Person
John the Baptist
A prophet in the wilderness who calls people to repent and baptises them in the Jordan, including Jesus; Herod has him beheaded.
See Matthew 3:1, Matthew 3:6, Matthew 3:13, Matthew 14:10.
A shell pouring water marks John the Baptist in the reading view: baptising in the Jordan; the shell is a traditional sign of baptism (Matthew 3:6).
Mentioned in 89 verses across 5 books, first in Matthew 3:1. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured him
3 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined John the Baptist, not how he looked.
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In the Bible
All 23 verses in Matthew, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Matthew
- Matthew 3:1
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
- Matthew 3:4
John wore a garment of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
- Matthew 3:13
At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
- Matthew 3:14
But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”
- Matthew 4:12
When Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, He withdrew to Galilee.
- Matthew 9:14
At that time John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast so often, but Your disciples do not fast?”
- Matthew 11:2
Meanwhile John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent his disciples
- Matthew 11:4
Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see:
- Matthew 11:7
As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
- Matthew 11:11
Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
- Matthew 11:12
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subject to violence, and the violent lay claim to it.
- Matthew 11:13
For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.
- Matthew 11:18
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
- Matthew 14:2
and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
- Matthew 14:3
Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
- Matthew 14:4
because John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”
- Matthew 14:8
Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
- Matthew 14:10
and sent to have John beheaded in the prison.
- Matthew 16:14
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
- Matthew 17:13
Then the disciples understood that He was speaking to them about John the Baptist.
- Matthew 21:25
What was the source of John’s baptism? Was it from heaven or from men?” They deliberated among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will ask, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’
- Matthew 21:26
But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the people, for they all regard John as a prophet.”
- Matthew 21:32
For John came to you in a righteous way and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
Events
Events the dataset lists John the Baptist as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. 5 BCBirth of John the Baptist
- c. AD 26John the Baptist Begins Ministry
- c. AD 26John Baptizes Jesus
- c. AD 27John the Baptist Imprisoned
- c. AD 27John the Baptist Witnesses
- c. AD 28Jesus' Message on John the Baptist
- c. AD 29John Beheaded
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
The “forerunner of our Lord.” We have but fragmentary and imperfect accounts of him in the Gospels. He was of priestly descent. His father, Zacharias, was a priest of the course of Abia (1 Chr. 24:10), and his mother, Elisabeth, was of the daughters of Aaron (Luke 1:5). The mission of John was the subject of prophecy (Matt. 3:3; Isa. 40:3; Mal. 3:1). His birth, which took place six months before that of Jesus, was foretold by an angel. Zacharias, deprived of the power of speech as a token of God’s truth and a reproof of his own incredulity with reference to the birth of his son, had the power of speech restored to him on the occasion of his circumcision (Luke 1:64). After this no more is recorded of him for thirty years than what is mentioned in Luke 1:80. John was a Nazarite from his birth (Luke 1:15; Num. 6:1-12). He spent his early years in the mountainous tract of Judah lying between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea (Matt. 3:1-12).
At length he came forth into public life, and great multitudes from “every quarter” were attracted to him. The sum of his preaching was the necessity of repentance. He denounced the Sadducees and Pharisees as a “generation of vipers,” and warned them of the folly of trusting to external privileges (Luke 3:8). “As a preacher, John was eminently practical and discriminating. Self-love and covetousness were the prevalent sins of the people at large. On them, therefore, he enjoined charity and consideration for others. The publicans he cautioned against extortion, the soldiers against crime and plunder.” His doctrine and manner of life roused the entire south of Palestine, and the people from all parts flocked to the place where he was, on the banks of the Jordan. There he baptized thousands unto repentance.
The fame of John reached the ears of Jesus in Nazareth (Matt. 3:5), and he came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized of John, on the special ground that it became him to “fulfil all righteousness” (3:15). John’s special office ceased with the baptism of Jesus, who must now “increase” as the King come to his kingdom. He continued, however, for a while to bear testimony to the Messiahship of Jesus. He pointed him out to his disciples, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God.” His public ministry was suddenly (after about six months probably) brought to a close by his being cast into prison by Herod, whom he had reproved for the sin of having taken to himself the wife of his brother Philip (Luke 3:19). He was shut up in the castle of Machaerus (q.v.), a fortress on the southern extremity of Peraea, 9 miles east of the Dead Sea, and here he was beheaded. His disciples, having consigned the headless body to the grave, went and told Jesus all that had occurred (Matt. 14:3-12). John’s death occurred apparently just before the third Passover of our Lord’s ministry. Our Lord himself testified regarding him that he was a “burning and a shining light” (John 5:35).