Mark 1.2-6, Matthew 3.1-6, Luke 3.1-6, John 1.6-8.
- John 1.6-8 KWL
- 6 A person came who’d been sent by God, named John, 7 who came to testify.
- When he testified about the light, everyone might believe because of him.
- 8 He wasn’t the light, but he’d testify about the light.
- 9 The actual light, who lights every person, was coming into the world.
- Luke 3.1-3 KWL
- 1 In the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar’s governance, Pontius Pilatus governing Judea,
- Antipas Herod as governor over the Galilee, Philip Herod his brother as governor over Ituría and Trachonítis provinces,
- Lysanias as governor over Abiliní, 2 Annas and Joseph Kahiáfa as head priests,
- God’s message came through John bar Zechariah, in the countryside.
- 3 He went into all the land round the Jordan,
- preaching a baptism of repentance—to have one’s sins forgiven—
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- Mark 1.2-3 KWL
- 2 Like it’s written in the prophet Isaiah:
- “Look, I send my agent to your face, who’ll prepare your road.” Ml 3.1
- 3 “A voice shouting out in the countryside:
- ‘Prepare the Lord’s road! Make him a straight path!’” Is 40.3
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- Matthew 3.1-3 KWL
- 1 In those days John the baptist appeared, preaching in the Judean countryside,
- 2 saying, “Repent! For heaven’s kingdom has come near.”
- 3 For this is the word through the prophet Isaiah. Quote:
- “A voice shouting out in the countryside:
- ‘Prepare the Lord’s road! Make him a straight path!’” Is 40.3
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- Luke 3.4-6 KWL
- 4 like the prophet Isaiah’s sayings, written in the bible:
- “A voice shouting out in the countryside:
- ‘Prepare the Lord’s road! Make him a straight path!’
- 5 All ravines will be filled; all roads and hills knocked down.
- The crooked will be straightened; the rough into smooth roads.
- 6 All flesh will see God’s rescue.” Is 40.3-5
Jesus’s story begins with John bar Zachariah, “the baptist.” (As opposed to “the Baptist,” meaning someone from the Baptist movement, which takes its customs of believer-baptism and full immersion from John’s practice.)
John doesn’t come first just ’cause of the chronology—John was prophesied to his father before Jesus was to his mother; John was born before Jesus; John’s ministry began before Jesus’s. The chronology was kinda irrelevant, because as John himself pointed out, Jesus existed before he did. Jn 1.30 And as the gospel of John points out, the word of God, the light of the world: John came to testify about that light, and point people to him.
That was John’s job. He was Jesus’s opening act.
Yeah, Christians tend to call him Jesus’s forerunner. Which he kinda was. But a “forerunner” in antiquity was simply the guy who ran way in front of the caravan—whether a visiting lord or invading army—and announce they’re coming. Again, John kinda was that. But he didn’t just proclaim Messiah, or God’s kingdom, was coming. He got people ready for the coming, by getting ’em to repent, by washing them clean first.
Christians also tend to call him Jesus’s herald. He was kinda that too. But a herald came instead of the person whose message he brought. You know, like prophets tell us what God’s saying, instead of (or in addition to) God telling us what he’s saying. John wasn’t a substitute for the Messiah he preceded; he said his superior was coming right behind him, and he considered himself unworthy to take Messiah’s shoes off. Mk 1.7 But Jesus would soon speak for himself.
John’s ministry began, as Luke pins it down, in the year 28, when both he and Jesus (figuring they were born in 7BC or so) were about 34 years old. He’s described as being in the erímo/“countryside,” which the KJV and many translations render “wilderness”—but erímos means undeveloped, unfarmed land; places people didn’t live or work, and couldn’t drive John off as a nuisance. There, he announced the kingdom was coming—so people, get ready.
