Matthew 11:3

εἶπεν αὐτῷ, said to Jesus, by them, of course. Σὺ εἶ : the question a grave one and emphatically expressed: Thou, art Thou ὁ ἐρχόμενος ? Art Thou He whom I spoke of as the One coming after me when I was baptising in the Jordan (Matthew 3:11)? It is a question whether Jesus be indeed the Christ. Lutteroth, basing on the hypothesis that for popular Jewish opinion the Christ and the coming One (a prophet like Moses) were different persons, interprets the question thus: “Art Thou, Jesus, whom I know to be the Christ, also the coming Prophet, or must we expect another to fill that rôle?” ἢ ἕτερον, not ἄλλον, which would have been more appropriate on Lutteroth's view = a numerically distinct person. ἕτ. suggests a different kind of person. προσδοκῶμεν : may be present indicative (for future) as Beza and Fritzsche take it, or present subjunctive deliberative = ought we to look? (Meyer-Weiss, Holtz., H.C.), the latter preferable. What was the animus or psychological genesis of the question? Doubt in John's own mind, or doubt, bred of envy or jealousy, in the minds of his disciples, or not doubt on Baptist's part, but rather incipient faith? Alternative (2), universal with the fathers (except Tertullian, vide de prœscrip., 8, de baptis., 10); (1) common among modern commentators; (3) favoured by Keim, Weizsäcker, and Holtz., H.C.: “beginnende Disposition zum Glauben an Jesu Messianität”. The view of the fathers is based on a sense of decorum and implicit reliance on the exact historical value of the statements in fourth Gospel; No. (3), the budding faith hypothesis, is based on too sceptical a view as to the historic value of even the Synoptical accounts of John's early relations with Jesus; No. (1) has everything in its favour. The effect of confinement on John's prophetic temper, the general tenor of this chapter which obviously aims at exhibiting the moral isolation of Jesus, above all the wide difference between the two men, all make for it. Jesus, it had now become evident, was a very different sort of Messiah from what the Baptist had predicted and desiderated (vide remarks on chap. Matthew 3:11-15). Where were the axe and fan and the holy wind and fire of judgment? Too much patience, tolerance, gentleness, sympathy, geniality, mild wisdom in this Christ for his taste.