John the Baptist was the son of
Zachary, a priest of
the Temple in
Jerusalem, and Elizabeth, a kinswoman of Mary who visited her.
He was probably born at Ain-Karim southwest of Jerusalem after
the Angel Gabriel had told Zachary that his wife would bear a child even
though she was an old woman. He lived as a hermit in the desert of Judea until
about A.D. 27.
When he was thirty, he began to preach on the banks of the Jordan against
the evils of the times and called men to penance and baptism "for
the Kingdom of Heaven is
close at hand". He attracted large crowds, and when Christ came to him, John
recognized Him as the Messiah and
baptized Him, saying, "It is I who need baptism from
You". When Christ left to preach in Galilee, John continued
preaching in the Jordan valley.
Fearful of his great power with the people, Herod Antipas,
Tetrarch of Perea and Galilee, had him arrested and imprisoned at Machaerus
Fortress on the Dead Sea when John denounced his adulterous
and incestuous marriage with Herodias, wife of his half brother Philip. John was beheaded at
the request of Salome, daughter of Herodias, who asked for his head at the
instigation of her mother. John inspired many of
his followers to follow Christ when
he designated Him "the Lamb of God," among them Andrew and John, who
came to know Christ through
John's preaching. John is
presented in the New Testament as
the last of the Old Testament prophets
and the precursor of the Messiah.
His feast day is June
24th and the feast for his beheading is August 29th.
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