John the Baptist (7-6 BC-29 AD) was a Jewish itinerant preacher in the first century AD. He amassed a large following through his preachings, but he anticipated a power higher than himself arriving, and this power was Jesus, whom he baptized in the River Jordan. In 29 AD, John was beheaded by Herod Antipas for rebuking him for divorcing his wife in favor of the wife of his brother, Herod Philip of Iturea.
Biography[]
John in the River Jordan
John was born in Judea in 7-6 BC during the reign of Herod the Great, to a Jewish Priest named Zechariah of the house of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of the house of Aaron and a relative of Mary. He was conceived six months before Jesus, and it is said that he leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary announced her pregnancy. John was raised under a lifelong Nazarite vow (Not allowed to eat or drink anything made from grapes, cannot touch a corpse, and cannot cut his hair). When John became an itinerant preacher his diet was locusts and wild honey. (Whether or not it was the actual locust insect or the locust bean pod is up for speculation.) He came to be an itinerant preacher during the 1st century AD, heralding the impending arrival of the Messiah. He used baptism as the central symbol of his messianic movement, cleansing people of their sins through immersion in water. Some people believed him to be the prophet Elijah or the Messiah, but he stated that he was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness", and that a greater power than himself would appear. This power, according to the New Testament, was Jesus of Nazareth, who John referred to as "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!" and also reluctantly baptized in the River Jordan, believing that, as the Son of God, he did not need to be cleansed of sin; however, Jesus wanted to set an example for others to follow in his path. In 27 AD, he criticized the Galilean Tetrarch Herod Antipas for divorcing his wife and unlawfully taking Herodias, his brother Herod Philip's wife, as his own wife. This led to John being imprisoned at Machaerus, Herod's desert fortress on the desolate eastern shore of the Dead Sea, and he was beheaded a year or two later. (It is said that his head was preserved in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. Whether this is factual or not is up for speculation.) In Jesus's eulogy of John the Baptist He says thus, "What did you expect to see when you went out into the wilderness? A reed shaken by the wind? A man dressed in fine garments? You'll only find men dressed like that in kings palaces. So what did you go out into the wilderness to see? A Prophet? Yes I tell you and more than a Prophet. For it is written of him 'I will send My messenger before your face who will prepare the way before you. 'Therefore I say unto you, Among those born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist."