Elijah heals Shunammite boy

Click here for an explanation of the color-coding used in the sayings and acts of Jesus.

Preparing the Way

The Path and Purification

"A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God'."
     - Isaiah 40:3

A "passage of the Community Rule (ix), mentions...that 'this is the time of the preparation of the Way in the wilderness'. This is specifically tied in exegesis to the Maskil's [the 'Teacher' or the Righteous Teacher] preparation of the Way by 'teaching the Miraculous Mysteries'."
     - Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

"Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?"
     - Isaiah 40: 13-14

"The Maskil is 'to make known to and teach the sons of Light' (the sons of Dawn?) 'the Ways of Light' and how to 'be reckoned among the Perfect', including, it would appear, 'justifications', 'works' and the like. In particular, he is to instruct them in baptismal procedures, which include being 'purified by the Holy Spirit', 'looking upon the Living Light', and 'walking in Perfection in all the Ways of God, which He commanded concerning His appointed times, and not staying either right or left, nor treading on even one of His words'."
     - Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

"It is also written, [(If) you turn] from the W[a]y, then Evil you meet [you.'] Again, it is written 'It shall come to pass that when [al]l [t]hese thing[s come] upon you in the End of Days, the blessing [and] the curse [that I have set before you, and you ca]ll them to m[in]d, and return to me with all your hear and with [a]ll [your] soul'."
     - "The Second Letter on Works Reckoned as Righteousness" (4Q397-399)

The Way "is the study interpretation of the Torah which He commanded by the hand of Moses that they should do according to all that has been revealed...as the Prophets have revealed by His Holy Spirit."
     - Community Rule 1QS 8.15-16

"Deuteronomy held before its readers what it called 'the two ways' - one was the way of blessing and the other was the way of a curse (Deut. 11:26 ff., 30:15-19). Luke was clearly affected by that understanding of Christianity as 'a way of blessing,' for in the Book of Acts he described the Christians as those 'belonging to the Way' (Acts 9:2). He also referred to himself as one who persecuted this Way' (Acts 22:4)."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, pp. 164-165

"And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women."
     - Acts 22:4

"...The 'Way' terminology...in terms of the 'study of the Torah' and known to the Book of Acts [is] a name for early Christianity in Palestine from the 40s to the 60s."
     - Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

(2) Ritual Cleansing

"Water rituals are known throughout the gamut of world religions, and they were especially common in the ancient Near East, notably Iran and Babylonia, as symbols of ritual or spiritual purification and the gift of new life. The OT reflects this milieu with its many prescriptions for ritual washing which the prophets and psalmists in turn used as symbols of interior cleansing."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2

"The Essenes taught that men must repent spiritually and then be baptised to become purified in that spirit. This concept is alien to Messianic Judaism, but baptism was practiced by the Essenes who, in turn, learned it from the Greek Pythagorean mystery-cult."
     - James Still, "The Gospel of John and the Hellenization of Jesus"

"For only through the spirit pervading God's true society can there be atonement for a man's ways, all of his iniquities; thus only can he gaze upon the light of life and so be joined to His truth by His holy spirit, purified from all iniquity. Though an upright and humble attitude his sin may be covered, and by humbling himslef before all God's laws his flesh can be made clean. Only thus can he really receive the purifying waters and be purged by the cleansing flow."
     - Community Rule 1QS 3.6-9

"The settlement at Qumran certainly stood in the desert. Its rule ordered baptisms or bathings to make the members pure for their assembly and meals. At the same time, the rule-book made it clear that such washings were no use unless there was a real determination to follow God's ways. This sounds rather like John's call to repent and be baptized. Also the men of Qumran were looking forward to the arrival of God's Messiah."
     - Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus

"The cleansing of Israel with water and the spirit (Ezek 36:25ff.) is what the Qumran people expected in the future of God's activity ([Community Rule] 1QS 4.20-22). In the present the spirit was already experienced as the most effective power in making atonement for sins (lQS 3.6-9). The Qumran people offered themselves as a kind of living sacrifice to God; those who are 'willing for his truth' shall bring all their knowledge, strength, and property into the yahad ['union'] of God (IQS 1.11-12)'."
     - Otto Betz, "Jesus and the Temple Scroll" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 94

While Qumran can be geographically connected with the Essenes, there is no direct evidence that the fortified settlement at Qumran harbored the religious sect or played any role in the creation of any of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The sectarian documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated a century earlier than contemporary descriptions of the Essenes, refer to the Yahad. Both Essenes and Yahad can be subsumed under the more generic term "Enochian Judaism".

"Anyone who refuses to enter the society of God there are stains on his repentance...He cannot be cleared by a mere ceremony of atonement , not cleansed by any waters of ablution, nor sanctified by immersion in lakes or rivers, nor purified by any bath.".
     - Community Rule 1QS 2.25-26, 3.4-5

"...Qumran [the Yahad] did not have a monopoly on ascetic holy men practicing ritual purification in the Judean wilderness around the Jordan."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2

"So he [Na'aman the Syrian] went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God [Eli'sha]; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."
     - 2 Kings 5:14

The word "dipped" in Hebrew comes from [TBL.], "the verb used for 'baptise'. For example, John the Baptist is called 'Yokhanan Ha-maTBiL'."
     - Liora Bernstein (private correspondence)

"For decades we have known that John the Baptist was only one well-known representative of baptizing groups who congregated especially along the Jordan. Sibylline Oracle Four, which received its final form around 80 CE (because lines 130-34 refer to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE), contains the unique Jewish emphasis that baptism is a prerequisite for salvation. This Jew exhorted 'wretched mortals' to abandon licentious conduct 'and wash your whole bodies in perennial rivers'. After this baptism, God's forgiveness and acceptance are assured, the righteous ones will then be resurrected to a judgment over which God himself will preside."
     - James H. Charlesworth, Jesus Within Judaism

