 and the Book of Malachi 4:5–6 make incredible sense when viewed in a Christian context. In the prophecy from the third chapter, there are two different people doing two different things—there’s a messenger, and there’s the LORD coming into the Temple. The messenger is sent ahead to announce the coming of the LORD. That’s what people are looking for, and the sign that it’s about to happen is that people first will see the LORD’s messenger.

The prophetic passage from the fourth chapter in the Book of Malachi is more difficult, and it’s not about the coming of the LORD but rather about Elijah the prophet. In this passage, Elijah seems to be the messenger, and it’s this prophetic Old Testament text that led people to start thinking that Jesus’ cousin John (called the Baptist in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but more accurately thought of as a witness in the Gospel According to John) might be Elijah. There’s a problem with this interpretation, however, because the Elijah promised in the Book of Malachi doesn’t have much in common with the prophet Elijah described in the First and Second Books of the Kings. The first volume of this Catholic Bible study, Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided, contains several lessons devoted to the prophet Elijah.

why might Elijah not be the greatest of the Old Testament prophets?
Because Elijah is considered representative of all of the Old Testament prophets, it’s easy to think that he must be the greatest. There’s a valid reason why people think that. Elijah introduces a new age of prophets in Scripture because he’s the first person called to that role whose mission is not complicated by either priestly or political responsibilities. Elijah sets the standard for all of the prophets who come after him.

? Read the Second Book of the Kings 2:1–15. What evidence from this account of Elijah being taken to heaven in a whirlwind suggests that Elijah wasn’t as great a prophet as his successor Elisha?
? What’s significant about the way in which Elisha succeeds Elijah?
? Consider what this passage suggests about the difference between Jesus and his cousin.

don’t miss that Jesus’ cousin is born into the hereditary line of priests
The first chapter in the Gospel According to Luke emphasizes that although Jesus isn’t descended from Levi in the line of Aaron, his cousin John’s father is a priest named Zechariah, and John’s mother is identified as a descendant of Aaron. Of special significance is the angel’s description of what’s going to be important about John (called the Baptist in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but more accurately thought of as a witness in the Gospel According to John). The key verses are in the Gospel According to Luke 1:16–17: “And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” Careful readers will notice that the angel repeats Old Testament prophecies, and that he also expands on exactly how it is that Jesus’ cousin John is going to go before the Lord as Elijah.

WHAT’S NEW about the canticle of Zechariah?
The Gospel According to Luke 1:67–79 contains a beautiful canticle identified as prophecy that’s uttered by Zechariah, who isn’t described as a prophet. Scripture records no other instances of the father of Jesus’ cousin issuing any prophecy. Zechariah’s words highlight the relationship that’s going to exist between Jesus’ cousin John and the promise that God finally is ready to deliver on the terms of the Old Covenant.

? According to the priest Zechariah, what’s the most important element of the Old Covenant?
? What’s promised in Zechariah’s canticle that’s been unavailable to God’s people in the same way it’s going to be made available under terms of the New Covenant?
? How are the priesthood and kingship implicated in the problems faced by the people prior to the coming of Jesus Christ?

how to keep track of biblical figures with the same name
Entering the world of the Old Testament can be disconcerting because we’re not acquainted with the people who populate it. It’s no small task to keep track of all of the relatively unfamiliar names. To learn more about the people and places that appear in this study of the prophets, visit our online glossary, which also includes the meaning of many names in the biblical text. The name Zechariah, for instance, means “God remembers” and it refers to the author of an Old Testament book of prophecy by that name and also to the father of Jesus’ cousin John. Consider what the author of the Book of Zechariah and the father of Jesus’ cousin might have in common.

Q&A—what’s with Jesus’ cousin being named John instead of Zechariah
Some participants expressed confusion about the reason that Zechariah was struck dumb when he learned that his wife was going to bear a child.

Q: Didn’t the angel Gabriel strike Zechariah dumb because of a dispute over what to name the child Elizabeth was carrying?

