Matthew 11:2–3

In the original Greek according to Westcott-Hort, these verses are: :Ὁ δὲ Ἰωάννης ἀκούσας ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, πέμψας δύο τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, :εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Σὺ εἶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, ἢ ἕτερον προσδοκῶμεν; In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: :Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, :And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? The New International Version translates the passage as: :When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples :to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" ==Analysis==

Although it would appear from these verses that John the Baptist was uncertain about Jesus being the Messiah, the traditional understanding from many church fathers, as seen in the next section, is that John merely sent his disciples to Christ so that "they might learn from Himself that He was the very Messiah, or Christ, that when John was dead they might go to Him." The idea was to prevent a schism from forming, since it is clear from Matthew 9:14 that John's disciples held John in higher esteem than Christ. However, Tertullian and Justin believed that John was in fact misguided, even though he had seen the Holy Spirit descend upon him in the form of a dove and the voice from heaven. Gregory the Great thought that John did know that Jesus would save the world, but was ignorant that he would also be the one who would descend into hell and open its doors. ==Commentary from the Church Fathers==

The following quotations are taken from the Catena Aurea of Thomas Aquinas, which only cited the names of the commentators, and generally did not give the name of the particular work that was cited. They are given in the order that Thomas put them, which was meant to build a narrative from the quotations. Glossa Ordinaria: "The Evangelist had shown above how by Christ’s miracles and teaching, both His disciples and the multitudes had been instructed; he now shows how this instruction had reached even to John’s disciples, so that they seemed to have some jealousy towards Christ; John, when he had heard in his bonds the works of Christ, sent two of his disciples to say unto him, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" ==References==