"And I, if I totter,
God's mercies (are) my salvation for ever;...
He has justified me by his true justice
and by his great goodness he will forgive all my iniquities."
     - Community Rule 1QS11.11-14

"The Tosephta (Yadaim 2.20) mentions the 'Dawn Bathers' who criticized the Pharisees for 'invoking the Name (of the Lord) in the morning without having bathed', bringing to mind the 'instructor who spoke to all the sons of the dawn' of one of the recently published scrolls. Other Jewish baptizing groups included the one implied in the Sibylline Oracles, the Hemerobaptists, Galileans, Masbutheans, and Nazareans."
     - Norman Golb, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, (1995) p. 365

"The more the present seemed plunged into sin and death, the more Israel's prophets hoped for cleansing and renewal in the future, when God would pour out his spirit like water on his people. Around the turn of the era, ritual washings of a voluntary sort were on the increase in various sections of Judaism, for various reasons,. The Pharisees, disgusted at what they considered the corruption of the aristocratic priests in Jerusalem, sought to live out aspects of priestly purity in their daily lives...Syria and Palestine, especially the trans-Jordan area were a hotbed for baptizing groups in the 1st centuries BC and AD."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

"...Nudity in baptism was...required by the Pharisees in their baptism of proselytes and immersion for purification (Mikwa'ot 8 and 9; B. Yebamot 47b)."
     - Ian Wilson, Jesus, The Evidence

"Coming from Babylonian Judaism, he [Hillel the Great] taught a personal and ethical renewal which was expressed through baptism in water. Those who had been so purified had become truly Jews. The idea of a New Covenant, or 'religious contract', began to be formed: not the Old Covenant to which all sons of Abraha belonged by birth, but a convenant of personal choice and initiation. There would be a New Israel, a new Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
"Hillel's ideas and practices could be used to bring many Jews into the New Covenant, by baptism. Renewing their obedience to the Law, they would promise to 'return to the law of Moses with all their heart'. Many of them had begun to use Greek names, but they would now be given Jewish names to use at the religious meetings of the New Israel."
     - Barbara Thiering, Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls

"He shall admit into the Covenant of Grace all those who have freely devoted themselves to the observance of God's precepts, that they may be joined to the counsel of God and may live perfectly before Him...and that they may love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God's design, and hate all the sons of darkness, each according to his guilt in God's vengeance."
     - Community Rule 1QS 1.7-11

"Proselyte baptism was part of a process of initiation that transferred a person from one visible socio-religious group (Gentile) to another (Jew); John's baptism did not, and so strictly speaking it was not a rite of initiation. John was not interested in founding a 'new Israel' in any visible, sociological sense."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

Something Greater than Solomon

"The Messiah will be a very great Prophet, greater than all the prophets with the exception of Moses our Teacher....His status will be higher than that of the prophets and more honorable, Moses alone excepted. The Creator, blessed be He, will single Him out with features wherewith He had not singled out Moses; for it is said with reference to Him, 'And His delight shall be in the fear of YAOHU UL; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither decide after the hearing of His ears' [Isaiah 11:3]."
     - Maimonides, in a letter to the community of Yemen

"In Jesus's lifetime people clearly expected that a great figure from their past would return: Elijah, perhaps, or Moses, or even the Queen of Sheba...."
     - Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version

"This generation is an evil generation."
"The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here."
     - Luke 11:29, 31 // Matthew 12:39, 42

"The most prestigious magical figure from the Jewish legends of Jesus' time was Solomon, son of David, King of Israel and great master of the demons. Solomon's control of demons was a matter of pride for Josephus (Antiquities VIII.45-49), is often reported in Rabbinic literature, and is the subject of a romance preserved in several Greek versions, The Testament of Solomon. In this romance he has one demon who serves as his agent to introduce and direct the others; a similar figure, though with a different name, appears in some of the rabbinic stories (e.g., B. Gittin 68a-b). Solomon's control of the demons was due to his possession of an amulet, the famous seal engraved with the secret name of Yahweh. In the romance this seal was given him by 'the Lord, the highest god, Sabaoth'."
     - Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) pp. 104-105

"The generation in question was probably the one contemporary with the Q community during the period 40-60 C.E. What was originally a missionary endeavor is turned, in this revision, into a condemnation of those who refuse to respond to the message of the Q community and who are therefore in danger of the Judgment. By the time of Matthew and Luke, late in the first century, those hostile to the new movement were probably Judeans, from whom the new sect was in the process of separating. The vindictive tone of these sayings is uncharacteristic of Jesus."
     - Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels

"It is written in Isaiah the prophet: 'Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy ways before thee. The Voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
     - Mark 1:2-3

The author of Mark incorrectly attributes all of the quote to Isaiah. The first part is actually from Malachi and the sentence which follows is from Isaiah.

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me..."
     - Malachi 3:1a

"A voice of one calling: 'In the desert prepare the way for the LORD [1]; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."
     - Isaiah 40:3

"Malachi went on to identify his messenger with the prophet Elijah, whose task it was to prepare the world for the coming of that 'great and terrible day of the Lord' (Mal. 4:5). The word 'Malachi'...[is] a Hebrew word which meant 'my messenger' (see Mal. 1:1). So Malachi, 'my messenger,' was identified as the nameless one, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare for the advent of the Kingdom of God."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 194

"From Malachi through Ben Sira to the NT and beyond into the rabbinic literature, Elijah was the eschatological prophet par excellence, the prophet whose return from heaven (whither he had been taken up in a fiery chariot) would signal the last days, the regathering and cleansing of Israel, the resolving of all legal questions, and the coming of God to rule in full power. Hence the eschatological prophet and miracle-worker from Nazareth would naturally be connected with Elijah..."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

(The throne-chariot imagery is central to Merkavah mysticism.)

