John the Baptist
A prophet who called Israel to repentance and baptised in the Jordan about AD 28–29. He baptised Jesus and was imprisoned and put to death by Herod Antipas. The Gospels present him as the forerunner of the Messiah.
Luke tells of John’s birth to the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, a relative of Mary (Luke 1:5–25, 36, 57–80). He appeared in the wilderness of Judea in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, preaching “the baptism of repentance for remission of sins”, and baptised those who came to him in the Jordan River (Luke 3:1–3) (Mark 1:4–6); see John the Baptist Preaches at the Jordan. He spoke of one mightier than himself who was to come, and he baptised Jesus (Mark 1:7–11). The Gospels see in him the messenger foretold by the prophets (Mark 1:2–3), and in Matthew Jesus calls him more than a prophet and the Elijah who was to come (Matthew 11:9–14).
Mark tells that Herod Antipas imprisoned John, who had condemned his marriage to Herodias, and had him beheaded (Mark 6:17–29). Josephus, who writes of John with respect, says that Antipas feared his influence over the people and put him to death at the fortress of Machaerus (Josephus, Antiquities 18.116–119); see the Execution of John the Baptist. Groups of his disciples continued after his death (Acts 19:1–7).
In the timeline
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJohn the Baptist Preaches at the Jordan
Luke dates to the fifteenth year of Tiberius the preaching of John, who calls Israel to repentance in the wilderness and baptises crowds in the Jordan. All four Gospels and the Jewish historian Josephus describe him.
- c. AD 26–29, estimated dateThe Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
Jesus comes from Nazareth to the Jordan and is baptised by John. The Gospels tell of the Spirit descending on him and a voice from heaven naming him the beloved Son, and then of forty days of testing in the wilderness.
- c. AD 28–32, estimated dateThe Execution of John the Baptist
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, has John the Baptist put to death. The Gospels tell of a beheading in prison and connect it with John’s rebuke of the tetrarch’s marriage to Herodias; Josephus places the death at Machaerus and gives a political motive.