It is exceedingly difficult for us to get rid of the notion that the Baptist and Jesus stood to one another in the relation of Forerunner and Messiah. It is only through intense reflection that we can reach the perception that the two characters stand in this relation in our perspective only [pg 154] because we assume the messiahship of Jesus; but that in order to discover the historical relationship we must calculate and apply the right perspective. So long as one is still prejudiced in any way by the old perspective, one cannot do justice to the foregoing investigation. That is, one will still have the notion that it is a question of “the forerunner of the Forerunner” and the Forerunner—an ingenious multiplication of the Forerunner by himself. That is falsely expressed. A prophet of repentance, John the Baptist, directs men’s attention to the prediction of the mighty figure of Elijah the Forerunner, and as he hears in prison of the signs of Jesus he wonders if this may not be Elijah—and does not dream that this man holds himself to be the Messiah, and that for this reason he himself will henceforth be designated in history as the Forerunner. That is the historical situation. The moment the conception of history was defined by the conviction that Jesus was the Messiah the historical perspective was necessarily shifted. The Gospels display this shifting in increasing measure. In the introductory verses of Mark the quotation from Malachi about the Forerunner who is to prepare the way (Mal 3:1) is already applied to [pg 155] John. According to Matthew, the Baptist hears in prison of “the works of the Messiah” (Mt 11:2). If here it is only a question of the casual and unreflecting introduction of a new mode of conception, the Fourth Gospel, on the other hand, has made a principle of it and consistently represents the history in line with the presumption that because Jesus was the Messiah the Baptist was the Forerunner and must have felt himself to be such. The historical Baptist says: I am not the _Forerunner,_ for he is incomparably greater and mightier than I. According to the Fourth Gospel the people could conjecture that he was the Christ. He was obliged to say, therefore: I am not the _Christ_ (Jn 1:20)! Thus has the relation been altered under the influence of the new perspective. The person of the Baptist has become historically unrecognisable. Finally they have made out of him the modern doubter, who half believed in Jesus’ messiahship, and half disbelieved. In this apprehensive indecision, this backing and filling, is supposed to lie, in fact, the tragedy of his existence! Now, however, one may confidently strike him from the list of those characters, so interesting to us moderns, who come to ruin through a tragic [pg 156] half-faith. Jesus spared him that. For so long as he lived he required of no man faith in him as the Messiah—and yet that is what he was! 7. The Blind Man at Jericho and the Ovation at the Entrance to Jerusalem.