John 3:24

For John was not yet cast into prison.

There could have been no reason for this statement unless the apostle John was familiar with the other three Gospels and knew that his readers were also fully acquainted with them. The Nestle Greek text gives "the prison" as a legitimate rendition;[23] and, when so read, it carries the weight of "the imprisonment of John," thus an event already established in the common knowledge, as when the Declaration of Independence, is mentioned. Hendriksen wrote:

Taking it for granted that believers had read the earlier Gospels, the author corrects a possible misunderstanding and shows that between Christ's temptation and the arrest of John the Baptist there was a considerable period during which Jesus and John were in a parallel ministry.[24]

[23] Alfred Marshall, The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 367.

[24] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 147.