The saga of Elijah-Elisha (880 and 840 B.C.E.) provided the northern equivalent of the Mosaic liberation traditions - in counterpoint to those of the southern Temple at Jerusalem. For example, after Solomon completed the Temple at Jerusalem, he prayed at its inauguration:

"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance."
     - 1 Kings 8:35-36

"Just as the Temple provided the link to heaven and earth, it was the place where rain was obtained in answer to fidelity or at least to repentance."
"And, in 1 Kings 18:41-45, he [Elijah] proved his miraculous power over the rain. The question lies implicit: is, then, a northern Elijah as good as a southern Temple."
     - John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)

"And Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.' So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. 'Go and look toward the sea,' he told his servant.
And he went up and looked. 'There is nothing there,' he said. Seven times Elijah said, 'Go back.' The seventh time the servant reported, 'A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea.'
So Elijah said,'Go and tell Ahab, "Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you."' Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel."
     - 1 Kings 18:41-45

"And, secondly, there are the miracles - not just public and communal miracles like control of the rainfall but private and individual miracles...Thus, after Elijah announces his control of the rain in 17:1, he is miraculously fed in the desert by ravens in 17:2-7, multiplies the meal and oil of the pagan widow at Sidonian Zarephath in 17:8-16, and raises her son from the dead in 17:17-24. Only then, in 18:1-46, does the rain story conclude. Elijah has been given power by God over rain, food, and death, over, in other words, all of life."
     - John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)

"She said to Elijah, 'What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?'"
     - 1 Kings 17:18

The northern prophets also had a profound influence on King Josiah, who ordered the Temple in Jerusalem cleansed of the rituals and relics of fertility worship in 628 B.C.E.

"...There was one prerequisite for any 'Messiah' - that his coming would be preceded by a return of the nabi Elijah. According to one view, the re-born Elijah would actually recognize and anoint the Messiah-to-be before that individual was himself aware of his identity."
     - Ian Wilson, Jesus, The Evidence

Some texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls "also speak about an eschatological prophet who will announce the coming of the Messiah, a figure similar to Elijah in the rabinnic tradition."
     - Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls

"In Jewish lore Eliyahoo [Elijah] appears from time to time as an ordinary person and helps Jews in distress. He is supposed to appear before the Messiah comes..."
     - Liora Bernstein (private correspondence)

Passover tables are supposed to have an extra glass of wine for Eliyahoo as he mystically makes his rounds to each and every table.

(2) The Immanent Messiah

"By Messiah, Jesus meant the same thing most other Jews of his time meant: an anointed King who would, with the help of a miracle from God, remove the Romans from Palestine and usher in an age of reform where the Jews would become the priests of mankind. There was no trace of divinity about the concept, no idea that the Messiah would have to be sacrificed to appease an angry God. (Claiming to be the Messiah, Maccoby points out, was in no way considered blasphemous under Jewish law.)"
     - Tad Davis (davist@umis.upenn.edu)

The idea that there was no trace of divinity about the concept of the Messiah is contradicted by Micah 5:2 - "his origin is from of old, from ancient days" and 1 Enoch 48:4 - "From the beginning the Son of Man was hidden."

Although the author of The Book of Daniel was writing about his own time in the 2nd century B.C.E., his character, Daniel, lived in Babylon during the reign of king Belshazzar, who was killed when Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 B.C.E. By back dating the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah (Daniel 9:25-26) to the end of the Babylonian captivity and changing "weeks" into "years", the prophecy could be interpreted as referring to the first century C.E. This may have helped foster Messianic expectations and provided Gospel writers with the time frame for the emergence of Jesus.

"The command to restore and to build Jerusalem 'went forth' in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king of Persia, that is, in 455 B.C.E. (Nehemiah 2:1-9). By the end of 49 years (7 weeks of years), much of Jerusalem's glory had been restored. And then, counting the full 483 years (7 plus 62 weeks of years) from 455 B.C.E., we arrive at 29 C.E. This was, in fact, the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, the year when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:1)."
     - The Bible: God's Word or Man's?

The expectations of a Messiah who is immanent or who has already arrived are expressed in a commentary on Genesis in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."
     - Genesis 49:10

"'(The) government shall [not] pass from the tribe of Judah.' During Israel's dominion, a Davidic descendant on the throne shall not c]ease. For 'the Staff' is the covenant of the kingdom. [The lead]ers of Israel, they are 'the Feet', until the Messiah of Righteousness, the Branch of David comes, because to him and his seed was given the covenant of the kingdom of his people in perpetuity, because he kept...the Torah with the men of the Community..."
     - A Genesis Florilegium 4Q252 5.1-7

"...The allusion in 5.5 to 'the men of the Community' with 'the Messiah of Righteousness' as 'Keepers of the Covenant' implies that the Messiah has either already come, is eschatologically to return, or is, in fact, at that very moment connected to or among ' the Yahad' (community). "
     - Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

(3) A Priestly and a Royal Messiah

The Messiahs of Aaron and Israel
"A scroll entitled 'Midrash on the Last Days' tells how the 'Children of Belial' will devise evil plots against the 'Sons of Light' to cause them to stumble and the kings of the nations will rage against the elect of Israel in the last days. God, however, will save His people by the hands of two messianic figures who will arise at the end of time; one from 'the branch of David' and the other 'the Interpreter of the Law'."
     - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

"They shall depart from none of the counsels of the Law to walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, but shall be ruled by the primitive precepts in which the men of the Community were first instructed until there shall come the Prophet and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel."
     - Community Rule 9.9-11

