Biography Of John The Baptist Essay Research free essay sample

Biography Of John The Baptist Essay, Research Paper John the Baptist We are given the narrative of the ministry of John the Baptist, called the Precursor or Forerunner of the Lord, with some fluctuation of item, in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, every bit good as in the Book of John. Luke tells us of the birth of John the Baptist in a town of Judaea, approximately six months before the birth of the Saviour. The attendant fortunes, which we have already recounted under the headers of *St. Elizabeth* and *St. Zachary* , his parents, suggest the marvelous and fantastic. The New Testament tells us nil of John # 8217 ; s early old ages, but we know that his pious, virtuous parents must hold reared the male child with attention, witting ever of the of import work to which he was appointed, and permeating him with a sense of his fate. We will write a custom essay sample on Biography Of John The Baptist Essay Research or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When John began concluding readyings for his mission, he was likely in his thirty-second twelvemonth. He withdrew into the harsh, bouldery desert beyond the Jordan to fast and pray, as was the ancient usage of holy work forces. We are told that he kept himself alive by eating locusts and wild honey and wore a unsmooth garment of camel # 8217 ; s hair, tied with a leathern girdle. When he came back to get down prophesying in the small towns of Judaea, he was Haggard and uncouth, but his eyes burned with ardor and his voice carried deep strong belief. The Jews were accustomed to sermonizers and Prophetss who gave no idea to outward visual aspects, and they accepted John at one time ; the times were troubled, and the people yearned for reassurance and comfort. So transcendant was the power emanating from the sanctum adult male that after hearing him many believed he was so the long-awaited Messiah. John rapidly put them right, stating he had come merely to fix the manner, and that he was non worthy to free the Master # 8217 ; s sandals. Although his sermon and baptizing continued for some months during the Saviour # 8217 ; s ain ministry, John ever made field that he was simply the Forerunner. His humbleness remained incorruptible even when his celebrity spread to Jerusalem and members of the higher priesthood came to do enquiries and to hear him. # 8220 ; Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at manus, # 8221 ; -this was John # 8217 ; s oft-repeated subject. For the immoralities of the times his redress was single purification. # 8220 ; Every tree, # 8221 ; he said, # 8220 ; that is non conveying away good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. # 8221 ; The reformation of each individual # 8217 ; s life must be complete? the wheat must be separated from the husk and the husk burned # 8220 ; with quenchless fire. # 8221 ; The rite of baptism, a symbolic act meaning sincere penitence every bit good as a desire to be spiritually cleansed in order to have the Christ, was so strongly emphasized by John that people began to name him # 8220 ; the baptizer. # 8221 ; The Scriptures tell us of the twenty-four hours when Jesus joined the group of those who wished to have baptism at John # 8217 ; s custodies. John knew Jesus for the Messiah they had so long expected, and at first excused himself as unworthy. Then, in obeisance to Jesus, he acquiesced and baptized Him. Although sinless, Jesus chose to be baptized in order to place Himself with the human batch. And when He arose from the Waterss of the Jordan, where the rite was performed, # 8220 ; the celestial spheres opened and the Spirit as a dove descended. And there came a voice from the celestial spheres, Thou art my darling Son, in Thee I am good pleased # 8221 ; ( Mark I, 11 ) . John # 8217 ; s life now rushes on towards its tragic terminal. In the 15th twelvemonth of the reign of the Roman emp eror, Tiberias Caesar, Herod Antipas was the provincial governor or tetrarch of a subdivision of Palestine which included Galilee and Peraea, a territory lying E of the Jordan. In the class of John # 8217 ; s sermon, he had denounced in immeasurable footings the immorality of Herod # 8217 ; s junior-grade tribunal, and had even boldly upbraided Herod to his face for his rebelliousness of old Judaic jurisprudence, particularly in holding taken to himself the married woman of his stepbrother, Philip. This adult female, the dissolute Herodias, was besides Herod # 8217 ; s niece. Herod feared and reverenced John, cognizing him to be a holy adult male, and he followed his advice in many affairs ; but he could non digest holding his private life castigated. Herodias stimulated his choler by prevarications and ruses. His bitterness at length got the better of his judgement and he had John dramatis personae into the fortress of Machaerus, near the Dead Sea. When Jesus heard of this, and knew that some of His adherents had gone to see John, He spoke therefore of him: # 8220 ; What went you to see? A prophesier? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophesier. This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall fix thy manner before thee. For I say to you, amongst those that are born of adult females there is non a greater prophesier than John the Baptist # 8221 ; ( Matthew xi, 10-12 ) . Herodias neer ceased plotting against the life of John, who was non silenced even by prison walls. His followings now became even more disruptive. To Herodias shortly came the chance she had long sought to set an terminal to the trouble-maker. On Herod # 8217 ; s birthday he gave a banquet for the main work forces of that part. In Matthew xiv, Mark six, and Luke nine, we are given parallel histories of this ill-famed juncture which was to climax in John # 8217 ; s decease. At the banquet, Salome, fourteen-year-old girl of Herodias by her lawful hubby, pleased Herod and his invitees so much by her dance that Herod promised on curse to give her anything that it was in his power to give, even though it should amount to half his land. Salome, moving under the way and influence of her wicked female parent, answered that she wished to hold the caput of John the Baptist, presented to her on a platter. Such a atrocious petition shocked and unnerved Herod. Still, he had given his word and was afraid to interrupt it. So, with no legal formalities whatever, he despatched a soldier to the prison with orders to decapitate the captive and return with it instantly. This was rapidly done, and the barbarous miss did non waver to accept the dish with its awful offering and give it to her female parent. John # 8217 ; s brief ministry was therefore terminated by a monstrous offense. There was great unhappiness among the people who had hearkened to him, and when the adherents of Jesus heard the intelligence of John # 8217 ; s decease, they came and took the organic structure and laid it reverentially in a grave. Jesus, with some of his adherents, retired # 8220 ; to a desert topographic point apart, # 8221 ; to mourn. The Judaic historian Josephus, giving farther testimony of John # 8217 ; s sanctity, writes: # 8220 ; He was so a adult male endued with all virtuousness, who exhorted the Jews to the pattern of justness towards work forces and piousness towards God ; and besides to baptism, prophesying that they would go acceptable to God if they renounced their wickednesss, and to the cleanness of their organic structures added pureness of soul. # 8221 ; Thus Jews and Christians unite in fear and love for this prophet-saint whose life is an uncomparable illustration of both humbleness and bravery 38a 1. Mark Ch.1-11 2. John ch.3-5 3. Corinthians Ch. 13