The Bible Book by Benjamin Philips

Author:Benjamin Philips
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9780241350744
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd

This detail from The Baptism of Christ, by A.H. Philippe Sauvan-Magnet, c.1500, shows John pouring water over Jesus’s head. Matthew’s account suggests He was submerged.

John the Baptist

Like Jesus, John the Baptist is born in miraculous circumstances. In Luke (1:5–23), an angel of the Lord visits Zechariah, an aged priest, and his barren wife Elizabeth. He announces that they will have a son and that he will become a great man of God. Such is Zechariah’s disbelief at this revelation – owing to their age – that God strikes him dumb.

Zechariah recovers his speech when Elizabeth gives birth to their son, John. Luke confirms that the birth occurs just months prior to that of Jesus (1:36). John becomes a preacher, living an austere and hermitic life in the desert. He preaches a message advocating both confession and repentance, and offers baptism in the River Jordan to all who heed him. John speaks, above all, of a “greater one” who will come after him – the Messiah prophesied in the scriptures.

John’s preaching ultimately leads to his downfall, when he warns King Herod against marrying his brother’s wife. The king marries her anyway, but she never forgives John, and John is eventually beheaded on the whim of her daughter, Salome.

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