A: You’re almost right. The answer can be found if we read a little more of the biblical text that’s reprinted in the study book. The Gospel According to Luke 1:18 records Zechariah’s question to the angel: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” The Gospel According to Luke 1:20 records the angel’s response: “And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” It isn’t until after Zechariah’s son is born and the neighbors and relatives are questioning Elizabeth’s announcement that the child is to be named John—although no one in the family has that name—that Zechariah gets his voice back. The Gospel According to Luke 1:63 records: “And he [Zechariah] asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they all marveled.” This brings up a couple of side questions about John’s name:

? What does the name John mean, and what does the name Zechariah mean? (You can Google these two names or look them up in our online glossary.)
? Why might if matter to God that Zechariah’s son be named John rather than Zechariah?

about the Septuagint
The Septuagint—sometimes abbreviated LXX, Roman letters that indicate 70—is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew. It was translated for Greek-speaking Jews in Egypt in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. and was the version of the Old Testament in common use in Judea and Galilee at the time of Jesus. Early Christians adopted it for their own use. Most Christian proselytes and Gentile sympathizers of Hellenistic Judaism couldn’t read Hebrew. The text of the Greek Old Testament is quoted more often than the original Hebrew Bible text in the Greek New Testament (particularly in the Pauline letters) and by the Apostolic Fathers and later the Greek Fathers.

The full title of the Septuagint is “The Translation of the Seventy.” Legend holds that the Hebrew Torah was translated into Greek in the 3rd century B.C. at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus by 70 (some versions of the story claim 72) Jewish scholars. Ptolemy II Philadlphus was the son of Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy I. Tradition holds that these 70 (or 72) learned Jews independently produced identical translations. Although the miraculous nature of this cannot be verified, most scholars believe that this Greek translation of the Pentateuch does indeed date to the 3rd century B.C. Whatever the circumstances, the Septuagint satisfied the Jewish community’s need for a Greek translation at a time when many Jews were abandoning the Hebrew language in the wake of the ancient world’s preference for speaking and writing Greek in connection with commerce and politics.

the popes inspire us—the Holy Spirit in the New Testament
Pope St. John Paul II looked at the biblical accounts of Jesus’ cousin as evidence that the faithful no longer put being freed from oppressors ahead of serving the Lord. Pope St. John Paul II, however, taught that for this to happen “the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit was needed. It is significant that the word holy appears for the first time in the Gospel According to John 1:33 in announcing baptism in the Holy Spirit. The synoptic Gospel writers describe the Spirit with the same word in connection with the births of John the Baptist and of Jesus.”

Q&A—a change in biblical language
It’s easy to miss that Scripture uses different words in different situations when describing the action of the Holy Spirit. It’s also incredibly easy to get confused trying to figure out what this might mean.

Q: Our study group spent a lot of time trying to sort out what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, which we encountered several times in the first chapter in the Gospel According to Luke, and how that differs from the Old Testament prophets, most of whom are able to recognize their call to speak for the LORD when the word of the LORD comes to them. This leads to two questions: 1) Is the Holy Spirit active in inspiring the Old Testament prophets? 2) Why in the Gospel According to Luke 1:34–35 does the angel Gabriel respond to Mary’s question about how she can become pregnant by describing the Holy Spirit coming upon her and overshadowing her?

A: This is complicated, but there are ways of looking at the whole of Scripture that might help. To begin with, the Holy Spirit definitely is active in the Old Testament, selecting and inspiring specific people to serve in specific roles. The prophets are the most obvious (though by no means the only) Old Testament example of the Holy Spirit’s action. The concept of the Holy Trinity wasn’t understood at the time the Old Testament was written. Christians interpret various Old Testament passages as pointing to the second and third persons of the Trinity—Jesus and the Holy Spirit—though neither are directly named. (For that matter, the Trinity is a veiled concept even in the New Testament, though it’s much more apparent there.) We can see Jesus, for example, as present in the opening of the book of Genesis when God speaks the world into existence, and Jesus as God’s Word is an idea that John the Evangelist expands in the prologue to the Fourth Gospel. The presence of the Holy Spirit at Creation can be seen in the breath of God, which is necessary for speech. If God is going to speak the world into existence, he needs to breathe to do it. Wind is a common image for the Holy Spirit and often referred to as the “breath of God.” If the Old Testament prophets are going to speak God’s word to the world, they need to be inspired (think of inspiration as a synonym for breathing). When the Old Testament describes God’s Word coming to the prophets, it’s talking about the Holy Spirit coming to them and inspiring them—but it doesn’t say anything about the prophets being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Old Testament contains one mention of someone being filled with the Holy Spirit, although it’s not any of the major figures we might expect. Instead of Holy Spirit, the passage refers to the Spirit of God. The figure is the artisan Bezalel, who’s been chosen to oversee creation of the tabernacle and the holy objects needed for God’s dwelling place with his people as they wander in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. The passage is the book of Exodus 31:1–5 (RSVCE), which records: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every craft.'” The New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) translates “Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship” in this passage as “a divine spirit of skill and understanding and knowledge in every craft.”

