“Many things . . . I would not write with paper and ink; but I . . . come unto you and speak face to face” (2 John 1:12 [John 1:2]).
In each of these sayings (and there are many others) it is apparent that something is being withheld, and it is also apparent that it is being held back not arbitrarily but for a good reason, namely, that people are not ready to receive it. It is also apparent that people are to be given knowledge as they are able to receive it, so that the mysteries of the kingdom are imparted by degrees. There are, as it were, automatic safeguards built into the teaching to protect sacred things from common misunderstanding and to protect the unworthy from damaging themselves with them. God, accordingly to Justin Martyr, has hidden the truth from the smartest doctors of the Jews whose own warped minds render them incapable of grasping it.36 When John the Baptist was hailed before the Jewish doctors, according to Josephus, he told them: “I will not reveal to you the secret that is among you, because you have not desired it“37 (italics added). One receives as one is able to receive.
An interesting variation of this theme is the teaching that Jesus appears in different ways to different people.
Origen knows the doctrine, but it is more fully developed in ancient Logia and the newly discovered Gospel of Philip, which tells us that to angels Jesus appears as an angel but to men as a man, since everyone “comprehends”
John Questioned: Are You That Prophet?
Pressed by Jerusalem’s priests (Are you the Christ? Elijah? that prophet?), John refuses every title but one: a voice. He is Elias, the forerunner, sent only to prepare the way for One greater, whose place he cannot fill.
Note. Only John records this interrogation by the priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem, the day before he points to Jesus as the Lamb of God.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
19This is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? 20And he confessed and denied not that he was Elias, but confessed, saying, I am not the Christ. 21And they asked him, saying, What then? Art thou Elias? How then are you Elias? And he said, I am not that Elias who was to restore all things. And they asked him, saying, Are you that prophet? And he answered, No. 22Then said they unto him, Who are you? — that we may give an answer to them who sent us. What do you say of yourself? 23He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. 24And they who were sent were of the Pharisees. 25And they asked him and said unto him, Why do you baptize then, if you are not the Christ, nor Elias who was to restore all things, neither that prophet? 26John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you know not. 27He it is of whom I bear record. He is that Prophet, even Elias, who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to untie, or whose place I am not able to fill. For he shall baptize not only with water, but with fire, and with the holy ghost. 28These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The Spirit of Elias
Why could John confess he was Elias, yet deny being “that Elias who was to restore all things”? In March 1844, a little over three months before his death, Joseph Smith drew the very distinction that answers the priests: between the preparatory office of Elias, which John held, and the greater work that was to come after him. Switch to “Scribal accounts” to read the reporters’ notes: in James Burgess’s, Joseph points to these very verses, “see 1st chap of John 19 to 22 verse,” to explain why John denied being Elias.
Discourse, 10 March 1844, Nauvoo · History, 1838–1856, vol. E-1, pp. 1918–1919, from Wilford Woodruff’s report (cf. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 335–336) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗There is a difference between the Spirit and office of Elias and Elijah. It is the spirit of Elias I wish first to speak of, and in order to come at the subject, I will bring some of the testimony from the Scripture, and give my own.
In the first place suffice it to say, I went into the woods to enquire of the Lord by prayer his will concerning me, and I saw an angel, and he laid his hands upon my head, and ordained me to be a priest after the order of Aaron, and to hold the keys of this priesthood, which office was to preach repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, and also to baptize; but I was informed that this office did not extend to the laying on of hands for the giving of the Holy Ghost; that, that office was a greater work, and was to be given afterwards; but that my ordination was a preparatory work, or a going before, which was the spirit of Elias; for the Spirit of Elias was a going before, to prepare the way for the greater, which was the case with John the Baptist, he came bawling through the wilderness “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight,” and they were informed if they could receive it, it was the Spirit of Elias, and John was very particular to tell the people “he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.”
He told the people that his mission was to preach repentance and baptize with water; but it was he that should come after him, that should baptize with fire, and the Holy Ghost. If he had been an impostor, he might hae gone to work beyond his bounds, and undertook to have performed ordinances which did not belong to that office and calling, under the Spirit of Elias. The spirit of Elias is to prepare the way for a greater revelation of God, which is the priesthood of Elias; or the priesthood that Aaron was ordained unto; …
“You Have Not Desired It”
When the doctors from Jerusalem came out to interrogate John, Nibley noted, he gave them no more than they were prepared to receive: sacred things are not handed to those who do not want them.
Art Thou Elias? The Forerunner Expected
The priests’ questions (Elijah? that prophet?) reflect a first-century expectation Barker recovers: that Elijah, and the ancient prophets, would reappear before the Day of the LORD.
This is how the people of Jesus’ time expected the day of judgement to come: Elijah to warn, and then the LORD himself; but before both of them, the Lady would return, the winged sun who brought healing. Jesus taught that Elijah had come in the person of John the Baptist (Matt.17.10-13 [Matt. 9:5]; Mark 9.13-17 [Mark 5:7-8]), which meant that he himself was the LORD bringing the day of judgement. It also meant that the Lady had appeared since he, her son, had been born on earth. In the Book of Revelation, the woman clothed with the sun has great wings and she flies from the dragon into the desert where she is kept safe. The dragon attacks her other children, the Noṣrim, and the vision suggests that her children had a settlement in the desert.
In his gospel, John mentions the Lady twice. Or rather, on the two occasions when he mentions the mother of Jesus, he does so in a curious way which could indicate that he is not merely referring to the woman who bore and raised him, named elsewhere as Mary. At the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus’ first public appearance after calling his disciples, John says that the mother of Jesus was there but he does not name her. It is possible to read this as implying the presence of the Lady whom Jesus as first resists and tries to deny. According to the story, the Lady inspires the servants to do as Jesus tells them. And so they fill the six huge stone jars with water, Jesus changes the water into wine, and this shows his glory (John 2.1-11 [John 1:8]). This was a sign that he was a priest of the order of Melchizedek, who represented the old royal priesthood. The kings of Judah before the exile in Babylon were priests of the order of Melchizedek (Ps.110.4 [Ps. 110]). Melchizedek priests were an eternal priesthood, based on the belief that each one was already resurrected and so could not die, as opposed to the Aaron priests who were temporal and changed as each son inherited from his father. In the Genesis story (Gen.14.17-24 [Gen. 7:13-16]), Melchizedek offered wine to Abraham when he was expecting water, and so the miracle at Cana was a sign of Melchizedek.
Ellipses mark omissions within Barker’s own sentences.