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The Baptist’s Last Witness to Jesus
John 3:22-3
After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized – John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison. Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
In this passage John the Baptist is in Samaria near Salim, difficult mission territory. Jesus is in Judea, an easier mission. The disciples of John resent that that many are going to Jesus. John’s work is coming to an end and he gently explains this to his disciples. “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John was baptizing in pools near Salim
This is the Story of Jesus drawn from the four Evangelists
Gospel passages accompanied by a number of brief commentaries