In Old Testament times,...the people of Israel are, in effect, governed by two parallel lines of 'Messiahs', or 'Anointed Ones'. One of these lines presides over spiritual affairs and descends from the Tribe of Levi through Aaron. The other, in the form of the kingship, presides over secular affairs and traces itself, through David, to the Tribe of Judah. This, of course, explains the references in the Dead Sea Scrolls to ''The Messiah(s) of Aaron and of Israel', or 'of Aaron and of David'."
     - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

"The Yahad believed that in the Last Days two messiahs would emerge from their own ranks, one a priest, the other a royal commander for the armies."
     - Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (1996) p. 147

"The procedure for the [mee]ting of the men of reputation [when they are called] to the banquet held by the society of the Yahad, when [God] has fa[th]ered(?) the Messiah (or, when the Messiah has been reveled among them: [the Priest,] as head of the entire congregation of Israel, shall enter first, trailed by all [his] brot[hers, the Sons of] Aaron, whose priests [appointed] to the banquet by the men of reputation. They are to sit be[fore him] by rank. Then the [Mess]iah of Israel may en[ter], and the heads of the th[ousands of Israel] are to sit before him by rank, as determined by [each man's comm]ission in their camps and campaigns. Last, all the heads of [the con]gregation's cl[ans], together with [their] wis[e and knowledgeable men], shall sit before them by rank."
     - Charter for Israel in the Last Days 1Q28a 11-17

"Both messiah figures bear the title Son of God,' (4QFlorilegium 10-11). The place of dominion of the high priestly messiah is heaven, the royal messiah's is earth. The high priestly messiah takes precedence over the royal messiah. This is especially clear at the messianic banquet, where he blesses bread and wine....(Rule of the Congregation 1QSa 11.11-21)."
     - Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

The Priestly Messiah
According to 4QFlorilegium, "the priestly Messiah, that is, the companion of the Davidic Messiah - is called 'the Interpreter of the Law' (dores hattora, line 11). His function is suited to the spiritual worship in the 'sanctuary of man', where 'works of the law' are offered as incense. In corollary fashion, the worship of angels occurs in prayers of praise and intercession with incense. Such interpretation of the law is less appropriate for a high priest in a real temple."
     - Otto Betz, "Jesus and the Temple Scroll" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 96

In scroll 4Q541, the latter part of the Words of Levi, "a prophecy is given of a mighty priest who will arise and 'reveal hidden mysteries' and whose 'teaching is like the will of God' - much like the 'chosen one...who will reveal secrets like the Most High' (4Q536 1.8) and whose 'wisdom shall come to all peoples' (4Q534 col 1, 1.8)."
     - Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (1996) p. 428

"And he shall make atonement for all those of his generation, and he shall be sent to all the children of his people. His command is like the command of heaven, and his teaching is like the will of God. The Sun everlasting will shine and its fire will give warmth to all the ends of the earth. It will shine on darkness; then will darkness vanish from the earth, and mist from the land."
     - The Words of Levi 4Q541 Frag. 9 1.2-5

"The coming priest of The Words of Levi ...may well be 'the chosen one' of this text [4Q534-4Q536], that is, the priestly messiah, who, with the 'Leader of the Nation,' the royal messiah, shall rule Israel in the Last Days."
     - Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (1996) p. 428

"The priestly messiah and the priests will not take part in the final battles, but they will spur on the others through shouts and trumpet blasts: "
     - Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

"And they shall not come to the midst of the slaughter lest they be defiled by unclean blood; for they are holy and they shall not profane the oil of their priestly anointing with the blood of a nation of vanity."
     - War Scroll 1QM 9.7-9

Two or a Single Messiah?
"What we had here was a society of very devout Jews who were convinced that the time of the coming of the two messiahs was at hand, therefore, they set about preparing for their advent by detaching themselves from the mainstream society, and dedicating their lives to their worship and the preparation for their imminent arrival."
"Later on, the communities of the Jews began to combine them into one messiah..."
     - Misheal Al-Kadhi

The "pesharim to Isaiah and Habakkuk...speak of a single messiah from the stem of David rather than of two Messiahs, of Aaron and of David, belief in whom is endorsed by the authors of the Manual of Discipline."
     - Norman Golb, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, (1995) p. 365

"As we have suggested, contrary to the well-known 'two-Messiah' theory of early Qumran scholarship, these references to the 'Messiah of Aaron and Israel' in the Damascus Document are singular not plural... and one possible explanation for it is that it is evoking a Messiah with both priestly and kingly implications, like the somewhat similar recitations of Hebrews."
     - Robert Eisenman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

A separate Messianic tradition which fits into the pattern of "two messiahs", is described in the Apocalypse of Zechariah. Here a priestly leader named Joshua/Jesus is to rule side by side with Zerubbabel, the political leader who rebuilt the temple after the Babylonian captivity.

"Take [silver and gold] from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua [Greek: IhsouV] son of Jehozadak.
Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.'"
     - Zechariah 6.10-13

"As the critics point out, the present form of this last passage is somewhat corrupted. Apparently it originally spoke of crowns for both IhsouV and Zerubbabel, the two anointed leaders [Messiahs], whereas now it only speaks of IhsouV."
     - Robert A. Kraft, "Was there a 'Messiah-Joshua Tradition at the Turn of the Era?"

