What was john the baptists role in jesus' life?

Answer 1

A:The gospels tell us that John the Baptist baptised for the remission of sins, until he baptised Jesus, for whom he prepared the way (Mark 1:2), and soon after he was arrested for publicly criticising the marriage of Herod Antipas to his own brother's former wife.

Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, on the other hand tells us that John baptised for the purification of the body, not for remission of sins. He agrees that John was arrested and executed for publicly criticising the marriage of Herod Antipas, but records that the wedding took place in 34 CE. He says John:

"was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [remission] of some sins, but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness."

As can be seen, Josephus quite explicitly differs from the gospel account on the purpose of baptism, but gives us some insights into similarities between the teachings of John and those of Jesus.

Another view:

Simply put, John's primary role was that of the precursor of Jesus Christ - to announce the impending arrival of the Messiah and call people to repentance in preparation. John, himself, defined his role as prophesied by Isaiah:

I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.'"

Answer 2

Luke's Gospel suggests that Jesus and John the Baptist were related, saying that Mary and Elizabeth were cousins. In contrast, the Gospel of John says that John did not know Jesus, when he baptised him. We should look at the broader issues to form a view as to how much the evangelists really knew about John, before either accepting or dismissing Luke's claim. These issues could include not only the death of John the Baptist but also whether Luke's account of the births of John and Jesus are credible.

The gospels say that John baptised Jesus. Soon afterwards, and therefore around 29 CE, John was imprisoned in Galilee, where Herod Antipas reluctantly had John beheaded on a whim of Herodias, who asked for his head on a platter. On the other hand, the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, says that Antipas had John imprisoned and executed in the far-away castle of Macherus because he publicly criticised Antipas for marrying his own brother's former wife. The marriage took place in 34 CE and the execution would have taken place in 35 or 36 CE. Shortly afterwards, in 36 CE, King Aretus of Nabatea attacked and defeated Antipas, in revenge for having divorced Aretas' daughter, and many Jews said that the defeat was God's revenge for his summary execution of John. This is entirely contrary in many ways to the gospel account, and it appears that it is the gospel account which was most untrue. It may be that the evangelist, seeing the cult of John the Baptist as a real threat to the spread of Christianity, sought to turn this around and use John's own fame to his advantage.

Answer 3

The main role of John the Baptist was to clear the way and to baptize Jesus in the river Jordan. After that only Jesus started his ministry.