13. John I. 24, 25. Of the Baptism of John, that of Elijah, and that of Christ.

And they that were sent were of the Pharisees.  And

they asked him, and said unto him, “Why

baptizest thou then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the

prophet?”  Those who sent from Jerusalem the priests and

levites who asked John these questions, having learned who John was

not, and who he was, preserve a decent silence, as if tacitly assenting

and indicating that they accepted

what was said, and saw that baptism was suited to a voice crying in the

wilderness for the preparing of the way of the Lord.  But the

Pharisees being, as their name indicates, a divided and seditious set

of people, show that they do not agree with the Jews of the metropolis

and with the ministers of the service of God, the priests and

levites.  They send envoys who deal in rebukes, and so far as

their power extends debar him from baptizing; their envoys ask, Why

baptizest thou, then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the

prophet?  And if we were to stitch together into one statement

what is written in the various Gospels, we should say that at this time

they spoke as is here reported, but that at a later time, when they

Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IX/Origen on John/Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John/Book VI/Chapter 13