John the Baptist (DC 30 CE) was a Jewish itinerant missionary in the 1st century AD. We don't know his full name, but he is recognizable from his activities. "Baptize" (Greek: baptizo) directly translated into English means "to immerse" or "to plunge into." After the people repented, John immersed the people in the Jordan River. Next to Jesus of Nazareth and the apostle Paul, John the Baptist was one of the most recognized people in Christianity, and baptism became one of the first rites practiced by Christians.

John achieved martyr status in the 4th century AD and is now considered St. John. John is popular in the relic trade, and several churches still claim to have his head or right hand for baptizing Jesus. The Mandaean Christians of Iraq claim to be the surviving remnants of the followers of John the Baptist, and some of their teachings have also been fused with the Christian Gnostic sect known as Manichaeism. Christian communities around the world continue to practice baptism as a fundamental element of the faith, and John is revered in Christianity as a pious Christian prophet.

Josephus

John occupies an important place in New Testament scholarship because we have descriptions of John from non-Christian sources. Flavius ??Josephus (37-100 AD) was a Jewish historian who wrote a history of the Jews. He was not a witness to John, but he made use of contemporary records and annals. The story of John the Baptist occurs as a digression in his history of Herod Antipas (Lord of Galilee, 4 BC - 39 AD). Antipas married the daughter of Aretas IV (9 BC – 40 AD), king of Nabataea, a kingdom in Jordan (Petra). He then divorced her and married Herodias, who married his half-brother Herod Philip I. Judging from her name, she has a close kinship with these half-uncles. King Aretas went to war against Herod Antipas and defeated him. Josephus goes on to add:

Now some of the Jews believed that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, which was very just, and as punishment for what he had done to John, he was called the Baptist. For Herod killed him, and he was a good man, and commanded the Jews to do good, both in righteousness to one another, and in piety to God, even to be baptized; for he could be washed [with water]. (Jewish Antiquities, 18.5.2)

Herod killed John because he was afraid that Rome would think he had no control over his province.

The reason John died was because he had "a large number of followers." Large Jewish crowds often led to riots, usually directed against locals. Josephus describes several other itinerant preachers of the time who had followers. The Roman *** traditionally arrested its leader and executed him and as many of his followers as they could find. Herod killed John because he was afraid that Rome would think he had no control over his province.

This story is important not only in proving John's activities, but also in the presence of a large audience. After his death, his followers gathered around his name and passed on his teachings and baptismal rites.

The Four Gospels

All four Gospels begin the ministry of Jesus with His baptism by John. This does not mean that John had four different sources; they used the first gospel, Mark, and added their own details. John's baptism of four Jesuses leads scholars to believe:

There must be an early tradition that John baptized Jesus.

The story of John (his activities and his death) must have been well known; people have been asking whether Jesus was the John who rose from the dead;

John's followers had questions about This was a problem for Jesus' followers: "They said to him, 'John's disciples always fast and pray...but your disciples continue to eat and drink'" (Luke 5:33).

The Gospel of John hints at competition between groups: "Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he made more disciples and baptized them than John did" (John 4:1-2). The tradition of John forced the Gospel writers to turn to the Jewish Scriptures to explain the connection between the two. It is noteworthy that the Gospels all emphasize the superiority of Jesus over John.

The Gospel of Mark

Mark (c. AD 70) begins his gospel with the baptism of Jesus, so scholars use this for the basic story of John:

The beginning of the good news about the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God, as the prophet Isaiah wrote: "I will send my messenger before you, who will prepare your way" - A Man Calling in the Wilderness The voice, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. '" So John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. All the villages of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to meet him. They confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the Jordan River. . John was clothed in camel's hair and girded with a leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey: "After me is a mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop to untie." I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. ” At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being rent open and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. A A voice came from heaven: “You are my son, my beloved; I am well pleased with you. ” Immediately the Holy Spirit sent him into the wilderness, where he was for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and angels followed him. (Mark 1:5-13).

Mark conflates several messianic passages from the prophets Isaiah and Malachi (3:1; 4.5) with physical descriptions evoking the prophet Elijah (camel hair and eating locusts and honey). Related to the story of Elijah (1 Kings 17-19 and 2 Kings 1-2 Kings) Elijah was "clad in a woolen garment and with a belt around his waist" (2 Kings 1:8). Favorite way of depicting John in art and movies

A quote from the Book of Malachi (450 B.C.?) claims that Elijah was taken to heaven without dying, “in the great and. "Before the terrible days" (Malachi 4:5) will be sent by God as messengers. The coming of the Messiah will be announced. In the Transfiguration scene, Elijah appears with Moses to Jesus, indicating this The fulfillment of prophecy (Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36).

The Holy Spirit mentioned in the article is not the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. This is the spirit of God (the "breath of God" that "possessed" the prophet). The dove was a symbol of God's presence and Jesus was now given the same spirit as the prophet so that he could perform miracles in the wilderness as well. Allusion, they went into the wilderness kind of like apprentices, preparing for a mission.

Mark reported John's death in the middle of Jesus' ministry. In Mark's version, John was arrested because of his criticism of Antioch. Pat's marriage to Herodias, "for John kept saying, 'It is not lawful to marry your brother's wife'" (Mark 6:18). This is the famous scene from Antipas's birthday party, his successor. The woman danced for the guests and he offered her whatever she wanted. At her mother's urging, she asked for "the head of John the Baptist on a platter" (Mark 6:25). Mark did not give it to his daughter. name, but we know from the genealogy that her name was Salome. Josephus describes John's death as a matter of political expediency, while Mark, in keeping with the main theme of his gospel, has John for religious reasons among the Jews. Died by disagreement.

Matthew

Both Josephus and Mark have John baptize those “who have had their sins forgiven” as a clear sign of repentance

Significantly, neither Josephus nor Mark describe John as preaching the coming kingdom of God, the message of Jesus. Both describe John as baptizing people "for the forgiveness of sins." A clear sign of repentance.

When Matthew edited Mark, he removed the line that mentions forgiveness of sins. Instead, he connected John to Jesus with the same message: "In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" (Matthew 3:1) . John called the Pharisees and Sadducees "a brood of vipers" (Matthew 3:7), reflecting Matthew's favorite polemic against authority. This established John's iconic image as the firebrand preacher who worked alongside Jesus,

Matthew's John was initially reluctant: "But John tried to stop him saying, 'I need to accept your Baptism, have you come to me? ' Jesus answered and said to him, 'So it is for now; we do this to fulfill all righteousness. "Then John agreed" (Matthew 3:13-15). One of Matthew's themes is that everything about Jesus, including John, fulfills the Bible.

The Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of Luke provides the biography of John that has now become a Christian standard. John the Baptist's parents, an old and impoverished couple, experienced divine intervention in the birth of their son. The angel Gabriel appears:

Zacharias, do not be afraid...your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you shall name him John. …He must never drink wine or strong drink, and even before he is born, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, …the spirit and power of Elijah…ready for A people prepared by the Lord. (Luke 1:1-18)

Not drinking wine refers to the so-called Nazirite Oath (Numbers 6:2-4). The Nazarite Oath was an individual's sole devotion to God. Samson (Judges 13.4) and Samuel (1 Samuel 1:11) were both children promised by God to barren women. The Nazirites were forbidden to "shave their heads with a razor," which is why John grew his hair and beard long.

Luke's Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth when they were both pregnant. (www.Lishixinzhi.Com) This is the only source of kinship between Jesus and John. As Mary approached Elizabeth, “the baby leapt in her belly” (Luke 1:41). For Luke, if anyone doubted who was superior, even in the womb, John recognized "his Lord", but note that Jesus' baptism took place off stage in Luke's case, not directly carried out.

Both Matthew and Luke include a scene from Jesus’ ministry that belies their opening story: “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, his disciples And he sent word to him, saying, 'Are you the one who is coming, or are we waiting for another?'" (Matthew 11; Luke 7). Jesus asked them to tell about the miracles he had performed, and then he said to the crowd, "I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (Luke Gospel 7:28).

