Mark's Baptist admits that he himself is not the promised messiah-"There is one coming after me who is stronger than I am," John says, "one whose sandals I am not worthy to untie" {Mark 1:7–8}-but strangely, John never actually acknowledges Jesus to be the one he is referring to. Even after Jesus's perfunctory baptism, when the sky opens and the spirit of God descends upon him in the form of a dove as a heavenly voice says, "You are my son: the Beloved. In you I am well pleased," John neither notices nor comments on this moment of divine interjection. To John, Jesus is merely another supplicant, another son of Abraham who journeys to the Jordan to be initiated into the renewed tribe of Israel. He simply moves on to the next person waiting to be baptized.
( Reza Aslan )
[ Zealot: The Life and Times of ]
www.QuoteSweet.com