It seems significant that the Old Testament prophets aren’t “filled” with the Holy Spirit, yet in the first chapter in the Gospel According to Luke the angel Gabriel foretells that the unborn John the Baptist is going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the same chapter, John the Baptist’s mother Elizabeth is described as being filled with the Holy Spirit when the baby in her womb recognizes the presence of Jesus in Mary’s womb. John the Baptist’s father Zechariah, after nine months of silence, gets his voice back when his son is born. He’s also described in the first chapter in the Gospel According to Luke as being filled with the Holy Spirit, which enables him to issue his prophetic canticle.

If these relatives of Jesus all are being filled with the Holy Spirit, it can strike us as odd that Jesus’ mother isn’t described that way. Instead, the first chapter in the Gospel According to Luke describes Mary as being “full of grace,” something Catholics repeat on a regular basis inthe “Hail, Mary” prayer. And the angel Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon Mary and overshadow her when she becomes pregnant with Jesus. This can seem contradictory, but it’s helpful to remember that Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as “his” Spirit. If Mary is going to carry Jesus in her womb, it’s not very likely Jesus would be present there (or anywhere else, for that matter) without his Spirit, and that Spirit is referred to as the Holy Spirit. In addition, paragraph 1999 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that grace and the Holy Spirit are inextricably linked.

read the Catechism—The point of Mary being full of grace establishes that she’s been created sanctified and free of sin in order to give birth to God.

1999 “The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification: Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.” The point of Mary being full of grace establishes that she has been created sanctified and free of sin in order to give birth to God.

It’s important to keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is divine. Anything to do with the divine is outside the realm of ordinary human experience, so it’s difficult for us to wrap our heads around. Still, it’s of great interest to think about the role of the Holy Spirit in the world—and even more interesting to think about the role of the Holy Spirit in our own individual lives.

the relationship between word & spirit
When looking at the role of Jesus’ cousin John (called the Baptist in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but more accurately thought of as a witness in the Gospel According to John), it’s wise to keep in mind that the way a word is spoken involves breath or inspiration. In this case of John, he’s inspired by the Holy Spirit. Without the action of the Holy Spirit, none of the Old Testament prophets would have been called to speak for God. Without the action of the Holy Spirit, the voice with which Jesus’ cousin identifies would be unable to make any sound.

what’s so important about Jesus’ cousin?
The commentary for this lesson consistently refers to Jesus’ cousin John not by the name that’s familiar to most readers—John the Baptist—but simply as John. The author of the Gospel According to John refuses to identify John as “the Baptist,” suggesting that in the Fourth Gospel the primary role of Jesus’ cousin is something other than performing baptisms. Although Lesson 21 A Change in the Priesthood, will delve into John’s role in much greater depth, a clue to what’s going on can be found at the beginning of the Fourth Gospel. The Gospel According to John 1:6–7 records this about John: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him.” In references to the Fourth Gospel, it probably is more accurate to identify Jesus’ cousin as a witness rather than as John the Baptist. You can learn more about Jesus’ cousin in Lesson 2 And This Is the Testimony of John in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

witness & testimony—you could look it up in our archives
This lesson looks at Jesus’ cousin’s role as a prophet, which requires John to witness to Jesus as the Messiah. In Lost in Translation, an online column that can help readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps looks at the link between the words “witness,” “testimony,” and “martyr.” New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

an unusual ‘I AM’ statement
The Gospel According to John is known for its “I AM” statements, in which Jesus identifies with the name of God revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus 3:1–14. The first of these statements in the Fourth Gospel, however, isn’t made by Jesus. In the Gospel According to John 1:20, Jesus’ cousin announces: “I am not the Christ.” This is the answer to the question on the minds of the priests and Levites. After firmly establishing that he isn’t the Messiah, John then goes on to deny that he’s Elijah or the prophet foretold by Moses, both of whom figure in Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Jesus’ cousin has no problem, however, associating himself with the voice described by the prophet Isaiah. The Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth looks at Jesus’ “I AM” statements in greater detail.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about John as a witness?
All four Evangelists assign a key role to Jesus’ cousin at the beginning of their Gospels, but the author of the Gospel According to John sees things differently than the authors of the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In the Gospel According to John 1:19–33,Jesus’ cousin is presented as an immediate threat to the authority of the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem.

