John the Baptist

John the Baptist was a Jewish preacher who called for repentance and baptised followers in the Jordan region. John the Baptist served as prophet. John the Baptist is generally dated to 7 BCE–30.

The Gospels connect him with the beginning of Jesus’s ministry and describe his execution by Herod Antipas after criticism of the ruler’s marriage. John the Baptist was born in Ein Karem and died in Machaerus.

Jeffrey Archer’s The Gospel According to Judas revisits encounters involving John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Peter and Herod Antipas before reaching the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus. In Doug Peterson’s Thrones in the Desert, Five fictional lives intersect with the opening twelve chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Eliana, the daughter of a Zealot, is joined by a tax collector, an enslaved woman, a palace guard and a Pharisee whose ambitions and loyalties are disrupted as John the Baptist preaches and Jesus begins his ministry. Further fictional perspectives on John the Baptist can be found in Robert Graves’ King Jesus and Margaret George’s Mary, Called Magdalene.