What was John the Baptist's childhood?

Answer 1

John spent the early years of his life in the hill country of Judea, where his parents lived. He "went on growing and getting strong in spirit, and he continued in the deserts until the day of showing himself openly to Israel." (Luke 1:39, 80)

Answer 2

Both of John's parents were of the priestly house of Aaron. Zechariah was a priest of the division of Abijah. (Luke 1:5, 6) He spent the early years of his life in the hill country of Judea, where his parents lived. (Luke 1:39, 80)

Answer 3

Luke's Gospel says that John the Baptist was born miraculously to Elizabeth in her old age, six months before Jesus was born to Mary. The problem is that only the author of Luke's Gospel seems to have known anything about John's infancy and childhood, or been aware of a family relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist, if such a relationship existed. Even the name of John's mother raises doubts as to the historicity of events that supposedly occurred many decades before Luke was written. John Shelby Spong (Born of a Woman) says he is suspicious because Elizabeth in Hebrew would be Elisheba', a name that appears only once in the Old Testament, as the wife of Aaron, brother of Moses. Luke 1:5 describes Elizabeth as the daughter of Aaron, so the author must have had Aaron and Moses in mind when he wrote his Gospel.

Until the historicity of this part of Luke's Gospel is resolved, we must acknowledge we really know nothing about the family of John the Baptist, including his birth and childhood.

Answer 4

In Luke 1 v39 it says that Mary the mother of God visited Elizabeth (Johns mother) in the hill country of Judea. and it is later mentioned in Luke 1 v65.

Answer 5

His parents took him into the wilderness, to be raised by the Essenes.

Answer 6

John the Baptist grew up in Bethlehem.

Answer 7

In Jerusalem