John the Baptist

John the Baptist



Sometimes called the last of the prophets, in the sense of closing the biblical succession.
He appears in all four Gospels. According to Luke, he was the son of a Jewish priest, Zechariah, and his wife, Elizabeth, a relative of Jesus’ mother, Mary. He went out to live an austere life in the Judaean wilderness near the Jordan River, preaching repentance and baptizing many people who came to him to confess their sins. Jewish messianic hopes were rising, and in the gospel narratives, there is public speculation as to whether John is the Christ himself. He replies that he is not; he is humbly preparing the way for the true one who will soon be manifested. Figuratively, he is fulfilling the prophecy of Elijah as the Messiah’s forerunner. When Jesus comes to him for baptism, John hails him as the Christ he has foretold.
John continued to have a following of his own during Jesus’ ministry. He never became a disciple, and the gospel writers say he began to question his own prophecy (Matthew 11:2–3). However, he had not much longer to live. Mark 6:17–28 gives the fullest version of the tradition of his death. Herod Antipas, who ruled in Galilee, had married his brother’s wife, Herodias; John denounced the marriage as unlawful, and, for this reason as well as political ones, Herod imprisoned him. Herodias’s daughter Salome pleased Herod with a dance, and he unwisely promised her whatever reward she asked. Prompted by her mother, she demanded John the Baptist’s head on a dish; Herod had him executed, and the severed head was brought to her. The story, together with other features of John’s career, is partially confirmed by the historian Josephus.
John’s mode of life puts him in the same context of asceticism and messianic anticipation as the community that is documented in the Dead Sea Scrolls.