(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
All Commentaries on John 4:2 Go To John 4
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
St. Chrysostom thinks that this baptism, given by the disciples of Christ, did not at all differ from the baptism of St. John the Baptist; both, in his opinion, being used to prepare the people for Christ; but Alcuin interprets it otherwise. Some will ask, says he, whether the Holy Spirit was given by this baptism, since it is said the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified? To this we answer: that the Holy Spirit was given, though not in that manifest manner as after the ascension; for as Christ, as man, had always the Holy Spirit residing within him, and yet after his baptism received the Holy Spirit, coming upon him in a visible manner, in the shape of a dove; so before the manifest and public descent of the Holy Spirit, all the saints were his hidden temples. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
