John the Baptist Rewrite Essay

Abstract prank the Baptist practiced preaching and baptizing Jews in the river Jordan. He was the peerless who recognized deli real valet de chambre as the messiah and baptized him. This baptism was the beginning of deliverer aliveness as a teacher. But it is his expiry that is al just about invariably how legerdemain the Baptist is remembered and studied. His educational activity is the basis of Baptist today. His life is t sure-enough(a) in save the gospel singing and non untold is very kn experience virtually the man who came forward Jesus to preach the word of idol and of Jesus approach.INTRODUCTION potty the Baptist practiced preaching and baptizing Jews in the river Jordan. He was the ane who recognized Jesus as the messiah and baptized him. This baptism was the beginning of Jesus life as a teacher. But it is his death that is almost always how stern the Baptist is remembered and studied. His teaching is the basis of Baptist today. The New Testament does not supply precise entropy about the dates of flush toilets or Jesus birth. Usually hind overthrow the Baptist is associated with the Advent season.His Birth is celebrated on June 24th. In the third or fourth century the birthday of Jesus was assigned to Dec. 25th, around the judgment of conviction of the winter solstice, after what we cite the shortest day of the socio-economic class, when the time of daylight begins to increase. In stools Gospel there is a saying from can the Baptist, referring to Jesus, that he must increase I must decrease (330). And so the birth of toilette was assigned to June 24th, after the summer solstice, when the daylight begins to decrease, chase the longest day of the year.The Scripture readings for the nativity of St. arse the Baptist reflect the dynamics of Decrease and increase between earth-closet and Jesus. Todays grey Testament reading is nonpareil of the servant songs from Second Isaiah. It was chosen for its grapheme to the servant having been named from his mothers womb (Luke 160). But the transportation system also expresses important aspects of tushs cargoner as a vaticinator to deitys spate and a light to the nations. At the same time his status as servant makes him pendant to Jesus.The filling from Pauls speech in Acts 13 reminds us that behind played a pivotal role in Salvation register and so won a place in the early Christian proclamation. Importance is granted to fannys own recognition of his subordinate status with respect to Jesus, I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet. HIS HISTORY John the Baptist was described as a man that walked among the Jews in animals hair that was not covered by his own skin and he was a savage. He came with a message that God hath sent me to show you the way of the law, by which ye shall be freed from many tyrants.And no mortal shall territorial dominion over you, just solitary(prenominal) the highest who hath sent me. He dipped them into the stre am of the Jordan and let them go warning them that they should renounce brutal deeds (Harrington, 2005, p. 25). In Lukes early narrative there are many parallels and comparisons between John and Jesus, both in the announcements of their births and in the papers of them. darn John is great, Jesus is greater is the message precondition. The idea is not to dilettante John only if rather to highlight Jesus greatness.The birth of John is presented by Luke as the fulfillment of Gods promises not only to his elderly parents yet also to Gods mickle as a whole, Elizabeth and Zechariah, Johns parents, insists that the child be named John , a name whose Hebrew form, Yohana, celebrates Gods mercy and favor to his people . If there is any connections between Jesus ant the Dead ocean Scrolls, it is through John, who was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel The child John grew up to become a herald of Gods coming kingdom, the messiah and the mentor of Jesus.The Gospel of Luke provides some of the chronological history of John the Baptist. fit in to Luke, John began to preach his baptism of repentance in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Jesus was born sometime before the death of Herod the Great. This puts him at about thirty when he began to preach and died during the reign of Pontius Pilate, whose term was terminated in brief before the death of Tiberius in 37 c. e. Since in all common chord gospels Jesus ministry appears to last no much than about a year, the gospel of Luke places the death of Jesus between 25 C.E. and 29 C. E. with the latter(prenominal) being a range that would fit with Lukes claim that John began preaching around 28 C. E. (Kraemer, 2006, p. 334). There is a catamenia of John the Baptist life that is blank and because the gospels are the only mentioning of the man, hypothesis has given a possibility of where he was. They believed that John the Baptist was a recluse who washed-out a great amount of time with a group of p eople named the Essenes. These people lived in the desert awaiting the imminent arrival of the Messiah (Miller & Scelfo, 2007).The Essenes had false its back on the Herodian temples and its worship to withdrawal to the Judean desert. Their communities were created using monastic expressive style communities, but also to in understood a phantasmal life for families. These religious instructions included a literary center and used single(a) rituals such as baptism and prayer. This is probably where the basis of Johns beliefs was readyed. In an article in Newsweek it