John the Baptist

They were first cousins

Answer

According to Luke's Gospel, John the Baptist and Jesus were second cousins, as their mothers, Elizabeth and Mary, were cousins. This information is not found outside Luke's Gospel, and the majority of New Testament scholars dismiss the story as unhistorical, with Uta Ranke-Heinemann (Putting Away Childish Things) saying that Elizabeth was a literary creation by the author of Luke's Gospel. So, on the scholarly view, John and Jesus were not related.

Answer

They were second cousins--though they didn't know each other very well.

A:

The apostle John is traditionally credited with having written the fourth gospel and three epistles, all of which now bear his name. He is often also credited with writing the Book of Revelation, although this claim was already seriously doubted in the second century.

The tradition of authorship by John came about because the second-century Church Fathers sought to establish who wrote each of the, previously anonymous, New Testament gospels, and decided that there were clues in the gospel that pointed to John as the author. They noticed that this gospel did not mention the apostle John, but alone of all the gospels mentioned a disciple "whom Jesus loved." They decided that this disciple was John and that he was also the author of the fourth gospel, too modest to use his own name. On such a speculative claim, John has ever since been credited with having written one of the gospels, which came to be known as John's Gospel. As three epistles appear to have been written by the same author as the fourth gospel, the Church Fatherstherefore attributed these to the disciple John. The Book of Revelation was eventually attributed to the apostle John simply because it is signed by an otherwise unknown author called John.

Modern scholars say that the gospel now known as John's Gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed, which thus means that John was certainly not the author. And if John did not write the gospel that bears his name, he did not write the Johannine epistles. The author of the Book of Revelation is now commonly called 'John of Patmos' to distinguish him both from the apostle John and the anonymous author of John's Gospel.

Research has shown that St. John the apostle did not write any books in the New Testament.

Herod Antipas was a Jewish leader, ruler of Galilee and Peraea between 4 BC and 39 AD. Herod Antipas -a nickname derived from Antipatros- was the son of the Jewish king Herod the Great and his wife Malthace.

Hope this answers your question

Chester
http:/www.prayer-for-cancer.com

Matthew 3:7 - But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"[NKJV]

Notice the wording: "coming to his baptism" - not "coming to be baptized."

The Pharisees and Sadducees were not willing to be baptized by John, they only came to "see what was going on," as it were. This is why he refers to them as a "brood of vipers," and warns them to "bear fruits worthy of repentance," in Matt. 3:8.

That the Pharisees and Sadducees did not submit to John's baptism is made clear later in Matthew's gospel when Jesus asks the Jewish leaders, "The baptism of John - where was it from? From heaven or from men?" And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet." (Matthew 21:25, 26)

Let's not forget this passage... [NIV]

Luke 3:7,8: John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! , "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

[In this passage it is more ambiguous and it could be argued that the Pharisees wanted to be get baptised. Even if they did want to it is doubtful John would have baptised them because they would not repent. This shows that it is not biological children of Abraham that should be baptised.

Romans 4:6-8 states "it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring."

No one!

2Cor.12:1 To boast, indeed, is useless for me, for I shall go on to visions and revelations of the Lord

2 I knew a man in Messiah over fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such an one caught up to the 3rd Heaven.

Paul in visions seen a man go into the 3rd Heaven, there the open heaven (sky) called Shamayim in Hebrew, then there's the Heaven where the planets and we've been, then there is the 3rd Heaven where GOD and his 24 Elders and angels are.

There is No scripture about a Seventh Heaven, or the words Seven and Heaven together in the same sentence. And even Paul was a vision, Messiah Yeshua (aka Jesus) said No man as ascended to Heaven, except He that came down, speaking of Himself. We must go by what the bible says. Like Yeshua died on Passover, He then will come back on a Feast, being Trumpets.

Rabbi Tom

Matthew 3:13-15 records:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. (NIV)

The kinship of Jesus and John depends on Mary and Elizabeth being cousins, but Uta Ranke-Heinemann (Putting Away Childish Things) believes that Elizabeth and Zechariah were literary creations by the author of Luke's Gospel.

First we need to establish in what year John the Baptist died.

According to the canonical Gospels, John died shortly after Jesus began his ministry. According to tradition, this would place his death about 29 or 30 CE. However, the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, seems to place his death much later, at about 36 CE. (1)

Luke says that John was born a little before Jesus. In turn, Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod the Great, who died in April 4 BCE. In fact, Matthew seems to think that Jesus was born some years before the death of Herod.

Based on the above information, John was certainly at least 40 years old, and possibly much older. (1) Evidence from Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews Book XVIII)

Josephus places the marriage of Antipas to his brother's former wife, Herodias, at the same time as, or shortly after, the death of Philip II, who he says died in the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius (34 CE). John was highly critical of this marriage, causing Antipas to fear that he would cause an insurrection:

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 he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death.

Josephus makes it clear that Antipas intended to execute John, and it seems most improbable that he would long delay the execution if he feared an insurrection by John's supporters. The execution would have quickly followed the imprisonment.

Additionally, King Aretas attacked and defeated Antipas in 36 CE in revenge for the slight to his daughter, whom Antipas divorced in order to marry Herodias. We can expect a one or two year delay during which the news reached Aretas and he considered a diplomatic solution or demanded compensation, then raised an army, but an angry father is not likely to have waited ten years to take action.

Some of the Jews believed that Antipas' defeat was divine retribution for his execution of John:Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him.

This association makes it most likely that John's death was a quite recent event at the time of the defeat - closer in time to the battle than to the wedding, and certainly not something that occurred 8 or 10 years earlier.

Another answer:

Josephus adds the additional detail that the military defeat of Herod, known to have occurred in 36 AD was seen by many Jews as a direct punishment by God for Herod's execution of John. Obviously there is not sufficient time for Jesus to have been crucified in 36 as well as this defeat. History shows that both Pilate and Herod had other things going on in 36 which indicate the crucifixion was in the past by a number of years.

In the light of the Gospel record, it would seem likely that John was indeed around 36 or possibly even 39 years of age when he was executed in the year 32 AD, since we also know John was born before Jesus, who was born before 4 BC possibly down to 6 BC.

Summary: John was likely around 36 to 38 (a more likely age) when he was executed.