Why baptizest thou?] Baptism was ordinarily administered only to proselytes. The meaning of the challenge seems, therefore, to be, 'What right hast thou, who art neither the Messiah, nor his forerunner “that Prophet,” to treat Israelites as if they were proselytes?' It is implied that the Messiah, who came to inaugurate an entirely new covenant, might possibly be expected to baptise even Jews.

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