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John 3 · a question people ask

"He stayed there with them and baptized" (3:22). Did Jesus himself baptize?

In the text

This chapter says it twice. John's Gospel says, "He stayed there with them and baptized" (3:22), and those who came to John tell him, "behold, he baptizes, and everyone is coming to him" (3:26). The next chapter begins, "Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John" (4:1), and the WEB goes on in brackets, "(although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples)" (4:2). John's Gospel gives both and says no more about it. These notes set them side by side and don't fit them together. Favor's chapter on Matthew 28 asks who is to be baptized and gives the main ways Christians read it; this chapter doesn't ask it again.

The verses

“After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them and baptized.”
John 3:22 · World English Bible
“They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.””
John 3:26 · World English Bible
“Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples),”
John 4:1-2 · World English Bible
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
Matthew 28:19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of John 3

John 3: Born anew

John's Gospel remembers Nicodemus as the man who came by night: "Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night" (19:39). And the verb of "For God so loved the world" (3:16) comes again three verses later: "men loved the darkness rather than the light" (3:19).

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Last reviewed October 1, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions