The enigma of John the Baptist

You’ve seen him in pictures and maybe also on TV. Dressed in rags, eating bugs, shouting angrily at people. You understood why eventually he was locked up and died in prison. You never looked closely at him. Why would you spend your time on someone like that?

The fact that I could equally be talking about a homeless person in your city, or John the Baptist as most people imagine him, might not surprise you – but it should. The New Testament records that John’s followers could be found in places like Ephesus in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and Alexandria in Egypt, roughly 600 miles away from Jerusalem in either direction (Acts 18:24-25; 19:1-3). Herod Antipas the ruler felt threatened by John (as reported not only by the Gospels but by the first century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus). Other religious groups were concerned about John’s influence, including the priests in the temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 3:7; John 1:19-28).

For his part, Jesus said that John was the greatest human being who ever lived: ‘Among those born of a woman [that is human beings] there is none greater than John’ (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28). How did a strange man like John come to captivate so many people?

The usual portrait of John, in which he resembles a caveman, clearly does not fit with the description Jesus gives of him. Nor, perhaps, does John’s penchant for hanging out with tax collectors and prostitutes (Matthew 21:31-32). That John took such company is also an important clue that he doesn’t belong in another stereotyped category: the preacher of fire and damnation. To have been as influential as he was, on the audiences that he was, indicates that John was a gifted and eloquent speaker, someone who commanded attention from diverse audiences, someone people far and wide took seriously.

For Christians, John remains something of a puzzle, even 2,000 years on. What did Jesus see in this man? The Biblical sources, even in their efforts to elevate Jesus above John the Baptist, make clear John was Jesus’ teacher, and that Jesus belonged to John’s movement before stepping into the role of leading it himself after John’s imprisonment. Matthew says they proclaimed the same message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’ (3:2; 4:17).

Despite such similarities, the Gospels can be read in a way that suggests Jesus broke with John at some point. One of the reasons for this is the impression that John had doubts about Jesus and that this prompted his question from prison (Matthew 11:2-3; Luke 7:18-20) about whether Jesus was the one to come whom John had been predicting would emerge from among his followers (the significance of ‘one who comes after me’). Only the Gospels of Matthew and John add additional material to make John the Baptist identify Jesus as the coming one from the outset, when Jesus was baptised and joined John’s movement. It is somewhat ironic that the effort of these Gospel authors to make John point more clearly to Jesus has had the effect of making him seem to doubt and be disappointed with Jesus. This couldn’t be further from the reality.

When Jesus said that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John, he was not claiming that John was excluded from the kingdom, nor that those who enter the kingdom are not born of women. The meaning has to be either that John’s execution caused him to miss out on witnessing the arrival of the Kingdom, so that anyone who lives to see it has a privilege John lacked; or, otherwise, that when the kingdom arrives the least of those who participate will be even greater then than the greatest human being is now in the present age.

That Jesus was humble is an axiom of Christian faith, and yet many Christians have been unwilling to accept at face value one of the clearest articulations of humility attributed to him: namely his esteeming someone else – his mentor John – as greater than himself. In doing so, they fail to see that Jesus saw himself as following in the footsteps of John and continuing his mentor’s mission: to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.

Matthew also indicates that Jesus borrowed ideas from John, such as the expression ‘brood of vipers’ (Matthew 3:7; 12; 34; 23:33), and the imagery of a judgment that threatens the fruitless tree with being cut down (Matthew 3:10; 7:17-19; 12:33). The Gospel of Luke likewise indicates that the Lord’s Prayer was a response to a request that Jesus pass on what he learned from John (Luke 11:1). That doesn’t mean that the prayer is simply a prayer of John’s in his exact words, but it does indicate that the essence of it was articulated by Jesus in a manner that sought to be faithful to his mentor.

This is important for a number of reasons, not least of which is understanding Jesus correctly as a historical figure. So long as some interpreters continue to drive a wedge between Jesus and John, his fellow Jewish contemporary who influenced him most, we will struggle to combat the legacy of Christian antisemitism that denigrated Judaism – including John the Baptist – in the interest of elevating Jesus. Jesus’ high praise for his mentor ought to have prevented that all along.