discusses how close John the Baptist, Jesus and possibly his family were to the Essenes community.The essential ritual of Baptism, that was the Essenes belief, symbolizes the leaving behind the sinful life one has take until nowadays and to start out on the path to a new, changed life (Ratzinger, 2007). A Professor of religious studies wrote a book in 20006 that gave a little different look at the historical life o f John the Baptist. According to this author, pile Tolson, Jesus with his cousin John were in compact and saw themselves as the founders not of a new religion but of a worldly royal dynasty that would be fulfilling ancient prophecies.The dynasty had come calibrate from King David and was to restore Israel and guide it through an apocalyptic upheaval that was developing in the Kingdom of God on Earth. All of this was supposed to come not in the distant or metaphoric future but consequently and now. True their message was one of a peaceful change, but Jesus knew he had aroused suspensions of Herodian rulers of Palestine as well as the Romans. So, according to Tolson, Jesus had to establish a provisional government with 12 tribal officials and named his brother James, not Paul as his successor. Later James became the leader of the early Christian movement (Tolson, 2006).HIS DEATH History remembers Archelauss brother, Herod Antipas, because of his interactions with the oracle Joh n the Baptist. John would loudly condemn Antipas immoral doings of having stolen his brothers wife, who was also his niece. Antipas arrested and kept John in chains, inefficient to kill him yet unable to put him out of his mind. According to the playscript of Mark, When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled yet he like to listen to him (Mark 620). Through a trick thought up by his wife and her daughter Salome, Antipas ended up executing John.Reports then filtered in of another illusionist, and Antipas, perhaps plagued by remorse tried to picture Jesus who avoided him, because of what he had done to his cousin. In both Mark and Mathew, the death of John the Baptizer is told in flashbacks. Jesus activities have attracted attention, and there have been dead reckoning as to his identity, with some proposing that Jesus could be John the Baptist. Ross S. Kraemer of Brown University wrote an move dealing with this subject. He also wrote that, Herod Antipas too having heard the w ord of the prophet after Johns be honchoing, believes that Jesus is indeed John.Herodias, Herods wife, was the one who resents John and wishes to kill him but she was still pr regular(a)ted by Antipas dread of Johns righteousness and holiness. In Marks taradiddle at Antipass birthday meal was when an opportunity presented itself to Herodias. Antipas became entranced by his wifes daughter dancing and offered this daughter anything she wished, even half(a) of his kingdom. The daughter then goes and asks her mother what to request and her mother replies that she wants her to ask for the head of John the Baptizer on a platter. Antipas complies only in order to sustainment his oath and preserve his honor before his guests.In Matthews account there are some differences but still significant differences. both agree that it is Antipas who orders Johns execution, but in Mark it is only because of Herodias that he does so, because Antipas has no desire to kill John. In Matthew Antipas him self desires to be release of John, but has reservations because he fears the people who see John as a prophet. In Matthews account Antipas thought well of John and found his speeches pleasing. In Matthew, Herodias does not appear as a player until the end where like in Mark Herodias capitalizes on Antipass offer.In Mark, Antipas has been wholly manipulated by Herodias and her daughter, but in Matthew, he has merely been enabled to do what he had wished all along but was too weak to do. One more account from the book of Josephus tells that Herodias and her daughter played no role whatsoever. Josephus and Matthew real concur in seeing Herod as always desiring Johns death, but with different motivations being that John was critical of Herodias for the way of flouting Judaic tradition by marrying Antipas and this was the motive for Herods ordering the beheading.But Josephus does cite that Antipas was fearful of Johns popularity and that could have started and uprising. HIS PROPHECI ES John the Baptizer was a prophet that preached with not so much words but with life. The words of the prophet ring true only because they carry with them the sweat, tears and blood of the prophet. According to Abraham Joshua Heschel, prophets are preachers whose lives are under siege, The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul and he is bowed and dazed at mans fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man no human voice can convey its full terror. forecasting is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the pillaged poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living a crossover point of God and man. God is raging in the prophets words. (Dube, 2002, p. 42). The ministry of John the Baptizer was to challenge, provoke and call towards holiness. Because prophets are on the trip edge of the call for repentance, their call is to shatter the comfort zones of sin and complacency. The conditions that call fourth prophet s are conditions of idolatry, moral decadence and weak spirituality.This is why strict conditions are set up for any prophet who prophesies peace. The message of the prophet is