John the Baptist

Also known as: Elias / John Baptist / John the son of Zacharias · Family: Christian · Role: baptizer · First appears: Matthew 3

In Matthew 3, John the Baptist preached repentance in the wilderness of Judaea and announced the approaching kingdom of heaven: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” At the Jordan, he baptized for repentance and remission of sins, while proclaiming that Jesus was mightier than he. When Jesus came to be baptized, John first objected, but then baptized him at Jesus’s request to fulfill all righteousness. John also stood as the voice foretold by Esaias, preparing the way of the Lord.

In Matthew 11 and Luke 7, while imprisoned, John sent disciples to Jesus to ask whether he was the one to come. Jesus identified John as the divinely sent messenger and as Elias who was to come, calling him the greatest among those born of women before the kingdom of heaven. Many people and publicans received John’s baptism, and the word of God had come to him in the wilderness.

John’s condemnation of Herod the tetrarch for taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, led to his imprisonment. At Herodias’s request, Herod the tetrarch had John beheaded in prison. Later, Jesus revealed that Elias had already come, and the disciples understood that he meant John the Baptist.