Genealogies of John and Jesus

"In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechari'ah, of the division of Abi'jah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth."
     - Luke 1:5

"Names were often derived from ancient stories based on typological association: John's father was a priest, so his name must have been Zechariah, a priestly name mentioned frequently in Chronicles. However, there is no evidence outside the infancy; stories that John's father was a priest. Both vocation and name may be fictions."
     - Robert Funk (Editor), Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus, p. 511

"Biblical scholars have seen no reason to doubt Luke's assertion that John and Jesus were first cousins. It is now generally accepted that Jesus's mother was the sister of Elizabeth, the mother of John. But Luke also makes it plain that John the Baptist, through his mother, was descended from the priestly dynastic succession of Aaron - which would mean, of course, that Jesus was too. At the same time, Luke stresses Jesus's descent, through his father, from David. Thus, as a descendant of Aaron, John can lay claim to the title of Priest Messiah. Jesus, descended from both Aaron and David, can lay claim to the titles of Priest Messiah and Royal Messiah."
      - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy

"The Epistle to the Hebrews does mention - as an apparent obstacle to its thesis that Jesus is the high priest of the new covenant - that he was of the tribe of Judah, not Levi (Hebrews 7:14)."
     - John P. Meier,A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 1.

In addition, there is good reason to doubt that John and Jesus really were first cousins. In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist says of Jesus "And I knew him not." According to Michael Goulder and others, Luke's account is based more on his midrashic rewriting of Mark than an actual account of history.

Luke "started with the name Mary, the name by which Mark had identified Jesus' mother in the second Marcan scriptural reference to her (Mark 6:1-6). Relating that name to her Marys/Mirians in the Hebrew sacred story, he happened upon the account of Miriam, Moses' sister, who had a kinswoman named Elizabeth/Elisheba. Then he fleshed out his narrative by making the new Elizabeth a member of a priestly family, a tradition that descended from Aaron, who was married to the first Elizabeth/Elisheba [Exod 6:23]....If they were sisters-in-law, then their offspring would be first cousins."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 198

"And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord [Gabriel] standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, 'Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. "
     - Luke 1:11-14

"Luke began his gospel by introducing first Zechariah and then Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist. He portrayed them, however, quite overtly after the pattern of Abraham and Sarah from the Book of Genesis that was being read in the synagogues. The connections between the two stories are overwhelming."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 132

"In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechari'ah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?'"
     - Luke 1: 39-42

"Both sets of parents were called righteous (Gen. 26:5, Luke 1:6). Both Sarah and Elizabeth were barren (Gen. 11:30, Luke 1:7). Both were advanced in age (Gen 18:11, Luke 1:7). In both stories the angelic annunciation came to a disbelieving father (Gen. 18:11, Luke 1:11). Both fathers were assured that nothing was impossible with God (Gen. 18:14, Luke 1:37)."
"The readings from Genesis then moved on to new stories of Jewish origins, and Luke moved, not coincidentally, exactly in sync with his Genesis source from Abraham and Sarah to their son, Isaac. Isaac's wife, Rebekah, was expecting twins. The Genesis text informs us that because these unborn children leapt in Rebekah's womb, she went to inquire of the Lord about them. The word of the Lord that Rebekah heard in the Genesis story was that the destiny of these two boys had been set by divine providence while they were still in the womb. Furthermore, it was revealed that the older, who would be name Esau, would serve the younger one, who would be named Jacob (Gen. 25:19-23)."
"Under the skill of Luke's pen, John the Baptist and Jesus became the new Esau and Jacob. They were not brothers, but Luke did make them kin in his story so that he could relate them to this Genesis reading."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 132-133

"Some scholars think the birth story of John the Baptist preserved in Luke (1:5-25, 57-80) derives from John's followers and reflects their messianic understanding of him."
     - Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (1998) p. 268

"...The infancy Narratives of the Baptist and Jesus basically parallel each other, with some trait of superiority being assigned to Jesus at each stage of the symmetrical narrative....It is highly likely that, whatever the starting point of Luke's Infancy Narrative, each cycle of birth traditions influenced the other as the two were woven together. An artificial connection of the two cycles is visible in Luke's account of the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth..."
     - John P. Meier,A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 1.

The Ministry of John The Baptist

A Call to Repentance
"The Jewish New Year [Rosh Hashanah] was a call to repentance. It was marked by the blowing of the shofar, the ceremonial ram's horn used to call the worshipers to the liturgy. The shofar was thought to announce the coming reign of God."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 84

"The trumpet is to remind the Lord of His covenant with Israel [and] to confuse Satan, who would normally accuse Israel of sinning on the feast. Ancient rabbis believed that the world was created on the Feast of Trumpets, that is why it is called Rosh Hashanah (the head of the year).
"It is also thought that God opens the books of Life, and writes the names of the good people on the earth on the Feast of Trumpets. The Jews believe that the shofar (trumpet) will be blown when the Messiah revives the dead, and the Jewish faith."
     - Chris King

"For the Lord himself shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we who are alive shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air."
     - Thesalonians 4:16

"The New Year was also perceived as a time of judgment and even as a time of divine vengeance. As that judgment dawned, the tradition of the Jews was that eyes were opened, ears were unstopped, and a highway was prepared on which God might travel. This highway began in the desert, which was thought of as the abode of unclean animals, like the camel (Lev.11:4) or the satyr or the 'scapegoat' that was driven into the wilderness with the people's sins on its back (Lev.17.7)."
"Mark opened his gospel with John the Baptist, a voice crying in the wilderness, like a human shofar. His task was to prepare in this desert the highway for the Lord. John was clothed with the skin of an camel, an animal unclean for eating and therefore a sign of the wilderness....John preached the Jewish New Year message of repentance."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 84

"John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
     - Mark 1:4 (Matthew 3:1; Luke 3:3)

Eli'jah Who is to Come

"Look, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. He will reconcile fathers to sons and sons to fathers."
     - Malachi 4:5-6

The gospels of Mark and Matthew alluded to John as a contemporary Elijah who will announce the coming of the Messiah.

