SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

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John the Baptist, who is sometimes alternatively referred to as John the Baptiser, John the Forerunner, Prophet John – according to all the canonical Gospels, as well as Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian of the 1st century AD, was the closest predecessor of Jesus Christ, who predicted the coming of the Messiah. After the Virgin Mary, he is the most revered Saint. This is not at all surprising! Actually, even Jesus Christ wanted to be like him! Moreover, He was Saint John’s understudy until a certain historical moment!

John was called The Baptist and Forerunner for two reasons:

– it was he who baptized Jesus Christ;

– it was he (in accordance with the Old Testament prophecies) who came with a sermon before Him.

The naming of John the Baptist as The Forerunner is not in The New Testament (more precisely, it is applied to Jesus Christ himself, for example, in The Epistle to the Hebrews). For the first time, John the Baptist is called The Forerunner by the Gnostic Heracleon (in the 2nd century) in his commentary on The Gospel of John. Afterwards this naming was adopted by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and thus through them came into wide use. In Orthodoxy, both names are used almost equally often, while in the West the priority remains with the name The Baptist.

Moreover, in Orthodoxy such a naming as “The Prophet, The Forerunner and John the Lord’s Baptist” is also acceptable, as well as the following – “The Baptist of Christ, The Honest Forerunner, The Last Prophet, The First Martyr, Fasters’ and Hermits’ Mentor, The Purity Teacher and The Closest Friend of Christ“.

In Christian mentality, Saint John the Baptist is the last in a series of prophets – forerunners of the coming Messiah.

What do we know about John the Baptist? – Despite the millennia of various translations of the Bible, many interpretations and distortions (and even falsifications) of various canonical theological treatises and apocryphal texts in the process of rewriting, it is reliably known that he was the son of a Jewish priest named Zechariah (from the family of Aaron) and righteous Elizabeth (from the family of king David). His parents lived near Hebron, a city in the southern part of the West Bank of the Jordan River, 30 km south of Jerusalem. That is, on the maternal side, John was a relative of Jesus Christ, and was born six months earlier than Him. The circumstances of the birth and childhood of John are known to us only from the story by Luke the Evangelist…

Archangel Gabriel, appearing to his father Zechariah in the temple, announced the birth of his son, saying, “Many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord; he will not drink wine and strong drinks, and will be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb.” Zechariah expressed distrust to the Archangel, and for this was punished with dumbness: “And behold, you will be silent and will not be able to speak until the day it happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true in due time“…

After the Virgin Mary learned that her relative Elizabeth was pregnant, she came to visit her, and “when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, a baby jumped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit“.

John’s father was still mute, and when Elizabeth wished to give her son the name John, indicated by the Angel and so unconventional for the family, the relatives demanded that his father confirmed this in writing, “He demanded a tablet and wrote: John is his name. And everyone was surprised. And immediately his mouth and his tongue were loosed, and he began to speak, blessing God. And there was fear among all who lived around them; and they told about all this throughout all the hill country of Judah. All who heard it put it on their hearts and said, what will this child be like? And the hand of the Lord was with him“…

Finally, the pious spouses, deprived of the consolation of having children until their old age, had a son, for whom they had been asking the Almighty in their prayers for so long.

It is known that he miraculously escaped death among the thousands of murdered babies in Bethlehem and its environs. It happened like this … “Elizabeth, having heard that they were looking for John (her son), took him and went to the mountain. And she looked for places to hide him, but in vain. And she exclaimed in a loud voice, “Mountain of God, let the mother and son in, and the mountain opened and let them in. And the light shone on them, and the Angel of the Lord was with them, guarding them“… Not finding them, the soldiers inquired about The Forerunner from Zechariah, who was eventually killed. Forty days after the murder of her righteous husband, Elizabeth died in the mountains. From that moment until his coming of age, Saint John grew up in the wild desert, led an ascetic life, wore coarse clothes, ate wild honey and locusts. Although there is another view – this word can mean the seeds of the carob tree, from which unleavened bread was made. Actually, it was that type of food, which was often the main and only type of food for the poorest segments of the population. There was even a saying in use that “no one can truly repent until he tries to live on this bread“… Therefore, it would be quite natural for The Preacher of Repentance to show this repentance in his own life. If we compare the nutritional properties of locusts and this bread, then John would not have lived for a long time on locusts and honey, and from these seeds flour and bread could be made… However, if we consider this issue from a religious point of view, then even the Bible explains this, “… For John the Baptist came: he neither eats bread nor drinks wine; and you say: is there a demon in him?” … As it is said in one of the church prayers, Prophet John was “a bright morning star, which with its brilliance surpassed the radiance of all other stars and foreshadowed the morning of a blessed day, illuminated by the spiritual Sun Christ“.

