John 4 John 4 John 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The Pharisees learn that Jesus is baptizing more people than John the Baptist. notes that "... in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples", although clearly suggests that Jesus himself was baptizing - "that man who was with you (John the Baptist) on the other side of the Jordan". Jesus learns this, leaves Judea, and sets off to return to Galilee. records that in order to reach Galilee it was necessary to pass through Samaria, although
John the Baptist (Caravaggio) as an adult, frequently in the act of baptising Jesus. Nevertheless, it was not totally without precedent. Leonardo had painted a youthful and enigmatically smiling Baptist with one finger pointing upwards and the other hand seeming to indicate his own breast, while Andrea del Sarto left a Baptist which almost totally prefigures Caravaggio. Both Leonardo and del Sarto had created from the figure of John something which seems to hint at an entirely personal meaning, one not accessible to the viewer, and Caravaggio was to turn this into something like a personal icon in the course of his many variations