? What in the passage from the Fourth Gospel indicates that the religious leaders aren’t interested in following John?
? What might be motivating the priests and Levites, who’ve been sent by Pharisees in Jerusalem, to ask Jesus’ cousin questions concerning whether he’s the Messiah, the prophet Elijah, or a prophet like Moses?
? After asserting that he isn’t any of these biblical figures, who does Jesus’ cousin assert that he is?
? What might explain why John specifically avoids saying that he’s Elijah, instead identifying with the voice foretold by Elijah?
? Consider why the priests and Levites then switch to ask what John’s doing instead of concentrating their questions on who he is.
? What might be behind all of these questions?
? How does Jesus’ cousin explain the baptisms that he’s performing in a way that his questioners might not consider threatening?

a look at what John is witnessing
In the Gospel According to John 1:32-33, the Evangelist provides specifics about what it is that Jesus’ cousin John has come to testify to: “And John bore witness, ‘I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”’” Even more telling is the Gospel According to John 1:34, in which the Evangelist records these words of John regarding Jesus: “And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

John doesn’t baptize Jesus in the Fourth Gospel
While much is written about Jesus being baptized by his cousin, it’s significant that in the Gospel According to John, that doesn’t receive much notice. An interesting exercise is to compare the accounts of Jesus’ interaction with his cousin John at the beginning of each of the four Gospels.

? Which details are the same?
? What differs between these accounts?
? Consider what might explain the differences in how each Evangelist treats Jesus’ interaction with his cousin.

In the Gospel According to John, the observation of Jesus’ cousin John regarding the descent of the Spirit appears to represent something other than some kind of divine commentary about baptism. Logically there’s no need for Jesus to repent or to be baptized since he’s sinless. In addition, sacramental Baptism is impossible prior to Jesus’ saving act of offering himself for humanity’s sins—something Jesus’ cousin notes in the first chapter in the Gospel According to John.

so what’s going on with the dove?
It’s easy to understand the confusion. Baptism, as Jesus points out to Nicodemus in the third chapter in the Gospel According to John, amounts to being born again. Jesus doesn’t need to be reborn, but the Evangelist John considers it essential that Jesus’ cousin testify to the Spirit descending on Jesus. The word Messiah means Anointed One. As God’s appointed witness, John needs to report on seeing Jesus’ anointing because that’s the evidence needed to establish that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.

kings of the past were anointed
Anointing plays into the idea that the Messiah was going to come as an earthly king, although present-day Christians know that isn’t the type of kingship Jesus had in mind. At the time of Jesus, however, anointing was seen as essential to establish a person’s destiny before God. Prior to Saul, God himself was the king who ruled the descendants of Jacob. The prophet Samuel was called to anoint Saul and David. After David, the kingship became hereditary in David’s line. Anointing of kings in the line of Judah rarely is mentioned in Scripture after Solomon. Inheriting the kingship as a descendant of David was what mattered. This leads to the question of whether Jesus needs to be anointed. Jesus definitely doesn’t need to be anointed by any human person since he’s directly anointed by God.

The promise of a Messiah includes the idea that this future king would be divinely anointed. While it might be logical to expect Jesus’ cousin to function in the place of a prophet and to anoint Jesus as king (Messiah), that doesn’t happen. John’s role is to observe and to testify to what he sees. What he witnesses when he sees the Spirit descending and remaining on Jesus is God himself anointing his Son, and that’s what John testifies to. In the Old Testament, when David is anointed king by Samuel, the prophet Samuel acts on the person David, who’s been identified by God. In the New Testament, God anoints Jesus, and the role of Jesus’ cousin is to observe and testify to Jesus’ anointing by God.