That is, by a strict life, fasting and prayer, John prepared himself for a great service… until the Almighty called him at the age of thirty to preach to the Jewish people. As Luke the Evangelist writes, “God’s word to John, the son of Zechariah” happened in the desert, after which he went to preach.

John began his preaching in 28 or 29 AD – “in the fifteenth year of the Tiberius Caesar’s reign“. He went “throughout the whole country of Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins“.

John’s sermon expressed the wrath of God against sinners and called to repentance, and formed eschatological ideas. He reproached the people for being proud of their chosenness (especially the Sadducees and Pharisees), demanded the restoration of norms in social ethics.

John was not an ordinary preacher – he conveyed to people the will of God, like the ancient Old Testament Prophets, and even more than that, because he had been filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb.

In the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of Luke, his teachings, addressed to the soldiers (“Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages“), to publicans (“Don’t take more taxes from people than you have been ordered to take“) and to all other people (“He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise“) are given. People who came to him were baptized in the waters of the Jordan River. Some of them even “were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ“…

Popular sayings of Saint John the Baptist (two thousand years have passed, and the phrases are still in demand and holy!):

• “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness”;
• “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”;
• “I baptize you with water for repentance”;
• “Do not require anything on top of whatever is commanded you to require” …

Prophet John appeared on the banks of the Jordan to prepare the people for the acceptance of the expected Messiah. Before the feast of purification, people gathered in large numbers for religious ablutions to the river. Here John turned to them, preaching, as always, repentance and baptism for the remission of sins. The essence of his sermon was that before receiving an external washing, people must be morally cleansed, prepare for the future baptism with water and the Holy Spirit.

The Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, also came to John at the Jordan to be baptized. “Are you the Messiah who is to come, or should we expect another?” – asked John in doubt…

But the Baptism of Christ was accompanied by miraculous phenomena – the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the Voice of God the Father from heaven, “This is My beloved Son” … And so all doubts were dispelled…

However, there is another version: John, who preached a lot about the imminent coming of the Messiah, when he saw Jesus, was surprised and said, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” To this, Jesus replied, “it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” and received the baptism from John. During Baptism, “the sky was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove, and there was a Voice from Heaven, saying: You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy!” …

What is known for sure that, having received a revelation about Jesus Christ, Prophet John already continued to tell the people about Him like this, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world“. Hearing this, two of John’s disciples joined Jesus Christ. Those were John the Evangelist and Andrew the First-Called, the brother of Simon Peter.

It is also known for certain that with the Baptism of the Savior, Prophet John completed and, as it were, sealed his prophetic ministry, although he fearlessly and strictly continued to expose the vices of both ordinary people and the powerful of this world, for which he soon suffered.

About 30 AD John was arrested, and his preaching work also came to an end.

King Herod Antipas (son of King Herod the Great) ordered to put Prophet John in prison for denouncing him for leaving his lawful wife (a daughter of the Arabian king Aretas) and for illegal cohabitation with Herodias. Herodias had previously been married to Herod’s brother, Philip.

On the day of his birth, Herod arranged a feast, which was attended by many distinguished guests. Salome, the daughter of the wicked Jewish queen Herodias, with her immodest dance during the feast pleased Herod and the reclining at the table with him guests so much that the king swore an oath to give her everything she asked for, up to half of his kingdom. The dancer, taught by her mother (what might a woman, rejected by such an inaccessible handsome man as Saint John was, be capable of?), immediately asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod respected John as a prophet, so he was very saddened by such a request. However, he was embarrassed to break the oath given by him and sent a guard to the dungeon, who cut off John’s head and gave it to the girl, which she took to her mother. Herodias, having abused the severed Holy Head of the Prophet, threw it into the mud. The disciples of John the Baptist buried his body in the Samaritan city of Sebastia, and informed Jesus of his death. In memory of these events, a church holiday was established – the Beheading of John the Baptist, which is celebrated on 29 August (11 September).

