What was the family of John the Baptist?

Answer 1

According to Luke's Gospel, Zacarias was the father of John the Baptist, and his mother was Elizabeth, a cousin of Mary, mother of Jesus. On this account, John was a distant cousin to Jesus. On the other hand, Uta Ranke-Heinemann (Putting Away Childish Things) suggests that Elizabeth was not a real person and that the author of Luke created the story of John's birth.

We can look at the evidence to see which of those views is most likely to be correct. All four New Testament gospels were originally anonymous, so we do not really know who wrote Luke's Gospel. It is known as a 'synoptic' gospel because when laid alongside Mark's Gospel (and Matthew's) and read synoptically ('with the same eye') in the original Greek language, it can be established that Luke was based on Mark. The 'Missing Block' demonstrates that where Luke's source was incomplete, he was unable to fill the gap with information from any other source or inspiration. Other evidence shows that Luke was written no earlier than the 90s of the first century.

What this means is that the author of Luke could not have known anything about the life of Jesus other than what he read in Mark, yet he confidently reported private family events that occurred at least a hundred years before the time of writing, providing the only gospel account of the birth of John the Baptist. Ranke-Heinemann would seem to have good grounds for assuming that Luke's story of the birth of John the Baptist was not really true, in which case we know nothing about his family.

Answer 2

St. John's parents were Sts. Elisabeth & Zechariah. The Lord Jesus Christ Is his Distant Cousin. However, John was raised by the Essenes.