"For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Eli'jah who is to come."
     - Matthew 11:13-14

"...Matthew follows his usual practice of regarding every significant event as having been anticipated by scripture."
The verse about Eli'jah " was probably a gloss - a comment - on the Q text added by some scribe who wanted to emphasized that John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus."
     - Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels

"By contrast with Luke a good part of his story focused on Jesus as the new and greater Elijah..."
     - Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

To Luke, John the Baptist is not Elijah or Elias, but only comes in the spirit of Elias.

"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 1:17

"It was the Gospel of Luke...that seemed to have the greatest investment in Elijah as a prototype figure for his Christ story. Luke wanted to save Elijah to enable him to tell about the climactic moments in the life of Jesus."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 312

(See the sections on the Pentecost and the ascension for more about Luke's identification of Jesus as Elijah.)

"John 1:20 has John not only deny he is the Christ but even Elijah."
     - Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

"He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, 'I am not the Christ.'
They asked him, 'Then who are you? Are you Elijah?'
He said, 'I am not.'
'Are you the Prophet?'
He answered, 'No.' "
     - John 1:20-21

(The dimished role attributed to John the Baptist probably reflects rivalry between the followers of Jesus and John which became more pronounced as time passed following their deaths.)

A Lonely Ascetic?
"Right at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus stands the independent ministry of the independent Baptist, a Jewish prophet who started his ministry before and apart from Jesus, who won great popularity and reverence apart from Jesus, who also won the reverence and submission of Jesus to his baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and who left behind a religious group that continued to exist apart from Christianity."
     - John P. Meier,A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

The prophet Elijah is described as a "hairy man, girt with a leathern girdle [zonen dermatinen] about his loins [ten osphyn autou]."
     -IV [II] Kings 1:8 LXX

"John wore a dress of camel's hair, with a girdle of leather fastened around his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey."
     - Mark 1:6 (Matthew 3:4)

"...Unlike the Essenes, John, in the Gospels and Josephus, appears as a lonely ascetic, like the desert saint at whose feet Josephus had sat. What, then, was John the Baptist's relation to the sect? Dr. Brownlee suggests that John may have been one of those 'other men's children' that Josephus says the Essenes adopted and 'moulded in accordance with their own principles."
     - Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

"And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel."
     - Luke 1:80

"This would give us an explanation of the otherwise rather unaccountable circumstance that John's childhood was spent in the desert. I have nowhere seen it suggested that John was at odds with the sect; but, in connection with his desert diet of locusts and wild honey, one remembers the expelled Essenes, who resorted to living on grass because they had sworn an oath never to eat any food not prepared by the brotherhood. Josephus, despite having visited the Essenes and mentioning several other figures as Essenes never defines John the Baptist as one suggesting he was not during the time of his ministry."
     - Chris King, "The Apocalyptic Tradition"

Josephus, however, does mention one Essene in the middle of the first century who may also have lived as a lonely ascetic.

Bannus, the Essene, "lived in the wilderness, wearing clothing from trees, obtaining his food from uncultivated plants, frequently washing day and night with cold water for purity's sake."
     - Flavius Josephus, Life of Josephus, 2, 11

"...Even apart from Luke's picture of the boy John being raised in the wilderness until the time he began his ministry, the mere fact that this ascetic prophet feeding on locusts and wild honey roamed up and down the Jordan Valley and the Judean wilderness, apparently with no fixed abode as he proclaimed a radical message of imminent judgment on Israel, makes it probable that John was a celibate (Mark 1:4-8)."
"In his radical itinerant prophetic ministry, John may have consciously been imitating Elijah, an OT itinerant prophet of judgment, who not only was interpreted as an eschatological figure in later Judaism (as early as Malachi and Ben Sira) but was also interpreted as a celibate by various patristic writers (e.g., Ambrose and Jerome.)"
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 1.

"In the Hebrew scriptures that shaped this story of John the Baptist, it was said of the prophet Elijah that 'he was a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist' (2 Kings 1:8), who lived in the wilderness (1 Kings 17:1-4). The locusts that accompanied the wild honey as the diet of the desert were also kosher, declared the Book of Leviticus (11:22)."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 195

Consecrated to the Service of God

"When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. 'All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the LORD, he shall be holy; he shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long'."
     - Numbers 6:2-5

"Moreover, when any have made a sacred vow, I mean those that are called Nazarites, that suffer their hair to grow long, and use no wine, when they consecrate their hair, and offer it for a sacrifice, they are to allot that hair for the priests [to be thrown into the fire]."
     - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk IV, Ch IV, Sn 4

"Grotius, on Numbers 6:18, takes notice that the Greeks also, as well as the Jews, sometimes consecrated the hair of their heads to the gods."
     - William Whiston (translator of Josephus' works)

Nazar - to vow or consecrate oneself to the service of God. There is nothing written that John (or Jesus for that matter) abstained from cutting his hair, the most conspicuous feature of a nazar or nazarite. Also, according to the Gospels, Jesus often drank wine. Wine appears to have been an integral part of the communal meals of both the early Christian and Yahad communities.

A Connection with Qumran?
"...It is wise to view Qumran [actually the Yahad who may never have lived at Qumran], Bannus, and John as particular manifestations of a much larger Jewish penitential and baptizing movement around the region of the Jordan in the 1st centuries BC and AD."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

"Our Nazarene sect is known to have existed some 150 years B.C., and to have lived on the banks of the Jordan, and on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, according to Pliny and Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews xiii, p. 9; xv, p. 10)."
"The priests were circumcised. The neophyte could not be initiated without having been present at the solemn Mysteries of the LAKE. The Nazarenes were baptized in the Jordan; and could not be baptized elsewhere; they were also circumcised, and had to fast before as well as after the purification by baptism. Jesus is said to have fasted in the wilderness for forty days, immediately after his baptism."
     - H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

"The settlement at Qumran certainly stood in the desert. Its rule ordered baptisms or bathings to make the members pure for their assembly and meals. At the same time, the rule-book made it clear that such washings were no use unless there was a real determination to follow God's ways. This sounds rather like John's call to repent and be baptized."
     - Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus

The structure at Qumran was more likely a fortified Herodian manor, not a religious settlement. However, the Yahad did practice ritualistic lustration like the Christians.

