John the Baptist #4 A Chronology of His Life

John the Baptist #4 – A Chronology of His Life

Here is a Chronology of John’s life:

He was known by God in eternity past, both in his person, and the work he was ordained to do; this is true of all of us!

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Mal 4:5-6

That was said 400 some years before John’s birth.

His birth was announced by an angel:  Luk 1:13 “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.”

His birth was timed to perfectly coincided with the birth of Jesus.  His mother Elizabeth was barren for years, but gets pregnant six months before Mary.  The delay was needed so that Mary would be just the right age for engagement to Joseph, and all of the pieces in current affairs would be in place for the birth of Jesus, like the census, which would result in Jesus being born at Bethlehem, even though his parents did not live there.

John does not go into the priesthood, but goes to the desert, until his showing to Israel: Luk 1:80 “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.”

He then begins his public ministry, preaching in the desert, requiring people to come to him, to travel far, to suffer thirst and hunger, sleeping in the open desert, plus to suffer public exposure and possible ridicule: you could not go to John out in the desert in secret, everyone knew who was going to hear John, and who was getting baptized by him.

So for several months, John is preaching in the desert.  I would say he was preaching for about 6 months before Jesus comes to be baptized.  Here is the logic:

Num 4 clearly states that the priests did not start their public ministry until they were 30 years of age.  Most commentators therefore say John did not start his public ministry until he was 30, and that Jesus also did not start until he was 30.  Since John was 6 months older than Jesus, he would have been preaching for only 6 months when Jesus came to him to be baptized.

This is confirmed by Luk 3:23:  “And Jesus himself began (his ministry, being) to be about thirty years of age”

After Jesus is baptized and begins his public ministry, the transition happened: people stop going to John and start going to Jesus.

“After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizes, and all men come to him.” Joh 3:22-26

“After these things” refers to the time from his baptism and temptation, until the shift had been made.  During this time of people shifted from going to John to going to Jesus; it was during this time he did his first miracle of changing the water to wine, he cleansed the Temple for the 1st time, he said he would rebuild the Temple in 3 days, and he talked with Nicodemus (remember Nicodemus said “we see your miracles,” so Jesus was publicly active).

John the Apostle does not tell us when John the Baptist was put in prison, only saying in Jhn 3:24, that at that time, John had not yet been put into prison.

So from the time Jesus was baptized, until Jhn 3, during that short time period, John’s ministry began to decline.  He has done his work of preparing the way for the Messiah, and predicting his coming.  Now that Messiah was on the scene ministering publicly, John’s work is done, and he begins to fade off the scene.  And John rejoices in that!!

But for all of his uniqueness of person and work, and his singular importance in redemptive history, and being a human relative of Jesus; for all his faithfulness, and I would say, because of his faithfulness, he meets a terrible end:  he is beheaded for daring to rebuke Herod and Herodias for their sin.

When did that happen?

We can actually come pretty close to knowing.

All 3 Synoptic gospels have the Feeding of the 5000 immediately following the killing of John!

Mat 14:13-21; Mrk 6:14-44; Luk 9:7-17

Even though John the Apostle does not record the beheading of John the Baptist in his gospel, he does tell us about the feeding of the 5000 in Jhn 6,  so we can say for certainty, that John was beheaded during the time period recorded in Jhn 4 and 5.

His gospel is chronologically ordered; he in the one who gives us a clear understanding the Jesus’ ministry was over a 3 ½ year span, by noting 3 different Passovers: Jhn 2:13; Jhn 6:4; and

Jhn 11:55; in fact it is from John’s gospel that we know Jesus ministered for 3 years.

Based on the above, we can say that John was killed between the first recorded Passover and the second recorded Passover.  Jesus is baptized before the first recorded Passover, and John is killed between the 1st and 2nd recorded Passovers, so they ministered concurrently for about one year; only one year!

And then John is killed, and some faithful friends/followers come and get his headless body, and bury it; sad day indeed.

No one questions that John was a great man; no one questions his unique place in God’s Plan; what saddens us and perplexes us is the ignominious death he suffered; it does not seem fair or right to us that so great and faithful a servant should die in such a way.

We like happy endings … but think … the Lord Jesus is crucified, Peter is martyred, and millions of born-again, blood bought people, true born-again Christians have been murdered, martyred for the name of Jesus, starting virtually Day 1 of the Church, with the Jewish persecutions which followed the death of Stephen, then the persecutions under the Roman Emperors which went on from Nero until Constantine, around a 250 year time period, and then we have Roman Catholic church’s Inquisitions; and it is still going on today, as our brothers and sisters in Christ are bearing testimony to their faith, with their blood, in Muslim countries, in Hindu countries, in Communist countries, not to mention in the areas of traditional devil worshipping paganism.

Shame on us, we have it so easy in the Western World.

28 April 2024