AUGUSTINE . (De Cons. Ev. ii. 12.) The other Evangelists omit these words of John. What follows, This is He, &c. it is not clear whether the Evangelist speaks them in his own person, or whether they are part of John’s preaching, and the whole from Repent ye, to Esaias the prophet, is to be assigned to John. It is of no importance that he says, This is he, and not, I am he; for Matthew speaking of himself says, He found a man sitting at the toll-office; (Mat. 9:9.) not He found me. Though when asked what he said of himself, he answered, as is related by John the Evangelist, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
GREGORY . (Hom. in Ev. i. 7. 2.) It is well known that the Only-begotten Son is called the Word of the Father; as in John, In the beginning was the Word. (John 1:1.) But it is by our own speech that we are known; the voice sounds that the words may be heard. Thus John the forerunner of the Lord’s coming is called, The voice, because by his ministry the voice of the Father is heard by men.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . The voice is a confused sound, discovering no secret of the heart, only signifying that he who utters it desires to say somewhat; it is the word that is the speech that openeth the mystery of the heart. Voice is common to men and other animals, word peculiar to man. John then is called the voice and not the word, because God did not discover His counsels through him, but only signified that He was about to do something among men; but afterwards by His Son he fully opened the mystery of his will.
RABANUS . He is rightly called, The voice of one crying, on account of the loud sound of his preaching. Three things cause a man to speak loud; when the person he speaks to is at a distance, or is deaf, or if the speaker be angry; and all these three were then found in the human race.
GLOSS . (ord.) John then is, as it were, the voice of the word crying. The word is heard by the voice, that is, Christ by John.
BEDE . (Gloss. ord. in cap. iv. 1.) In like manner has He cried from the beginning through the voice of all who have spoken aught by inspiration. And yet is John only called, The voice; because that Word which others shewed afar off, he declares as nigh.
GREGORY . (Hom. in Ev. i. 7. 2.) Crying in the desert, because he shews to deserted and forlorn Judæa the approaching consolation of her Redeemer.
REMIGIUS . Though as far as historical fact is concerned, he chose the desert, to be removed from the crowds of people. What the purport of his cry was is insinuated, when he adds, Make ready the way of the Lord.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . As a great King going on a progress is preceded by couriers to cleanse what is foul, repair what is broken down; so John preceded the Lord to cleanse the human heart from the filth of sin, by the besom of repentance, and to gather by an ordinance of spiritual precepts those things which had been scattered abroad.
GREGORY . (Hom. in Ev. i. 20. 3.) Every one who preacheth right faith and good works, prepares the Lord’s way to the hearts of the hearers, and makes His paths straight, in cleansing the thoughts by the word of good preaching.
GLOSS . (interlin.) Or, faith is the way by which the word reaches the heart; when the life is amended the paths are made straight.
3:4
Ver. 4. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . Having said that he is the voice of one crying in the desert, the Evangelist well adds, John had his clothing of camel’s hair; thus shewing what his life was; for he indeed testified of Christ, but his life testified of himself. No one is fit to be another’s witness till he has first been his own.
HILARY . For the preaching of John no place more suitable, no clothing more useful, no food more fitted.
JEROME . His raiment of camel’s hair, not of wool—the one the mark of austerity in dress, the other of a delicate luxury.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . It becomes the servants of God to use a dress not for elegant appearance, or for cherishing of the body, but for a covering of the nakedness. Thus John wears a garment not soft and delicate, but hairy, heavy, rough, rather wounding the skin than cherishing it, that even the very clothing of his body told of the virtue of his mind. It was the custom of the Jews to wear girdles of wool; so he desiring something less indulgent wore one of skin.
JEROME . Food moreover suited to a dweller in the desert, no choice viands, but such as satisfied the necessities of the body.
RABANUS . Content with poor fare; to wit, small insects and honey gathered from the trunks of trees. In the sayings of Arnulphusa, Bishop of Gaul, we find that there was a very small kind of locust in the deserts of Judæa, with bodies about the thickness of a finger and short; they are easily taken among the grass, and when cooked in oil form a poor kind of food. He also relates, that in the same desert there is a kind of tree, with a large round leaf, of the colour of milk and taste of honey, so friable as to rub to powder in the hand, and this is what is intended by wild honey.
REMIGIUS . In this clothing and this poor food, he shews that he sorrows for the sins of the whole human race.
RABANUS . His dress and diet express the quality of his inward conversation. His garment was of an austere quality, because he rebuked the sinner’s life.
JEROME . His girdle of skin, which Elias also bare, is the mark of mortification.
RABANUS . He ate locusts and honey, because his preaching was sweet to the multitude, but was of short continuance; and honey has sweetness, locusts a swift flight but soon fall to the ground.
REMIGIUS . In John (which name is interpreted ‘the grace of God,’) is figured Christ who brought grace into the world; in his clothing, the Gentile Church.
HILARY . The preacher of Christ is clad in the skins of unclean beasts, to which the Gentiles are compared, and so by the Prophets’ dress is sanctified whatever in them was useless or unclean. The girdle is a thing of much efficacy to every good work, that we may be girt for every ministry of Christ. For his food are chosen locusts, which fly the face of man, and escape from every approach, signifying ourselves who were borne away from every word or speech of good by a spontaneous motion of the body, weak in will, barren in works, fretful in speech, foreign in abode, are now become the food of the Saints, chosen to fill the Prophets’ desire, furnishing our most sweet food not from the hives of the law, but from the trunks of wild trees.