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[[Image:John the Baptist.jpg|right|thumb|250px|St. John the Baptist by Leonardo Da Vinci]]

[[Image:John the Baptist.jpg|right|thumb|250px|St. John the Baptist by Leonardo Da Vinci]]

'''John the Baptist''' ([[Hebrew]]:'''יוחנן ''' ''Yochanon'' "The LORD is Merciful")  

'''John the Baptist''' ([[Hebrew]]:'''יוחנן ''' ''Yochanon'' "The LORD is Merciful")  

was born approximately six months<ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/bible/luke1.html#26 Luke 1:26]</ref> before [[Jesus Christ]] and holds the distinction of being the man chosen to baptize Him. He was of priestly descent through both parents: his father, Zacharias, was a priest of the line of Abia<ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/bible/1chr24.html#10 1 Chr. 24:10]</ref> and his mother, Elisabeth, was descended from [[Aaron]].<ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/bible/luke1.html#5 Luke 1:5]</ref>

was born approximately six months before [[Jesus Christ]] and holds the distinction of being the man chosen to baptize Him.

==Life and Ministry==

==Life and Ministry==

Zacharias had been granted the privilege of offering incense in the sanctuary, and it was as he stood before the altar that the angel [[Gabriel]] appeared and announced to him that he would have a son, who was to be called John. This son, the angel told him, would be a lifetime [[nazirite]] and "<small>16</small>...many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God <small>17</small> And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" ([[Luke]] 1:16-17).

John's birth fulfilled the promise of the angel [[Gabriel]] to Elizabeth in June of the previous year. For five months Elizabeth kept secret the angel's visitation and when she finally told her husband, [[Zacharias]], he was greatly troubled and fully believed her narrative only after he had an unusual dream about six weeks before the birth of John. Zacharius was struck dumb (unable to speak), until John was born. On the eighth day of his life, John was [[circumcision|circumcised]] according to the [[Jewish]] custom. He grew up as an ordinary boy in the small village known as the City of Judah, about four miles west of [[Jerusalem]].

When Zacharias expressed doubts, due to his and his wife's advanced age, the angel struck him dumb "until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season" (Luke 1:20). When Zacharias came out of the temple and was unable to speak with the people waiting outside, they realized he had seen a vision; speechless, he communicated afterwards with signs. When his period of temple service was complete, he returned home, and soon after Elisabeth conceived.

The most eventful occurrence in John's early childhood was the visit, in company with his parents, to [[Jesus]] and the Nazareth family. This visit occurred in the month of June, 1 B.C., when he was a little over six years of age.

When Elisabeth was six months pregnant she was visited by her relative [[Mary]], who was then pregnant with the Holy Spirit; as soon as she heard her relative's greeting, Elisabeth's unborn child leaped in her womb, and she aknowledged the child to be born to Mary as her "Lord".

After their return from Nazareth John's parents began the systematic education of the lad. There was no synagogue school in their little village. However since Zacharias was a priest and fairly well educated, and Elizabeth was far better educated than the average Judean woman, being one of the priesthood and being a descendant of the "daughters of [[Aaron]]." As John was an only child, they spent a great deal of time on his mental and spiritual training. Zacharias had only short periods of service at the temple in Jerusalem so that he devoted much of his time to teaching his son.

 

On the eighth day after John's birth, at his circumcision, neighbours and relatives wanted to name the child after his father, but Elisabeth refused, and Zacharias, who could still not speak, wrote down that he was to be named John. As soon as he had done this, as Gabriel had said, his power of speech returned.

 

According to Luke, John began his ministry in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar;<ref>Tiberius began his rule as Roman emperor on August 19, 14 AD; his fifteenth year would run from August 19, 28 AD to August 18, 29 AD. Since Jesus Christ (also about aged thirty) presented Himself for baptism in the autumn, John at six months older must have commenced his ministry in the spring of 29 AD.</ref> John would then be about thirty years old. Though there is no record that John engaged in priestly service at the temple, this would have been the age for priests to commence full duties; his status as a lifetime nazirite would have probably overridden this.  

John the Baptist's role, as ordained by God, was to be the precursor to the [[Messiah]]<blockquote>''And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.''<ref>[Luke 1:17]</ref><ref>[Luke 1:75]</ref> </blockquote>

John the Baptist's role, as ordained by God, was to be the precursor to the [[Messiah]]<blockquote>''And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.''<ref>[Luke 1:17]</ref><ref>[Luke 1:75]</ref> </blockquote>