The exact date of John’s death is not known, as the Gospels report that the verdict was pronounced after the dance of Salome at his stepfather’s birthday party. Theoretically, it would be possible to establish an approximate day and month, but the date of birth of Herod Antipas is also not known. Thus, the year of John’s death is traditionally considered to be before The Crucifixion of Jesus, and Flavius Josephus indicated that this happened before 36 AD. He also reported that Herod received retribution for his atrocity. Aretas IV Philopatris invaded Herod Antipas’ domain and defeated his army. Aretas opposed him for dishonoring his daughter, whom he had left for Herodias. Moreover, in the following year, the Roman emperor Caligula, under a far-fetched pretext about his alleged participation in organizing a conspiracy against Rome, exiled Herod to prison, where he died two years later in complete obscurity and poverty.

As the legend tells, Luke the Evangelist, going around different cities and villages with the preaching of Christ, took a particle of the relics of the Great Prophet – his right hand – from Sebastia to Antioch. In 959, when the Muslims took possession of Antioch (under Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus), the deacon transferred The Hand of The Forerunner from Antioch to Chalcedon, from where it was transported to Constantinople, where it was kept until the time of the conquest of this city by the Turks. The holy relic, which was kept in Russia (St. Petersburg and Gatchina) from 1799 to 1918 and was the property of the Russian Imperial family, remained in Serbia and Montenegro for the last half century due to revolutionary upheavals, being considered lost, and was found only in 1993.

The Holy Head of John the Baptist was found by the pious Johanna and buried in a vessel on the Mount of Olives. Later, one pious ascetic, digging a ditch for the foundation of the temple, found this treasure and kept it with him, and before his death, fearing desecration of the relic by unbelievers, he hid it in the ground in the same place where he found it. In the reign of Constantine the Great, two monks came to Jerusalem to bow to the Holy Sepulcher, and John the Baptist appeared to one of them and indicated where his head was buried. From that time on, Christians began to celebrate The First Finding of The Head of John the Baptist. In general, in the Orthodox Church, there are traditions about the three Findings of the Head of John the Baptist, and a separate celebration has been established in honor of each of them.

The Islamic tradition considers The Umayyad mosque in Damascus to be the place of holding The Head of John the Baptist, and Catholicism places it in The Basilica of Saint Sylvester in Capite. Moreover, mention of The Head is made in The Amiens Cathedral (France), brought from the Fourth Crusade, and in Turkish Antioch, as well as of its holding in one of the monasteries in Armenia.

In addition to the already mentioned two fragments of John the Baptist (The Head and The Hand), there are other relics, no less revered by the Christian world, which are scattered throughout the world. At the same time, Ludovic Lalanne counted 11 index fingers of John the Baptist. In addition, the holy objects preserved for veneration are: the left hand (it was reported by the pilgrims Theodoric and John Focka; currently it is in France, in the Perpignan Cathedral), the front part of the head of Saint John (also in France, but in the Amiens Cathedral). The monasteries of Athos contain the jaw, brain and blood of John the Baptist. In the Middle Ages, there was information even about the availability of the hair and part of John the Baptist’s ear.

About John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist“. John the Baptist became famous as “Angel, and Apostle, and Martyr, and Prophet, and Friend of Christ, and the Seal of the Prophets, and Intercessor of the Old and New Grace, and in the Born, the Most Honorable and Bright Voice of the Word“!

Yes, indeed, the name of Saint John the Baptist brings to life before us the great image of a man whom the Savior called the greatest “among those born of women“!

Many people had, have, and will, probably, always have ideals, that is, objects of worship and admiration, examples of the godly people around to follow, people they want to be like… An amazing historical fact: Jesus Christ also had such a worthy example… – Prophet John…

According to theologians, the Jewish people around 30 AD revered John much higher than Jesus Christ. John spent his whole life in the desert, was the son of a priest, wore extraordinary clothes, called everyone to baptism and, moreover, was born of a barren mother. Jesus, on the other hand, descended from an ignorant girl (the birth from the Virgin, predicted by the Prophets, was not yet known to everyone), was brought up in an ordinary house and wore ordinary clothes.

