THAT PROPHET

In the name of Creator

THAT PROPHET

A PROPHECY
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner: but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire -Matthew 3:11-12

The above verses obviously give rise of two important questions-
1. Who stated this ?
2. About whom this statement was made ?

The context of the passage clearly provides the answer for the first question as John the Baptist to have stated this, but the answer for the second, neither has been incorporated in this gospel nor in the successive two gospels Mark and Luke; but we have a clear mention of the same in the gospel of John as to have been said about Jesus.

Thus we read 
John answered them, saying, I baptize with water; but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet, I am not wothry to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is perferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, ; And I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record that this is the son of God. -John 1:26-34

Thus it is made clear that the prophecy as recorded in Matthew 3:11-12 has been proclaimed by John the baptist about Jesus and this is the unconfounded belief of every Christian too.

When we arrive at the answers as above, there comes another logical yet pertinent question, whether the particular passage under discussion is a prophecy or not.

To know this no documentary evidence is required as the passage itself is self explanatory to prove this, as nothing, but a prophecy.

Meaning of Prophecy
The literal meaning of prophecy is to foretell. Foretelling itself implies that something is foretold before its occurrence(i.e) to be taken place only in future at any time. No doubt that the word future covers all the time to come from the next moment of its utterance unless specification of time is made such as “after a day or a year or a century etc.” But when a prophecy about one to come after him is made that itself prove that it is not said about the one that is already existing of his own time, but of one to come at any time only after him. The same thing is also corroborated in the prophecy itself saying as “...he that cometh after me...”

Not prophesied by John - nor about Jesus
However this logic leads to doubt whether the record of the Gospel of John under Ref: John 1:26-34 is authentic? If it were really said by John the baptist about Jesus, as is the contention of Church, Jesus should have appeared only after John or atleast should have started his mission only after the days of John, because the prophecy lays down emphasis on the point that he was to come after him. But Jesus was the contemporary of John and both of them were performing their ministries separately in the same period. And therefore it does not appear absurd if any one declares that the prophecy was neither prophesied by John nor was it the person of Jesus about whom it was prophesied.