a change in reality
This is the big deal for humanity. Jesus’ anointing changes reality, and it’s essential that Jesus’ cousin John witness this. The Old Covenant always had the power to reconnect humanity to God, but until Jesus no one was able to carry out its terms. Jesus takes on the role of humanity in acting out the Old Covenant, something that John as a witness clearly understands when he identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God in the Gospel According to John 1:29. This potent image of Jesus as the Lamb of God will reappear in the book of Revelation, perhaps most significantly in Lesson 15 On Mount Zion Stood the Lamb in the Turning got God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

a shift in Jesus’ perspective
In the Gospel According to Matthew 11:2–6, Jesus identifies himself using Old Testament prophecy from the Book of Isaiah 61:1. It’s another worthwhile exercise to consider why, in the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke, Jesus’ cousin would send his followers to report on who Jesus is. You can learn more about Isaiah’s prophecy in Lesson 14 Trito-Isaiah & the Return in this Bible study.

what Jesus has to say about his cousin John
After focusing on the testimony of Jesus’s cousin in the Fourth Gospel, we look at the Gospel According to Matthew 11:7–15, which is the only place in the Bible in which Jesus turns the tables to testify about his cousin. At first reading, what Jesus has to say can seem like something of a non-answer to the question of whether his cousin is Elijah. Many people have little difficulty with the Gospel According to Matthew 11:10 in which Jesus’ characterizes his cousin as his messenger. That’s immediately followed, however, by the Gospel According to Matthew 11:11 and what may be the most confusing part of the passage, in which Jesus seems to suggest that John doesn’t belong to the kingdom of heaven.

John is standing on the brink of the Old Testament looking at the New
No one present when Jesus made this comment about his cousin would have known what Jesus was talking about without the gift of the Holy Spirit. The key lies in the fact that there are multiple kinds of birth. Because of original sin, all of humanity is born “dead”—separated from God with no eternal destiny. The sacrament of Baptism is a rebirth, changing our circumstances. We’re born with one human destiny, and in the sacrament of Baptism we’re reborn with a different destiny. We become part of the family of God. Jesus’ cousin John is witness to the new destiny possible for humanity because of Jesus’ sacrifice, but John doesn’t receive the benefits of sacramental Baptism in his earthly life.

God seems to require that whenever there’s a change in reality there be a visible transition between the old and new. Jesus’ cousin stands as a culmination of all of salvation history from Adam to Jesus, and in that regard he resembles Moses, who stood on the mountain looking over at the Promised Land but was unable to enter it during his lifetime. John steps up to the threshold, and he represents what’s possible during our earthly lives without Christ. This isn’t to say that John never goes to heaven. He certainly is granted the benefits of sacramental Baptism when he dies. What John is unable to receive is the sacramental grace that all of baptized Christians receive as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice.

why does God do things the way that he does?
It seems mysterious that God would arrange salvation history to progress in the way that it does, with transitional figures pointing the way toward something new that they’re unable to experience fully themselves. It appears that God considers it impossible for humanity to get a fresh start when we try to carry old practices and beliefs and habits with us as we’re moving into a new reality.

the promise of the Holy Spirit
The promise in the Book of Joel 2:27–32 is that the gift of the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, not given only to a select few. Through the sacrament of Baptism, everyone can experience the fulfillment of rebirth in Christ. The Incarnation, Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus mark the changing of an age. We no longer see the same type of Old Testament prophets. All of us are called to various forms of ministry, and we all have been given the Holy Spirit to assist us.

the popes inspire us—the point of Pentecost
Pope Benedict XVI explains the importance and purpose of Pentecost, a solemnity of the Church that not all Christians properly understand. Pope Benedict XVI stresses the value of Pentecost when he teaches: “Jesus, risen and ascended into heaven, sent his Spirit to the Church so that every Christian might participate in his own divine life and become his valid witness in the world. The Holy Spirit, breaking into history, defeats aridity, opens hearts to hope, and stimulates and fosters in us an interior maturity in our relationship with God and with our neighbor.”

what is this big change in reality?
A close look at Acts of the Apostles 2:14-21 indicates exactly how reality has changed, a change that’s seen in the Church established by Jesus. To describe this change, Peter falls back on the Old Testament prophecy found in the Book of Joel 2:27–32. It’s through the Church that our sins are forgiven and we’re able to access the graces now available to us—through the sacraments and not through following the law. Centuries of attempts recorded in the Old Testament show that before the arrival of Jesus, humanity’s best prior attempts at following the law always failed. When Jesus created his Church, he had to build something greater than a human construct. That Church has a mission, and all Christians are called to play a part in advancing the relationship between God and humanity. The final several lessons in this study will look at the end goal of this advancement.

