(although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples),
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. S. Chrysostom thinks that this baptism, given by the disciples of Christ, did not at all differ from the baptism of Saint John; both, in his opinion, being used to prepare the people for Christ; but Alcuin interprets it otherwise. Some will ask, says he, whether the Holy Ghost was given by this baptism, since it is said the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified? To this we answer: that the Holy Ghost was given, though not in that manifest manner as after the ascension; for as Christ, as man, had always the Holy Ghost residing within him, and yet after his baptism received the Holy Ghost, coming upon him in a visible manner, in the shape of a dove; so before the manifest and public descent of the Holy Ghost, all the saints were his hidden temples. S. Thos. Aquinas.