A question about conflicting scriptures
I’m confused with the passages of John 3:22 and 26 and John 4:2. John 3 says Jesus baptized yet John 4 says he did not, can you explain this difference?
No problem John!
Thanks for your sincere interest in bible study. The measure of any good and sincere bible student is that you do not ignore tough or confusing passages like these but seek out a logical answer, understanding that if the bible is truly God’s word, then there will be a logical answer.
For the convenience of readers on our website I will now post the text of the verses you ask about.
After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized.
And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified — behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”
and John 4:2 (with verse one as well, for context)
Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
A seeming contradiction indeed. In fact, if these verses came from different books and different authors, a person could make a very good case for contradiction, which would in effect, destroy our faith in the inspiration of the scriptures. As it stands though, these are all statements from the same author and in fact, all three of these statements are part of one unbroken chain of thought from the author beginning at John 3:22 and not ending until John 4:3.
Let me tell you a story of my own, in todays language, without any spiritual subject matter to show how this is a common way for someone to talk… Here goes:
Joe took a crew down to New Orleans where he had a contract to rebuild some houses. When Jack, a competing contractor, saw that Joe was building houses under a government contract, he decided he should get a piece of the action as well. By the time Jack arrived in New Orleans, he was already well behind his competitor, as Joe had already built 20 homes! (although he didn’t actually build them himself, his crew had supplied all the labor).
I think, perhaps, that this is a fitting parallel and hopefully clears things up. You see, John 3:22 tells us that Jesus and his disciples came into Judea [emphasis mine]. Jesus most likely busied himself teaching those present while his disciples (which at this point would have at least included the author himself, James, Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael) did the actual work of baptizing. There is no contradiction here. John simply names Jesus and says he was baptizing, then immediately adds that, while He was certainly the authority and overseer of the work, He didn’t actually do the baptizing with His own hands.
Hope this helps you out John! Please contact us again ANY time you want,
Justin, for thegospelfortoday.com and the Garrett’s Creek Church of Christ
