John the Baptist

• SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Category:John the Baptist (subject)
• ANCIENT SOURCES: see John the Baptist (sources)

John the Baptist (1st century CE) was a Jewish religious leader.

See Annunciation to Zechariah / Birth of John the Baptist / Childhood of John the Baptist / John the Baptist in the Desert / Preaching of John the Baptist / Baptism of Jesus / Question about Fasting / Messengers from John the Baptist / Beheading of John the Baptist / Question about Authority

Overview

John the Baptist is mentioned both in Christian sources and in the writings of Flavius Josephus.

John was a Jewish religious leader who preached in the wilderness of Perea across the river Jordan. The location itself seems to suggest some eschatological reference to the experience of the Jews in the desert before the entrance into the Promised Land.

According to Christian sources, John's teaching was centered on the announcement of the imminent end of time and the coming of the Messiah as the eschatological Judge. John urged people to be baptized "with water" for forgiveness of sin, in order to avoid the destruction of the imminent baptist "with fire" of the Last Judgment (the reference to the "Holy Spirit" shoul be taken as a later attempt to connect John's announcement to the Christian baptism).

Christian sources insist that John did not make any messianic claim. Josephus, who omits any reference to the eschatological teaching of John, also stresses that John did not claim any authority to forgive sins, but intended his baptist as an act of atonement and an invocation to God.

Christians valued John as the precursor who prepared the path for the ministry of Jesus (and the Christian baptism), and later sources (especially the Gospel of John) would present John as the conscious witness of the messiahship of Jesus. In earlier sources (Gospel of Mark, and Q) however the relationship between John and Jesus is not as direct and obvious. Josephus also is not aware of any connection between the two. That Jesus was baptized by John, seems to be beyond doubt, as the Christian tradition had no interest in creating such an embarrassing event (which would soon be rather understood as the setting of an heavenly revelation). According to Mark (and Luke) Jesus was among the many who were baptized by John and there was no special interaction between the two (even the voice from heaven was heard by Jesus only). The disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus remained two distinct groups, divided on the crucial issue of the coming of the Messiah, which the disciples of John (along with the Pharisees) continued to see as a future event.

John the Baptist was certainly imprisoned and executed by Herod Antipas. The reason must have been some criticism expressed by John toward Herod's marriage with Herodias. This situation was at the origin of the popular legend of the Banquet of Herod, which is reported in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.

Equally unreliable from the historical point of view is Luke's account of the infancy of John, which repeats traditional Jewish patterns about the miraculous birth of prophets and religious leaders. The later Christian tradition would heavily elaborate on these legends and fill the "hidden years" of John's life with narratives about his meetings with the infant Jesus and his education in the wilderness.

John the Baptist in ancient sources

• See John the Baptist (sources)

Related subjects

• Herod Antipas (subject) / Herodias (subject) / Salome (subject)
• Jesus of Nazareth (subject)

References

• John the Baptist / Joan E. Taylor / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), edited volume, 819-821

External links

• Wikipedia
• Catholic Encyclopedia