one that calls for repentance, one that threatens us with its incarnated holiness, rages at us with Gods words as with John the Baptizers words of, Repent, Gods rule is around the corner Johns whole life was enjoin towards one goal, one direction, to give witness to the transcendent reality of God, which now made near, our eyes can see it and our hands can palm it. In Johns own words, I did not bonk Him, but that He should be stoped to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water (Dube, 2002, p.43).What this agent is that, ultimately, every prophet has to let go. John the Baptizer has to let that which he has given witness to take its own shape and form. Letting go seems easy, a holy thing to do, but in its aftermath it is a very hazardous moment for the prophet. What is hazardous for the prophet is th inking about what has really taken place. The result is that this final movement of the precursory life is flinch by some kind of crisis such as doubt or a trouble in the mind. The prophet discovers that he or she is not the sound from the trumpet but just a reed.This realization requires a re-centering. In Johns case, the crisis is his doubts about the Messiah. But after John guides two of his disciples to ask Jesus a question if he was the one or whether they should look for another his fears were relinquished (Yancey, 2007, p. 72). In Christian conviction they believe that John the Baptist was ordained by God to preach and reveal the Messiah, they believe this to be Jesus. Prophecies that were foretold by John are in Luke 117, And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the master copy to prepare His ways. and also Luke 175. In the Book of Malachi John the Baptist is referred to as a prophet who is to prepare the way of t he Lord, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord. (31). PROOF OF EXISTENCE In late(a) times a counteract was discovered not far from the tralatitious birthplace of John the Baptist, Ein Kerem, just west of Jerusalem on a Kibbutz.Where John the Baptist was born and also where churches and monasteries are built to commemorate his birth. The core out is of considerable size with genuinely puzzling feature such as a large amount of broken patter, some dating to the period when John was active, a pool used perhaps for ritual immersion, a stone with the imprint of a foot, apparently used for foot-anointing and pictures on the walls that could consult to John the Baptist that depicts an upraised arm with three crosses. But much speculation as to whether this is a representation of John or not is s till up in the air (Scham, 2004).Caves have long been associated with John. In the bible, his mother, Elizabeth, flees with him to a cave to escape Herods massacre of male infants, and as an full-grown he frequently lives in caves, giving some weight to the cave findings mentioned earlier. After Johns beheadings cults formed around his memory and much held religious rituals in caves. The site was excavated by Shimon Gibson an Israeli archaeologist in 1999 and 2000. Around the perimeter he discovered the remains of walls with large sic stones which usually is a sign of an important place in the move up East.Although Gibson isnt clear on their age, he still uses this to uphold his find. another(prenominal) artifact is a unique water channeling system suggesting the presence of a reservoir from its earliest occupation, probably between 800 and 500 B. C. This, Gibson proposes, was used for baptism rituals. on with these relics are thousands of pieces of pottery, dating from Helleni stic times. CONCLUSION John the Baptist was a prophet of the coming of Jesus and as elusive in history as was Jesus. Not much nurture can be obtained about much of his life except for what is mentioned in the Gospel.The finding of the cave and if it is indeed where John the Baptist did work his miracles would be the first evidence to his existence. In all the information I found most focused on his death and the importee of his sermons towards the end of his life. If the evidence at the excavations do prove to the existence of John than evidence on Jesus life will follow. I was most interested in the essay by Ross S. Kraemer that mentioned a possibility that John and Jesus could be the same. Whatever is true, it is easy to say that John the Baptist was a man that through his sermons changed the world and created a faith.Bibliography Bugge, J. (2006, April). Virginity and prophecy in the old English Daniel. English Studies. 87(2), 127-147. Dube, C. (2002). From ecstasy to ecstasies A reflection on prophetic and pentecostal ecstasy in the light of John the Baptizer. ledger of Pentecostal Theology, 11. 1 41-52 Gibson, S. (2004). The cave of john the Baptist. New York Doubleday Harrington, D. (2007, June 18). Decrease and increase. America, 196(21), 38-39. Kraemer, R. S. (2006). Implicating herodias and her daughter in the death of john the Baptizer A christian theological strategy?Journal of Biblical Literature, 125(2), 321-349. Miller, L. & Scelfo, J. (2007, May 21). A portrait of faith. Newsweek, 14(21), n. p. Ratzinger, J. (2007, May 21). The meaning of baptism. Newsweek, 149(21), n. p. Scham, S. (2004, November). St. johns cave. Archaeology, 57(6), 52. Tolson, J. (2006, March 17). The kingdom of Christ. News & World Report, 140(14), n. p. Warrington, K. (2006, April). Acts and the healing narratives wherefore? Journal of Pentecostal Theology. 14(2), 189-217. Yancey, P. (2007, January). A tale of five herods. Christianity Today, 72.