John the Baptist

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John the Baptist
Birthplace	Jerusalem
Known for	Being a gift from God to his father Zachariah, Prophesying with the scripture, Attaining wisdom in youth

John the Baptist

Saint New Testament the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth and the cousin and forerunner of Jesus, whom he baptized. He was beheaded by Herod (Matthew 14:1--2). Feast day: June 24

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

John the Baptist

According to gospel mythology, the closest predecessor of Jesus Christ; he prophesied the coming of the messiah (the Christ).

John the Baptist lived in the wilderness (in imitation of the Old Testament prophet Elijah), denounced the evils of society, and called on people to repent; he baptized Jesus Christ. A reference is made to John the Baptist by Josephus Flavius (first century A.D.) stating that John lived when Galilee was ruled by Herod Antipas (first half of the first century). To please his mistress Herodias, Herod had John the Baptist imprisoned and later ordered him decapitated. John the Baptist has been the subject of many paintings (A. del Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, P. Brueghel, A.A. Ivanov) and sculptures (Donatello, Rodin). In medieval iconography John the Baptist was one of the three necessary figures for the Deisus (Christ, the mother of god, and John the Baptist).

John the Baptist

prophet who baptized crowds and preached Christ’s coming. [N.T.: Matthew 3:1–13]

See: Baptism

John the Baptist

head presented as gift to Salome. [N.T.: Mark 6:25–28]

See: Decapitation

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Sister Wendy and Tufnell discussed two paintings featuring scenes from the life of St John the Baptist: Neri di Bicci's St John the Baptist leaving for the Desert, and The Beheading of St John the Baptist by Pierre-Ccile Puvis de Chavannes.

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Getting ahead with John the Baptist: spiritual beliefs meet skepticism about the purported discovery of relics of John the Baptist in Sozopol. Let the archeologists argue; historians may remind that relics always were about making money

Bethany Beyond the Jordan, better known as the baptismal site, is believed to be the place where John the Baptist once lived and preached and where Jesus was baptized.

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York played John the Baptist in Franco Zeffirelli's 1977 film "Jesus of Nazareth."

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Perhaps most of us know the story of Salome, who danced before Herod and demanded the head of John the Baptist as a reward.