Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

20:1-8 The Authority of Jesus Challenged. The question concerning Jesus' authority (vv. 1-2) is closely associated with his cleansing of the temple (19:45-48). Jesus' counter-question (20:3-4) confounds his opponents (vv. 5-7). as Jesus was teaching. Cf. 19:47. Do these things describes Jesus' cleansing of the temple, but also his healing and teaching in the temple (and throughout his ministry), because he is neither an official priestly authority nor a scribal authority, according to his questioners' sectarian standards. Was the baptism (i.e., the ministry) of John . . . from heaven (that is, "from God"; 15:7, 18, 21) or from man, i.e., did it have a merely human origin (cf. note on Matt. 21:25-27)? To avoid the dilemma posed by Jesus' question (Luke 20:4), his opponents say they do not know, because they feared the consequences of speaking against John the Baptist whose divinely authorized ministry was also carried out apart from official Jewish authority. Their confession of ignorance, however, demonstrates that they have no basis upon which to assess Jesus' ministry. If they do not know whether John the Baptist was from God, they do not know whether Jesus is, either. Faced with such hostility, Jesus refuses to answer his opponents' question, and exposes their ignorance.