Who was John the Baptist in the Bible?

John the Baptist was the last prophet in the Old Testament mold and the first preacher of the New. Luke tells us he was born to Zechariah, a priest, and Elizabeth, a descendant of Aaron, an elderly couple who had given up hope of children. An angel announced his birth in the temple, told Zechariah the boy's name, and said he would go ahead of the Lord in Elijah's spirit and power (Luke 1:13). Elizabeth was a relative of Mary, so John and Jesus were kin, born about six months apart (Luke 1:36).

He grew up in the wilderness of Judea, and when he began to preach he looked the part: a garment of camel's hair, a leather belt, a diet of locusts and wild honey, the outfit of Elijah rather than of a priest (Matthew 3:4). His message was a call to repentance, a change of mind and life, sealed by baptism in the Jordan. Crowds came from Jerusalem and all Judea to hear him (Mark 1:4). Nothing like it had happened in Israel for four hundred years.

The Gospels present him as the messenger Isaiah and Malachi had promised, a voice in the desert getting a road ready for God (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1). Jesus said that no one who had ever been born was greater than John (Matthew 11:11). John himself said he was not fit even to untie the sandals of the one coming after him.

A birth announced. When Zechariah doubted the angel's promise, he was struck silent until the child was born. At the naming ceremony, when the relatives expected the boy to be called after his father, both parents insisted on John, and Zechariah's speech came back in a song about the child who would go before the Lord (Luke 1:59; Luke 1:76). Months earlier, when the pregnant Mary had come to visit, Elizabeth felt her unborn son leap (Luke 1:41).

Preaching at the Jordan. John did not flatter. He called the religious leaders a brood of vipers and warned that descent from Abraham would save no one who bore no fruit (Matthew 3:7). Yet to ordinary people who asked what to do, his answers were practical: share your clothes and food, collect no more tax than you should, do not extort or bully (Luke 3:10). When people wondered whether he might be the Messiah, he pointed to someone greater, whose baptism would be with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:15).

Baptizing Jesus. Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized. John protested that it should be the other way around, then consented; as Jesus came up from the water the Spirit came down on him like a dove and a voice from heaven named him the beloved Son (Matthew 3:13). The next day John pointed him out as the Lamb of God, and two of John's own disciples left to follow Jesus (John 1:29). John did not mind. When his followers worried that everyone was going over to Jesus, he compared himself to the friend of the bridegroom, glad just to hear the bridegroom's voice, and said Jesus must grow greater while he himself grew less (John 3:27).

Prison and death. John rebuked Herod Antipas for taking his brother's wife, Herodias, and Herod locked him up (Luke 3:19). From his cell John sent disciples to ask Jesus whether he really was the one they were waiting for; Jesus answered by pointing to the blind seeing, the lame walking and the poor hearing good news (Matthew 11:2). At Herod's birthday feast, Herodias's daughter danced, the king promised her whatever she wanted, and at her mother's prompting she asked for John's head. He was beheaded in prison, and his disciples buried him (Mark 6:17).

John shows what it looks like to live for something larger than yourself. He had crowds, disciples and a reputation, and he handed them all over to Jesus without bitterness. His line about growing less so that Jesus can grow greater has been a motto for Christian ministers ever since. Any influence we have is borrowed, and the healthiest use of it is to point beyond ourselves.

He also shows that repentance is concrete. John did not ask people for a feeling; he asked tax collectors and soldiers to change how they handled money and power. Turning to God still looks like that: specific changes in ordinary life.

And he shows that faithful people can have doubts. The prophet who announced the Lamb of God later asked, from a prison cell, whether he had been right. Jesus did not scold him; he sent evidence and then praised him publicly. Faith that asks honest questions and keeps going is the kind God honors. John's baptism even traveled far beyond Judea: years later Paul met disciples in Ephesus who knew only John's baptism, and led them on to Jesus (Acts 19:1). The forerunner's work kept pointing forward, exactly as he would have wanted.