Keep in mind that John the Baptist remains an Old Testament figure. His cousin Jesus is the bridge over from the Old to New Covenant, but John remained under Moses. His message and ministry was to prepare for the Messiah. After Jesus’ baptism, John’s doubts about Jesus went away, at least for awhile.
The wording is a bit clumsy in English translations, but Jesus left Jerusalem a few days after the interview with Nicodemus, and went out into the Judean countryside down near the Jordan River. Aside from His preaching and miracles, He supervised His disciples in baptizing those who repented in preparation for His reign.
Our text notes that John the Baptist had moved his ministry upstream a ways, as far as we can discern now. There’s an engaging video here about some folks searching for the site. It turns out Enon (Grk. Aenon) is not a proper place name, but a word to describe an area where there were multiple springs of water. This is after the Passover, during the harvest season when it’s dry, so the Jordan ran a bit low, but these springs were in those days quite full of water.
It’s also outside the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. Take a look at this map. Notice the two purple areas? That’s the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas. If you look close, you’ll see a city in Decapolis named Scythopolis roughly half-way between the two districts of Antipas. The hill today called Tel Shalim is almost certainly the Salim mentioned in our text, deep in the pocket between Judea and northern Perea. Roughly a kilometer south of there, as the video indicates, is the most dense collection of ancient springs, and highly probable as the site where John was ministering at this time.
The reason John wasn’t yet in prison was because he was legally out of Antipas’ reach. At some point he slips back into Perea and is arrested. He was imprisoned at Machaerus, an old fortress built by one of the Hasmoneans — the Maccabean priestly rulers. This place stood on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, far down at the southern end of Perea.
There arose a debate between some Jewish rabbis and the disciples of John the Baptist. It’s almost certainly something to do with the difference between John’s ministry and that of Jesus. The disciples came to their teacher and asked about that difference. Why was Jesus eclipsing John?
John’s answer was self-effacing. Everything he had gained was from God, and surely God can give it to someone else. Besides, John was not the Messiah, just the forerunner. John uses a parable to explain that Jesus was the Messiah, and the people of the Covenant were His bride, His inheritance. John was blessed to bring them together. Being able to attend the wedding was quite a privilege for John, and it signaled the end of his mission.
Then we get some comments that sound a lot like John the writer editorializing again. Jesus came down from Heaven, while John was just a rather ordinary man. The teaching of the Messiah reflects His direct experience as the Son of God in the Heavenly Courts. John could share only what he experienced with the Covenant of Moses. When people who lived under the Covenant embrace the Messiah, they affirm that God has been faithful to His promises, because they experience the fulfilment of those promises.
John received a measure of the Holy Spirit; the Son is the Holy Spirit in human flesh. As you might expect, the royal Heir inherits everything the Father has saved up for Him. So it is that the Son is the sole, final ruler of Heaven. Those who bow the knee to Him will enter that eternal realm. Those who reject the Son as their sovereign Lord shall stand eternally in the wrath of God.
As God’s own final OT prophet, John the Baptist assures us that Jesus is the Messiah according to the Covenant promises. He is the personification of what the Covenant tried to tell humanity.
