Section IV.

[1] 229    John i. 18.No man hath seen God at any time; the only Son, God,230    cf. Peshitta, etc. (not Cur.); cf. also Gildemeister, op. cit., p. 29, on Luke ix. 20. which is in the bosom of his Father, he hath told of him.

[2] 231    John i. 19.And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent to him from Jerusalem priests [3] and Levites to ask him, Who art thou?  232    John i. 20.And he acknowledged, and denied not; [4] and he confessed that he was not the Messiah.  233    John i. 21.And they asked him again, What then?  Art thou Elijah?  And he said, I am not he.  Art thou a prophet?  He [5] said, No.  234    John i. 22.They said unto him, Then who art thou? that we may answer them that [6] sent us.  What sayest thou of thyself?  235    John i. 23.And he said, I am the voice that crieth in [7] the desert, Repair ye the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.  236    John i. 24.And they [8] that were sent were from237    Lit. from the side of. the Pharisees.  238    John i. 25.And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou now, when thou art not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor a prophet?  [9] 239    John i. 26.John answered and said unto them, I baptize with240    Or, in. water:  among you is standing [10] one whom ye know not:  241    John i. 27.this is he who I said cometh after me and was before [11] me, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.  242    John i. 28.And that was in Bethany beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

[12] 243    Matt. iii. 4.Now John’s raiment was camel’s hair, and he was girded with skins, and his food [13] [Arabic, p. 15] was of locusts and honey of the wilderness.244    On the original Diatessaron reading, honey and milk of the mountains, or, milk and honey of the mountains, which latter Ibn-at-Tayyib cites in his Commentary (folio 44b, 45a) as a reading, but without any allusion to the Diatessaron, see, e.g., now Harris, Fragments of the Com. of Ephr. Syr. upon the Diat. (London, 1895), p. 17 f.   ^{245    Matt. iii. 5.}Then went out unto him the people of Jerusalem, and all Judæa, and all the region which is about the [14, 15] Jordan; 246    Matt. iii. 6.and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.  247    Matt. iii. 7.But when he saw many of the Pharisees248    The translator uses invariably an Arabic word (name of a sect) meaning Separatists. and Sadducees249    Lit. Zindiks, a name given to Persian dualists and others. coming to be baptized, he said unto them, Ye children of vipers, who hath led you to flee from the wrath to come?  [16, 17] 250    Matt. iii. 8.Do now the fruits which are worthy of repentance; 251    Matt. iii. 9.and think and say not within yourselves, We have a father, even Abraham; for I say unto you, that God is able to [18] raise up of these stones children unto Abraham.  252    Matt. iii. 10.Behold, the axe hath been laid at the roots of the trees, and so every tree that beareth not good fruit shall be taken and [19] cast into the fire.  253    Luke iii. 10.And the multitudes were asking him and saying, What shall we do?  [20] 254    Luke iii. 11.He answered and said unto them, He that hath two tunics shall255    Grammar requires this rendering, but solecisms in this kind of word are very common, and in this work (e.g., § 48, 21) the jussive particle is sometimes omitted.  We should therefore probably render let him give, let him do, etc. give to him that [21] hath not; and he that hath food shall256    Grammar requires this rendering, but solecisms in this kind of word are very common, and in this work (e.g., § 48, 21) the jussive particle is sometimes omitted.  We should therefore probably render let him give, let him do, etc. do likewise.  257    Luke iii. 12.And the publicans also came [22] to be baptized, and they said unto him, Teacher, what shall we do?  258    Luke iii. 13.He said unto [23] them, Seek not more than what ye are commanded to seek.  259    Luke iii. 14.And the servants260    cf. Peshitta, where the word has its special meaning, soldiers. of the guard asked him and said, And we also, what shall we do?  He said unto them, Do not violence to any man, nor wrong him; and let your allowances satisfy you.

[24] 261    Luke iii. 15 .And when the people were conjecturing about John, and all of them thinking [25] in their hearts whether he were haply262    Our translator constantly uses this Arabic word (which we render haply, or, can it be? or, perhaps, etc.) to represent the Syriac word used in this place.  The latter is used in various ways, and need not be interrogative, as our translator renders it (cf. especially § 17, 6). the Messiah, 263    Luke iii. 16.John answered and said unto them, I baptize you with water; there cometh one after me who is stronger than I, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to loosen; he will baptize you with the [26] Holy Spirit and fire:  264    Luke iii. 17 .who taketh the fan in his hand to cleanse his threshing-floors, [Arabic, p. 16] and the wheat he gathereth into his garners, while the straw he shall burn in fire which can265    Or, shall. not be put out.

[27] 266    Luke iii. 18.And other things he taught and preached among the people.

[28] 267    Matt. iii. 13.Then came Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized of him.  [29] 268    Luke iii. 23a.And Jesus was about thirty years old, and it was supposed that he was the son of [30] Joseph.269    The Vat. ms. here gives the genealogy (Luke iii. 23–38), of which we shall quote only the last words:  the son of Adam; who (was) from God.  If this were not the reading of the Peshitta (against Sin.) and Ibn-at-Tayyib’s Commentary, one might explain from as a corruption of the Arabic son of, the words being very similar.  On the Borg. ms. see § 55, 17, note.  270    John i. 29.And John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, This is the Lamb of [31] God, that taketh on itself the burden of the sins of the world!  271    John i. 30.This is he concerning whom I said, There cometh after me a man who was before me, because he was [32] before me.272    cf. § 3, 54, note.  273    John i. 31.And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, [33] for this cause came I to baptize with water.  274    Matt. iii. 14.And John was hindering him and [34] saying, I have need of being baptized by thee, and comest thou to me?  275    Matt. iii. 15.Jesus answered him and said, Suffer this now:  thus it is our duty to fulfill all righteousness.  [35] Then he suffered him.  276    Luke iii. 21b.And when all the people were baptized, Jesus also [36] was baptized.  277    Matt. iii. 16b.And immediately he went up out of the water, and heaven opened [37] [Arabic, p. 17] to him,278    For the statement of Isho’dad (see above, Introduction, 10), “And straightway, as the Diatessaron testifieth, light shone forth,” etc., see Harris, Fragments, etc., p. 43 f.</