And what did I actually do in this land? The verse says that I was staying there with them and then baptised. Here arise the questions who, in fact, "they" were and what it means that I stayed with them. "They" are above all the disciples, whose number had again increased by a few in Jerusalem, but then also all those who believed in and sympathised with My teaching. – The Great Gospel of John, Book 1, Chapter 23, Paragraph 2