(2) A Politically Explosive Rite

Characteristics of John

"John , that was called the Baptist...who was a good man , and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue , both as righteousness towards one another , and piety towards God , and so to come to baptism: For that the washing would be acceptable to him, not in order to the putting away of some sins but for the purification of the body: supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness."
     - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Bk XVIII, Ch V, Sn 2

"...John practices not the frequent lustrations of Qumran [the Yahad] but a once-and-for-all baptism administered to others by himself. So closely is his own person identified with this unique kind of ritual washing that he alone, among the many Jews of his day who practiced rites of cleansing, is called 'the Baptist'."
     - John P. Meier,A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

The new adherent "shall be cleansed from all his sins by the spirit of holiness uniting him to its truth...And when his flesh is sprinkled with purifying water and sanctified by cleansing water, it shall be made clean by the humble submission of his soul to all the precepts of God..."
     - Community Rule 1QS 3.7-8

John offered more than ritual purification. He offered absolution from sin and did away with the need for expensive sacrifices at the Temple, whose officials he considered morally bankrupt.

"John...displays some characteristics of the thoughts and literature of apocalyptic, yet other common elements (mystical visions interpreted by angels, journeys through the various levels of the cosmos up to heaven and God's throne, astrological and calendric speculations, timetables of salvation history, phantasmagoric symbols and esoteric allegories, the question of the fate of the Gentile nations, and a doctrine of the survival of the individual after death) are lacking in the material that has come down to us...In clear simple speech he preaches on the basis of his own personal authority, which apparently he feels comes directly from God."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

"John, who was surnamed the Baptist...was a good man and [simply] bade the Jews to join in baptism, provided that they were cultivating virtue and practicing justice toward one another and piety toward God. For [only] thus, in John's opinion, could the baptism [he administered] indeed be acceptable [to God], namely, if they used to obtain not pardon for some sins but rather the cleansing of their bodies, inasmuch as [it was taken for granted that] their souls had already been purified by justice.
"And when the others [namely, ordinary Jews] gathered together [around John]...their excitement reached fever pitch as they listened to [his] words..."
     - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk XVIII, Ch V, Sn 2

Stirring Up the Multitudes
"Luke indicates that John began to preach in the fifteenth year of the reign of the emperor Tiberius (Luke 3:1). Although we cannot be certain about the accuracy of these chronological references, John may well have been active for about four years. Josephus certainly stresses more strongly than do the gospels that John's call for baptism and repentance was welcomed enthusiastically by large numbers of people."
     - Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 172

"In the public mind, John was very likely a much 'bigger' presence than Jesus. Josephus, the Jewish historian, states flatly that Herod Antipas feared John on the grounds that the Baptist could instigate a revolution; as a consequence, he had John executed. The Jews later viewed the destruction of Herod's army as retribution for John's execution (Antiquities 18.118-119). The Gospel of Mark reports, probably with some exaggeration, that all the residents of Judea and Jerusalem were baptized by John (Mark 1:5) and that everybody considered John a prophet (Mark 11:32). Some of the supporters of John probably adopted the cause of Jesus' followers and introduced Johannine elements, such as fasting and baptism, into the nascent Christian movement."
     - Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (1998) p. 268

"By John's time the only place in the country where Jews could legally offer sacrifices was Jerusalem, and its services were expensive. To introduce into this situation a new, inexpensive, generally available, divinely authorized rite, effective for the remission of all sins, was John's great invention."
     - Morton Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark(1973)

If left unchecked, John's growing popularity directly threatened the Temple revenues and the political stability of the region.

"...John appears as a prophet proclaiming an imminent judgment on an unrepentant Israel, an Israel that as a people has strayed from the right path. There is a dark, threatening tone to most of his message, which speaks sharply even to those who approach him for baptism.. Though not fitting a fully rounded definition of an apocalyptic seer, John does stress the imminence of fiery punishment that looms for every Israelite."
"The Baptist of the Q document views his fellow Jews as a 'brood of vipers' who foolishly trust in descent from Abraham as protection from the coming judgment when in fact neither descent from Abraham nor the usual cultic mechanism but only the individual repentance and good deeds, coupled with John's baptism, can save one from destruction."
     - John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew - Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 2.

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance..."
     - Matthew 3:7-8, (Luke 3:7)

"...so fruitful for them is the repentance which others feel for their past lives [tam fecunda illis aliorum vitae paenitentia est]."
     - Pliny the Elder referring to the Essenes

"A Network of Ticking Time Bombs"

"You have poured out Your holy spirit upon us, [br]inging Your blessings to us. You have caused us to seek You in our time of tribulation, [that we might po]ur out a prayer when Your chastening was upon us. We have entered into tribulation, [cha]tisement and trials because of the wrath of the oppressor."
     - The Words of the Heavenly Lights 4Q504-506 5.15-18

"...Josephus has no mention of what is most politically explosive about John's rite: people cross over into the desert and are baptized in the Jordan as they return to the Promised Land. And that is dangerously close to certain millennial prophets, well known to Josephus...who, in the period between 44 and 62 C.E., invoked the desert and the Jordan to imagine a new and transcendental conquest of the Promised Land."
     - John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)