The Gospel of John

John begins his gospel with the famous prologue which claims that Christ was the pre-existing Logos, "the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us" (John Gospel 1:14) The Baptist served primarily as a witness to this divinity:

There was a man sent by God. His name is John. 7 He came to bear witness, to bear witness of the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8 He himself is not the light, but he comes to bear witness of the light. (John 1:6-8)

John’s story of the Baptist contributed to the later formula of the creed. In the Fourth Gospel, the crucifixion occurred when the lamb was slaughtered in the Temple for the Passover. As Jesus approached, the Baptist said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). In the Catholic Church, the liturgy of the Eucharist ends with these lines from John.

Historical

The Greek baptizo is the Jewish concept of tvilah, or "total immersion."

Tvilah is required in relation to maintaining the purity/impurity of the sacred space of the Temple in Jerusalem. Archaeological sites in Israel attest to this practice. Mikvahs (Hebrew for "water collection") are sunken baths built into bedrock, with steps leading down. They must contain "living water" (not stagnant) and the person immerses him or herself in the water. Baptism is meant to be a simple slam dunk.

There remains a historical anomaly in the story of John the Baptist. Neither Josephus nor the Gospels explain why John was baptizing in the Jordan River when there was a water ceremony of penance in the Jerusalem Temple. However, if he was a Nazirite, his area of ??activity would be the desert. Tying John to the ministry of Jesus, traditional understanding aligns John with the same anti-temple attitudes attributed to Jesus in the Gospels.

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 AD and their information about the Essene community at Qumran, there were several studies to determine whether John might have been a member of it. The Essenes practiced baptism and were concerned with separating the "pure" from the "impure." In the rules of the community, repentance precedes the reception of “the Holy Spirit” (1Q III 8-9). They also harshly criticized the temple in Jerusalem.

Baptisms in Early Christian Communities

Unfortunately we have no documents written by followers of John from this period. We know that John or an early follower of Jesus introduced it to the earliest Christian communities. Luke claims this practice began at Pentecost in Jerusalem. After the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples, "Peter answered and said to them, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'" (Acts 2 :38). In the book of Acts, baptism in the name of Jesus proves that it works: Baptism gives people spiritual gifts; rooms shake, people prophesy, and "speak in tongues" (Acts 19:6).

The conflict between these two groups is related in Acts 18 and 19. Paul's traveling companions Priscilla and Aquila met "a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria,... who knew only the baptism of John." .. [They] took him aside, and more explaining to him the ways of God accurately" (18:24-27). Paul then traveled to Ephesus and met some people who had been baptized by Apollos into "the baptism of John" but who had not yet "received the Holy Spirit." Paul They had to be baptized again, and this time, "the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied" (19:1-7) We know that Apollos existed. Paul mentions him in 1 Corinthians. We have no more details than this, but the correction of one group to another implies criticism that the rituals Luke describes—confession, baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit—become. Orthodox and Western Catholic canon as one of the sacraments accompanied by the Holy Spirit

The story of Paul's baptism occurs only in Acts 9:17-19, when a man named Ananias was baptized. Christians healed him of his blindness and baptized him. Paul himself never mentioned his own baptism, but baptism was a major theme in his letters, using death as a metaphor for what happened at baptism. :

We are dead to sin; how can we continue to live in sin when we are dead to sin? Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into him? of death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life (Romans 6:1-4)

In other words, baptism was to bring about a dramatic change in a person's life and to no longer sin. The earliest communities practiced adult baptism, which was done after a period of study (usually three years). Xiu were baptized as a group at Easter.

Infant Baptism

Infant baptism first appeared in North Africa in the 2nd century AD, most likely because of the high infant mortality rate.

In the 4th century AD, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) invented the concept of original sin, claiming that the first sin led to lust in the Garden of Eden. As descendants of Adam and Eve, we all inherit the first sin in our souls through conception. Baptism became a ritual to wash away original sin; without baptism, one cannot go to heaven.

He also introduced exorcism into the formula; before baptism, Satan had to be renounced. Augustine allowed others to sponsor the spiritual education of infants, introducing the practice of godparents. However, many modern Christian denominations continue to practice adult baptism, such as the Baptists.