=1-4. Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.= The conversation between Christ and Nicodemus took place at the Passover, and therefore in the spring; if that between Christ and the woman at the well occurred in December, Jesus and John the Baptist baptized together during the summer. The doctrine which Christ preached at this time was substantially the same as that of the Baptist. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17); for he had not yet begun to explain publicly the spiritual and universal nature of his kingdom. But differences between the ministries of the two were from the first apparent; differences chiefly respecting the ceremonials of religion--purifying, baptizing, fasting (ch. 3:25, 26; Matt. 9:14). The increasing popularity of Christ threatened to awake the envy of the Baptist’s disciples, his disregard of ceremonial to awaken their suspicion; the Pharisees were alert to stimulate both. So Christ withdrew, forestalling the first danger of rupture and conflict, a lesson to all Christian workers against all unchristian rivalries and contentions about details in doctrine or ceremony. Envy is the most common instigator of denominational controversy.--=Jesus himself baptized not.= No instance is recorded of any baptism administered by Christ, or of any baptism commanded or authorized by Christ, till after his resurrection and about the time of his ascension. Baptism appears to have been adopted by his disciples from John the Baptist, and employed by them without express direction from Christ, as a symbol of repentance and a profession of a new life, and to have been subsequently adopted in a modified form by their Lord. That it was always regarded by the apostles as subordinate to the preaching of the Word is indicated by Acts 10:4, 8, with 1 Cor. 1:16, 17, from which it appears to have been a ministerial act not ordinarily performed by the apostles. On the history of baptism, see note on the baptism of Jesus by John, Vol. I, p. 72, and on Christian baptism, note on Matt. 28:19.--=And he must needs go through Samaria.= Simply because that province lay directly between Judea and Galilee, and therefore on the direct route. See map. Josephus tells us that it was the custom of the Galileans, when they came to the holy city to the festivals, to take their journey through the country of the Samaritans. The more bigoted Judeans may have sometimes avoided it by going through Perea. The history of Samaria explains, and in some measure justifies, the odium attaching to it and its inhabitants among the Jews. At the time of the secession of the ten tribes under Rehoboam (1 Kings, ch. 12), Shechem was adopted by him as the capital of the new monarchy, and made the seat of an idolatrous worship. Subsequently the city of Samaria was built by Omri, king of Israel, as capital (1 Kings 16:24), and so remained till the time of the captivity of the ten tribes under Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:6). A