Herewith, however, the proclamation of the Baptist is put in an entirely different light. He never pointed to the coming Messiah, _but to the expected Forerunner._ So is to be explained the proclamation about “him that is to come after him” (Mk 1:7, 8). As applied to the Messiah, the expressions he uses remain obscure. They denote, that is, only a difference of degree, not a total difference in kind, between himself and the person whom he announces. If he were speaking of the Messiah, it would have been impossible for him to employ these expressions, in which, in spite of the mighty difference in rank, he still compares the Coming One to himself. He thinks of the Forerunner as like himself, baptising and preaching repentance unto the Kingdom, only that he is incomparably greater and mightier. Instead of baptising [pg 152] with water, he will baptise with the Holy Ghost (Mk 1:8). This cannot apply to the Messiah. Since when does the Messiah baptise? Then, too, the famous pouring out of the Spirit does not occur within but _before_ the messianic era! Before the coming of the great Day of the Lord he will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, and signs and wonders shall be showed in heaven and on earth (Joel 2:28 ff[.]). Before the coming of the great Day of the Lord he will send Elijah the Prophet (Mal 4:5). The Baptist combines these two chief indications of the character of the great events that are to precede the Last Time, and he arrives at the conception of the Forerunner who is to baptise with the Holy Ghost! One sees from this what a supernatural light surrounded the figure of the Forerunner in the current conception. Hence it is that John felt himself so little before him. Jesus was put by this question in a difficult position. The Baptist in asking him, Art thou the Forerunner? or art thou not? had proposed a false alternative to which Jesus could answer neither yes nor no. He was not willing to entrust the secret of his messiahship to the messengers. He therefore replied with a hint of the nearness of [pg 153] the Kingdom which was revealed in his deeds. At the same time he thrust his own personality mightily into the foreground. He alone can be blessed who stands by him and who finds no occasion of stumbling in him. With this he would say the same as he said once also to the people: membership in the Kingdom is dependent upon one’s attachment to him (Mk 8:38). Jesus’ remarkable evasive answer to the Baptist, in which exegesis has always believed that it must discover a special finesse, is explained therefore simply by the necessity of the situation. Jesus could not answer directly. Hence he gave this obscure response. The Baptist was to gather from it what he would and could. Besides, it was of no importance how he understood it. Events would soon teach him, for the time is already much further advanced than he supposes, and the hammer is already lifted to strike the hour.