I was intrigued by Jesus’ answer to John when he goes, “I need to be baptized by you, but you’re coming to me??” Jesus replies, “ἄφες ἄρτι” (“let it go” or “forget about that” or “nevermind”).
I was curious in what other contexts that phrase was used and whether it was like casual jargon or used also in professional settings. So I did a quick search in the TLG (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae) and surprisingly, it doesn’t occur in any Greek literature prior to the 4th century AD when it just appearse as quotations of Matthew. I’ve attached a screenshot of my search results listed from earliest date to latest.
Oh well. Was hoping for more exciting results. Lol.
Although the exact phrase does not appear elsewhere, the word ἄφες is of course from ἀφίημι which we see so commonly used to mean “forgive,” which makes it an interesting word choice. It’s almost as if Jesus saying to John: “forgive me (for asking this of you).” It can also mean “allow” or “permit” and perhaps Jesus is saying “allow it” (that is, allow me to be baptized by you regardless).
In any case, I think the episode demonstrates both Jesus’ and John’s respect and awe for one another. John is probably correct: it really should be Jesus baptizing him, but Jesus shows incredible humility by asking not only for John to do the baptizing, but also by essentially asking John’s permission, for him to “allow” it.
I like your reading of that, Dylan. I read it in a casual tone, but I can see it also as being a respectful exchange. Also interesting that I don’t recall Jesus after asking for “forgiveness” any other time. He’s always the one doing the forgiving or teaching about it.