According to scripture, the Jordan had been parted by Joshua to allow the Israelites to cross from the Wilderness into the Promised Land of freedom. [Joshua 3:6, 14-17; Joshua 4:10, 21, 23]

"John the Baptist was one of several populist and activist prophets who, in that first century occupied Jewish homeland, attempted to reenact the Exodus as archetypal deliverance from foreign oppression. Most of them led large crowds from the desert across the Jordan hoping that God would intervene decisively against the Romans, so that they could once again possess their Promised Land as inaugurally of old under Moses and Joshua. They were normally unarmed, since they expected a cataclysmic intervention by God to effect what human weapons could not achieve."
     - John Dominic Crossan, The Essential Jesus: Original Sayings and Earliest Images (1998), p. 146

"When people came to him [John], he kept sending them back from the wilderness, through the Jordan, which washed away their sins, and, purified and ready, into the Promised Land, there to await the imminent coming of the redeeming and avenging God. What he was forming, in other words, was a giant system of sanctified individuals [rather than crowds], a huge web of apocalyptic expectations, a network of ticking time bombs all over the Jewish homeland. Its magnitude insured a lasting memory, but its diffusion made it both possible and necessary for Antipas to strike precisely at John himself and at John alone."
     - John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994)

"The oldest Nazarenes, who were the descendants of the Scripture nazars, and whose last prominent leader was John the Baptist, although never very orthodox in the sight of the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, were, nevertheless, respected and left unmolested. Even Herod [Antipas] 'feared the multitude' because they regarded John as a prophet."
     - H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

"Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet."
     - Matthew 14:5

Death of a Prophet
The tetrarch Herod Antipas, while married to the daughter of Aretas, the king of Arabia Petra, became infatuated with his sister-in-law Herodias. He made secret preparations to divorce his wife but she learned of his plans

"She [Aretas's daughter] desired him [Herod] to send her to Macherus, which is a place on the borders of the dominions of Aretas and Herod, without informing him of any of her intentions. Accordingly Herod sent her thither, as thinking she had not perceived anything; now she had sent a good while before to Macherus, which was subject to her father, and so all things necessary for her journey were made ready for her by the general of Aretas's army, and by that means she soon came to Arabia... to her father, and told him of Herod's intentions."
     - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk XVIII, Ch V, Sn 1

Artetas avenged Herod's breach of contract by raising an army and decisively defeating Herod's army.
According to the accounts in Mark 6:14-29, echoed in Matthew 14:1-12, John the Baptist was arrested because he criticized Herod Antipas for marrying his sister-in-law which was illegal under Jewish law. Salome, the daughter of Herodias' (who is unnamed in the Gospel accounts) performed her famous dance and, as a favor, demanded John's head from Herod. Josephus, however, only focuses on Herod's fear of an uprising.

"Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly John, because of Herod's suspicions was brought in chains to Macherus...and there put to death..."
     - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk XVIII, Ch V, Sn 2

Note that Macherus in Section 1 (the flight of Aretas' daughter) is in the hands of Aretas. In the paragraph above it is under Herod's control.

"Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man..."
     - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk XVIII, Ch V, Sn 2

"Although Josephus does not refer to John as a prophet, his twofold comment that the military defeat of Herod was seen by many as a vindication of John is in stark contrast to the scorn he pours of several 'false prophets' who led abortive uprisings."
     - Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 172

Questions about Josephus' Reference to John
"...There are a few problems with the John passage in Josephus. First, and most importantly, is that it also appears to be an interpolation into the Antiquities. Chapter five of book eighteen has four paragraphs. Paragraph one ends with:"

"(Tiberius) wrote to Vitellius, to make war upon him (Aretas the Arabian),... this was the charge that Tiberius gave to the president of Syria."

"So Vitellius prepared to make war with Aretas, having with him two legions of armed men..."

"But on the fourth day letters came to him [Vitellius], which informed him of the death of Tiberius, he obliged the multitude to take an oath of fidelity to Caius; he also recalled his army, and made every one of them go home."
     - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk XVIII, Ch V, Sn 3

"Tiberius died and Caius Caligula succeeded to the empire in the year 37 CE. This puts the Baptist passage in the middle of two paragraphs dating from 37; or several years after the traditional dates, 29 to 30 CE, of John the Baptist's execution and, incidentally, Jesus' baptism.
"Therefore, I have grave suspicions about the historical reference to John the Baptist in Josephus. It is out of context with the surrounding paragraphs - Macherus was subject to the Arabs, not Herod - The passage is located far too late in time to fit the traditional date of John's death, by about seven or eight years."
     - Cliff Carrington, "The Flavian Testament"

Reports of Resurrection
Mark reports that after John was executed by Herod Antipas, the belief grew that he had been resurrected from the dead and reincarnated as Jesus.

"Some were saying, 'John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him [Jesus]:.' Others said, 'He is Elijah.' And still others claimed, 'He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.' But when Herod heard this, he said, 'John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!'"
     - Mark 6:14b-16 (Matthew 14:1-2; Luke 9:7-9)

"The notion that John the Baptist may have risen from the dead (Mark 6:14, 16, 8:28) probably originated with the disciples of John. This conviction of John's disciples may have established the pattern of expectation for the disciples of Jesus after his crucifixion.
"The Pseudo-Clementines, a collection of fictitious tales concerning the conversion of Clement of Rome and his travels with Peter, suggest that the disciples of John may have prayed to John. It is possible that John's disciples thought of him as the messiah. This probably explains why the Fourth Gospel takes such pains to deny that the Baptist was the messiah (John 1:20, 25, 3:28) and why it represents him as expressly advising his followers to become disciples of Jesus (1:35-42)."
     - Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (1998) p. 268

For an account of John the Baptist's followers throughout history see: The Mandaeans