how is this relevant?
What’s the message of Jesus’ cousin John, and how can we apply it to our own lives? Humanity needs to be willing and able to receive what God is trying to give. We have to get rid of the barriers that are preventing us from receiving God’s gift. The liturgical season of Lent is intended to help us focus on this task, but we shouldn’t work on our spiritual lives only during the liturgical season of Lent. That’s important, but if we want to get closer to God, we need to be serious at all times about ridding ourselves of any sins standing in our way. Each lesson in the study book Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption contains commentaries designed to make it easier to reflect on ways that God’s Word applies to present-day Christians.

? Consider the choice faced by Catholics who have been asked to explain actions essential to the Christian faith.
? In what ways might a person’s behavior mark him or her as a practicing Christian?
? Consider what sort of behavior might make it difficult for others to recognize that a person is a follower of Jesus.
? What appear to be the key things that the Evangelist wants his audience to learn about Jesus?
? How does the Fourth Gospel’s emphasis on the role of Jesus’ cousin shed light on who Jesus is?

Q&A—a question about sin of the world versus sins of the world
One participant in this study has encountered both phrases and wonders about the difference.

Q: Why do some religious materials mention Jesus taking away the sin of the world and some mention Jesus taking away the sins of the world? My idea is that “sin of the world” might refer to the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve.

A: read the Catechism—Paragraph 1849 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides the Catholic definition of sin (singular), while paragraphs 1852 and 1853 discuss different kinds of sin (plural). You can read this material for yourself, but basically, we can think of the two phrases—”sin of the world” and “sins of the world”—as meaning the same thing. There’s no single sin of the world; the term “sin of the world” applies to all kinds of sin. Although it might be tempting to think about the sin of Adam and Eve that led to the Fall described in the third chapter in the book of Genesis as the sin of the world, when that’s what the Church intends, it’s always referred to as “original sin.”

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however, including the following passages from this lesson: the Book of Malachi 3:1–3, the Book of Malachi 4:5–6, and the Book of Joel 2:27–32.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

to learn more, read more Scripture
It can help to check out the cross references listed in Scripture, but looking them up is time-consuming. To make that part easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following links are to readings from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, open one of the links and click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV readings provide an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical texts. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Book of Isaiah 40:1–11 (NIV)
the Book of Malachi 3:1–3 (NIV)
the Book of Malachi 4:5–6 (NIV)
the Gospel According to Luke 1:5–17 (NIV)
the Gospel According to Luke 1:67–79 (NIV)
the Gospel According to Matthew 3:1–3 (NIV)
the Gospel According to John 1:19–34 (NIV)
the Book of Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)
the Gospel According to Matthew 11:2–15 (NIV)
the Book of Joel 2:27–32 (NIV)
the Acts of the Apostles 2:14–21 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s biblical texts.

Lord God, you sent your servant John
to fulfill the promise of Elijah’s coming
and to announce Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.
Pour out your Holy Spirit and remain with us
that we too may bring good tidings to the afflicted,
and preach the good news of the salvation offered by your Son.
We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world. Amen.

Lesson 21 A Change in the Priesthood—the book of Exodus 32:1–29, the book of Deuteronomy 18:15–22, the First Book of Samuel 2:27–35, the Second Book of Samuel 7:1–16, the book of Genesis 14:17–20, Psalm 110:1–4, the Letter to the Hebrews 5:1–14, the Letter to the Hebrews 7:11–16; the Gospel According to John 1:19–33, and the Gospel According to John 13:34–35
Lesson 19 Old Testament Eschatology—the Book of Daniel 7:1–28, the Book of Daniel 9:20–24, the Book of Daniel 12:1–8a, the Book of Daniel 13:1–9, the Book of Daniel 13:15–17, the Book of Daniel 13:19–24, the Book of Daniel 13:27–28, and the Book of Daniel 13:36–61

you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption. You can find information on this website about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer your questions and address any of your concerns. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. A handful of more significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSVCE and RSV2CE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.

**The Book of Isaiah 55:10-11 (RSV2CE) reads: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I intend, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”