John The Baptist

When four of the most important writers in history talk so respectably of a person it must mean that this person had great influence on society. This is the case of John the Baptist where the 4 Gospel writers put him in the very top of influential leaders in the time of Jesus. He is my favorite biblical character because he always stayed in his path of being the forerunner of Jesus. His humilityand true purpose made him be heard and assemble a significant amount of followers before and after his death. On one hand, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John write his life in the New Testament and they must be compared to get a glimpse of whom he really was. On the other hand, to completely understand what we know today about John the Baptist it is necessary to interpret this writings through modernanalysis.

The arrival of John the Baptist can be read on the 4 Gospels. They each have a distinct air to the story but they all have similarities. Mathew first describes him as a preacher coming from the wilderness of Judea (Mathew, 3.1). Mark describes him as a messenger that will prepare the way for Jesus. He also mentions the word wilderness and that he is a preacher (Mark, 1.2-1.3). Lukestarts the introduction pointing out historical characters of the time of John. He then proceeds to introduce John as the person carrying the word of God and he is the only one mentioning John’s father, Zacharias (Luke, 3.2). John is described as a person that was sent by God but was not the “Light”. By Light, John is referring to Jesus and he furthers says that John was sent to Earth to witness theLight (John, 1.6-1.7). The four of them mention that he is the voice of the one crying in the wilderness. Prophet Esaias mentioned that when the voice of the one crying in the wilderness comes he would be preparing the arrival of the Messiah. Mathew and Mark also mention the way John was dressed and ate. They agree that he dressed with camel hair and ate only locusts and wild honey (Mathew, 3.4 –Mark, 1.6). In one the passages of John he is asked if he was the prophet and respectably say no (John, 1.22). John replied that he was in Earth to make straight the path of the Lord (John, 1.23). From this description, we can say the John was a man that did not need more then the necessary to live his life. He had to be a good man since they are describing him as a messenger from God. What he ateand what he wore describe him as a very humbled man. John was sometimes confused for a Prophet or the Messiah but he always stayed firm to his true purpose showing that popularity didn’t affect his path. John the Baptist’s introduction in the bible clearly portrays him as a man of faith, goodness, and humility.

The relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus can also be read in the fourGospels. Lets first examine what John says about Jesus through out the baptism and then analysis the Baptism of Jesus. John the Baptists says that Jesus is mightier then him and that he is not worthy of bearing Jesus shoes (Mathew, 3.11 – Mark, 1.7 – Luke, 3.16 – John, 1.27). Except John’s Gospel, John the Baptist says that Jesus can baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John the Baptist alsotells Jesus that he is the one to take away the sin of the world (John, 1.29). As we can see from the four Gospels John highly respects Jesus. He puts himself before Jesus and declares him the savior of the world. Jesus comes from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized by John. John said to him that he couldn’t baptize Jesus because it needed to be the other way around (Mathew, 3.14). However, Johnproceeded to baptize Jesus when the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descended and told Jesus that he was the beloved Son of God (John, 1.33). John bared record of this incident and said that he “saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him” (John, 1.32). From this passages we can take out that Jesus came to John and John felt the heavy burden that Jesus had (being the...