Jesus, who came to John to be baptized, was perceived by his contemporaries as an ordinary person. Therefore, John Chrysostom writes, “That is why, so that such an idea did not become established among the people, immediately after the baptism of Jesus, the Heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended and, together with the Spirit, the Voice proclaiming the dignity of Jesus as the Only Begotten Son of God“.

The Gospel of John quotes the words of John the Baptist, clearly testifying to his conviction in the messianic worth of Jesus Christ. Moreover, John consciously bows before the Son of God who has come into the world, “He must increase, but I must decrease (“Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui“). He who comes from above is above all; but he who is of the earth is and speaks as he who is of the earth. He who comes from Heaven is above all“.

Based on the gospel testimony about the 6-month age difference between John and Christ, the church feast of The Nativity of John turned out to be close to the summer solstice (and The Nativity of Christ – to the winter one). Thus, under the sign of Christ, the sun begins to increase, and under the sign of John, it begins to decrease (according to the words of John, which has already been cited above, “He must increase, but I must decrease“). Such is this “solar symbolism“!

Yes, Jesus imitated the Baptist! According to the German Protestant biblical scholar and exegete Joachim Jeremias, “Jesus, in his manner of carrying himself… Like the Baptist, he – unlike the scribes of that time – preaches in the open; like the Baptist, he gives his disciples a prayer that should single out and unite the disciples“. Moreover, even his first disciples Jesus received from John (meaning Andrew the Apostle and John the Theologian, which has already been mentioned above). In addition, Herod, who executed John, having learned about Jesus, said, “This is John the Baptist; he rose from the dead, and therefore miracles are done by him“…

According to David Flusser, an Israeli professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jesus following John also introduced another characteristic feature of the first Christians’ life. Flavius Josephus tells that the Essenes who went to other communities never took anything with them, since in all such communities there were common warehouses with food, clothing and other things, and so the messengers received everything they needed… And Jesus advised His disciples, whom he sent to spread the teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven, not to take anything with them…

Therefore, it is not at all surprising that John the Baptist was the idol of Jesus Christ, and his existence became a brilliant and convincing role model not only for the Savior, but also for all subsequent generations of believers!

There is also another important metaphysical point here – the universe always duplicates its messengers and its processes (just in case!), and at the last moment from the most worthy chooses the best For example, like with astronauts… At first, there are appointed two contenders – No. 1 and No. 2 (understudy), but at the last moment, their places are changed…! It is like in everyday life, at the finish line, the second often comes the first…

John the Baptist had nothing to do with “the syndrome of the second” – i. e. he was not a person who wanted to be better, mean more, achieve goals faster but was missing, just a little bit, in comparison with Jesus… He was a person who was able to take easily a step to the side, “to give way to the ski track” … And only a truly Great Soul can do this!

By the way, the importance of the role of the first who eventually comes the second is no less important than the role of the second one who comes the first – actually, it is he who points the way and sets the bar… An understudy is not a competitor, he is a like-minded person who works to achieve a common goal, and therefore the main thing is not even who is the first or second, but the result, and that the mission must be adequately completed! This is how the hidden didactics and metaphorical instruction to humanity from heaven turned out to be (which Konstantin Stanislavski formulated later so brilliantly) – “Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art”! Be worthy of your higher calling!

Saint John the Baptist is asked to:

• help balancing the spiritual and physical condition;
• enlighten the confused;
• put on the right track;
• understand the dishonest, or morally wrong character of undertaken acts and the reasons for their happening in life;
• help receive forgiveness of sins;
• help making the right decision;
• help overcome all difficulties in achieving set goals, lead to kindness and patience;
• heal diseases and conditions (especially headaches);
• help parents find a common language with their children;
• help parents in their desire to see their children living an easier and brighter life than they do;
• get a good harvest;
• help with household chores;
• support people serving prison sentences.

As mentioned above, Prophet John the Baptist is the most revered Saint after the Virgin Mary, and therefore several feasts were established in his honor:

• 23 September (6 October) – The Conception Day;
• 24 June (7 July) – The Nativity;
• 29 August (11 September) – The Feast of the Beheading;
• 7 January (20 January) – The Day of Commemoration of All Saints in connection with the Feast of Baptism;
• 24 February (9 March) – The Day of the First and Second Finding of his Head;
• 25 May (7 June) – The Third Finding of his Head;
• 12 October (25 October) – The feast of the transfer of his Hand from Malta to Gatchina.