What happened? It is deducted from the gospel like two and two.
Jesus had come to John the day before to denounce him as a false prophet of the Gnostic Mandean-Nazarene teaching, seducing the people by faith in a false God, and pointed him to the True God, the Heavenly Father and Himself as the Son of God. But John did not believe Him – he had too much to lose: the Nazarene prophet at the zenith of glory and veneration, the Baptist of the people “for the remission of sins”, tens and hundreds of disciples, crowds of adorers – it was difficult to give up all this, declare it a delusion and false teaching, and follow Jesus, become His disciple. But this is precisely what can be traced in all his previous assurances: the one who has stood in front of me is following me, I am not worthy to untie his shoes, He baptizes with the Spirit, He is the Lamb of God – having met such, it would be time for John to drop everything and go to him as a disciple. However, as we can see, this is not happening. Why?
He didn’t believe it – that’s why. Because he was a Nazirite, a Manda teacher and prophet who preached another, non-Jewish, god of pre-Christian Nazarene Gnosticism, the Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda, whom he was taught in the family of a Nazarene teacher, and not at all in the family of a Jewish priest (who came from where in pagan Galilee – is a big question). And then it is understandable why the next day they disperse like strangers: Jesus walks by and does not even greet him, and John does not greet Him either. But he sends two closest students. Pointing to the Lamb of God? Oh no, sir. He sends them to convince Jesus, to prove that the real prophet and teacher is himself, John. And they go obediently. But the result surpassed the intentions…
And here it is appropriate to remember about Bethabar, in which John allegedly baptized. From outskirts of Jericho to Nazareth it is about 150 kilometers. Imagine: the next day after the meeting between Jesus and John, and the never happening “baptism” of Jesus by John, they meet again – but this time in Galilee, as is obvious from the following text. Have they covered one and a half hundred kilometers from the Dead Sea to Nazareth overnight – on cars with personal drivers? Doubtedly. John did not baptize in Judea, he baptized in pagan Galilee, in Bethabar near the Sea of Galilee, where he did not risk being caught and arrested for anti-Jewish “blasphemy.” And no Pharisees went to him except with the guards to capture – as indeed happened as soon as John stuck his head out with his sermon to Samaria, on the border with Judea (“And John also baptized in Aenon, near Salem, because there was a lot of water there” Jn 2:23): where he was immediately captured by zealots, sentenced and executed as a detractor of Jewish Law. That was later masked by the synoptics by the absurd disarray in the royal family.
Bethabar, in fact, means a crossing, that is, a place where the river becomes so shallow that you can wade it easily. Such a passage, presumably, was about three kilometers from Capernaum up the river – it was here, apparently, that John baptized. On the other side of the Jordan was the village of Bethsaida Julia, and, apparently, John found a shelter there. It can be assumed that Jesus came to him in the village to talk, and he also found a place for himself there for the night. But in order to get to the village, you had to enter the river. Perhaps the myth about the baptism of Jesus by John is connected with the fact that, having met with John, Jesus went with him to the village where John lived, to talk, and together they entered the water, crossing the river.
By the way, in the Mandean sacred books, discovered by science just a century ago, along with the John the Baptist, who is portrayed as a great prophet, teacher and martyr of the pre-Christian Gnostic Nazarite, Jesus is declared a false prophet, a traitor to John and a detractor of the Nazarene doctrine. So, it seems, something went wrong: Jesus brings the disciples of John, the Nazarenes, Andrew the First-Called and the future John the Theologian, to where? Home in Nazareth? No, it’s about fifty miles from Capernaum to there. In the Greek text, the word μένω is used, which means “to stay” – that is, Jesus temporarily stopped somewhere, apparently to meet with John. And, most likely, in Capernaum, from where he came to meet with John, he spent the night with him in Bethany in conversation, they did not find common grounds, and Jesus leaves back to Capernaum, where he brings the disciples of John, and they spend with him a full day in a conversation that shakes them so much that they completely and forever forget about John. At night, Andrei rushes to another city nearby, to Bethsaida, three kilometers from Capernaum, to inform his elder brother, Simon-Peter, that they have “found the messiah” (what kind of messiah if they are disciples of John the Baptist, Nazarenes and believe in another, non-Jewish god? This is clearly an insert that aims to make Jesus a Jew), and leads Peter to Jesus. Apparently, they spend the night in conversations, and in the morning they run first to Philip, and then to Nathanael – they are all friends and, of course, participants and disciples of the John sect, so that all references to the “messiah” and phrase that “from Nazareth can there be anything good” in terms of the fulfillment of Jewish prophecies: these are just absurd Judaizing insertions, which we will continue to meet in abundance.
And what is it that Jesus tells Nathanael that Nathanael, shocked, although he had just been skeptical saying “what good is from Nazareth”, suddenly immediately falls on his face before Jesus with the words “You are the Son of God”? What a change! “I saw you under the fig tree” – Jesus said, and what does it mean, what mystery is behind these words that shocked Nathanael with its revelation? I personally have long guessed it: Nathanael, the gardener, in the depth of the garden under the fig tree had a secret, hidden from prying eyes shelter where he spent time during the afternoon heat, praying to God, being a secret prayer, ascetic. And it is this fact, which no one but God could know, Jesus saw through the Spirit. No one has seen Nathanael under the fig tree, except God, and this episode gives us hope that God accepts the prayers of even those who turn to him with all their hearts, even if they do not know the true God.
It is worth adding that the mention of Nathanael as a “true Israelite” is clearly added later, all with the same purpose. Nathanael was a gardener in Galilee, not in Judea.
This is the story of the “calling” of disciples by Jesus – it was not He who chose them, but they chose Him out of their own free will, the free will of people, which God never forces!
Conclusion: There was no Baptism of the Lord “from John” and the Spirit of God did not descend on Jesus in the “form of a dove”. And in general there was no need for Jesus the Son of God in all this absurd baptism-washing with water from the river “for the remission of sins” – the Son of God is already sinless. And the man-Jesus, born of earthly parents, does not need the “forgiveness of original sin”, because, being the Son of God, he knows that all these idle biblical tales are all the same traditional ancient Jewish paganism, and no “original sin” over humanity in reality gravitated, because it simply did not exist. Jesus Himself, as we will see below, never baptized neither with water nor the Spirit, Jesus was never a disciple of John the Baptist, He was not the performer of the prophecies “about the Mashiach,” and He was neither a Jew nor a Nazirite. Water baptism for the remission of sins is an ancient Mandean tradition of pre-Christian Gnosticism, and has nothing to do with Jesus and His Teachings, CHRESTIANISM.
Thus, the dry remainder of the first chapter of John:
1 No one has seen God at any time; Jesus, the Father’s beloved and only Son, spoke about Him. And to those who received Him, believing in His name, He gave the authority to be children of the Father, who were born neither of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but of the Father.
2 John sees Jesus walking towards him
3On the next day, John stood again and two of his disciples. And when he saw Jesus walking, he said
4Having heard these words from him, the two disciples followed Jesus.
5 And Jesus, turning and seeing them walking, saith to them: What do you want?