I can well imagine the holy excitement of crowds that listened to the words of Yochanan: all had
confessed their sins & were awaiting the gift of holy spirit to cleanse their souls from all the filth of sin and
plunged their defiled bodies into the cleansing water of the flowing river Yardeen. Could it be that none of
them would have had that special pneumatic-ecstatic experience in that hour when
"G d's spirit"
touched?!
"Now when all the people were baptized, and when Yeshu also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens opened & holy spirit descended upon him in bodily form as a dove & a voice was heard from heaven,
'
Thou art my beloved son: with thee I am well pleased!'"
And Yeshua himself began to be about thirty years of age, being
[as was supposed]
the son of Yoseef ben Eli! Thus spoke a heavenly voice according to Mark, Matai & Lucky Luke?
He was a son of the only one: blessed are the poor in spirit for I am well pleased and my soul delights in them! Many scholars are right in thinking that in the original account this
'heavenly voice'
announced to Yehoshua: '
BEHOLD MY SERVANT, WHOM I UPHOLD, MY CHOSEN, IN WHOM MY SOUL DELIGHTS:
"I" HAVE PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM & HE WILL BRING FORTH
JUSTICE TO THE NATIONS!'
[Yeshayahu 42:1]
This form is probably the original, for the reason that a prophetic word fits the situation.
This gift of holy spirit assumed significance for Yeshu that was different than for others who were baptized by Yochanan in the river Yardeen: the heavenly voices were not an uncommon phenomenon among Jews of those days, and frequently these voices were heard to utter verses from scripture. Endowment with holy spirit, accompanied by an ecstatic experience, was apparently something that happened to others who were baptized in Yochanan's presence in the Yardeenriver.
If Yehoshua really did hear these words from Yeshayahu,
the phrase '
I HAVE PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM'
was a wonderful confirmation of a gift of holy spirit.
This is what our mind does with us
when it is 'ripe'!
