Who Was John the Baptist?

In the gospel accounts, Jesus’ ministry begins with his baptism by a figure named John the Baptist, whose own disciples continued to revere him after his execution. Many historians have argued that the historical Jesus was originally a disciple of John the Baptist. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at what is known about the historical John, his practice of baptism, and his legacy in both Christianity and also Mandaeism (a small, ancient religion which may trace its origin to John’s disciples).

Save the date and join us live to participate in the discussion and to ask questions to our lecturer during the Q&A.



#lecture #cofchrist

[blazinchalice]

Once again, thank you for making these wonderful lectures freely available to the public. Great work!

[aaronprice]

This lecture series is the best YouTube discovery I have made this year. Last year’s lucky find:Terrence McKenna!

[vandevere]

Always excited to rewatch these lecture videos 1x a day for 1 week straight

[ronwalker]

WHAT A BRILLIANT INTELLECT, HISTORIAN, AND PHENOMENAL MEMORY FOR INSTANT RECALL.. I WISH THAT I HAD A PROFESSOR LIKE YOU IN UNIVERSITY.

[shipmate]

John Baptist needs more love by historians

[BR-urgk]

Love your lectures John, you have such a soft docile timbre I thought these would be great lectures to fall asleep to, kinda like when I was religious and my parents would tell me bible stories to fall asleep to, but you are so interesting I just want to keep listening, its a great example of excellent background research combined with critical thinking, presented in a very amicable way and not taking a side but presenting the evidence at hand - really appreciate your ideas and how professionally you present everything, great job!

[AGMundy]

I.have no religious faith but am.fascinated by something that has had such an impact on the world. As a keen amateur historian I have further interest in tyr the subject too. I enjoy these detailed lectures very much.

[douglaslegvold]

Thank you for all your unbiased scholarship!

[richardwhitfill]

I enjoyed this interesting program. Thank you. Richard in Dallas

[bethphilip]

very interesting. and no added music - WONDERFULL :)

[Robert_L_Peters]

I had a comment but then I forgot. So I'll just say thank you

[owlnyc]

I liked this video about John much more than other videos I have watched about him It was much more informative and much less preachy! 😇😎😉

[larryc]

The execution of John the Baptist is a severe INJUSTICE. Thank you. Outstanding seminar.💯

[GeraldSmallbear]

Great to see your usual standard of scholarly excellence has resumed.

[FinneyBlake-hglm]

I'm using this video for a confermation Assignment, so this is really neat

[jesudaniel]

Hi, good to see you here. It happened automatically while I search for John the baptist food. From Sri Lanka

[evadeddeluge]

So, are you, John, a Christian, or a believer in Christ ?? I think it's important for us fans of yours. We love your subjects and lectures they're very informative and fills in a lot of

[andreymaslov]

can you also post the transcript of the video?

[johnweber]

How John the Baptist fits into the broader history around development of Christianity and indeed the broader Abrahamic tradition is really interesting and the mysterious background of the Mandaeans just adds an extra layer that can’t help but get my mind going. As said in this video and others on the channel, it’s impossible to prove whether the Mandaeans truly do go back to John the Baptist, but a couple of things can’t help but stand out to me when wondering about.

1) An austere lifestyle often comes hand in hand with cosmological dualism. Variations on the phenomenon also famously manifested within Jainism and Manichaeism. The notion that the temptations or creature comforts of the material world is evil in some sense naturally lends itself to the idea that the material world at base is evil and something totally apart from the spiritual realm of light. Alternatively, maybe that’s an explanation you might think of to justify the practice afterward. Or it could have motivated by the need for a new direction after the loss of their leader. The point being that the asceticism of John’s movement might have over time given way to Mandaean dualism. John himself wouldn’t have necessarily had to be the one preaching it for it to appear among his followers anymore than it did amongst those in the congregations of Proto-Orthodox Christians.

2) However, if Jesus did take a number of John’s followers with when he started his own ministry and they did bring either Mandaean or Proto-Mandaean concepts along with them, then that could explain why Gnosticism was such a prevalent heretical movement throughout the early church communities. Mandeaeism tends to get classified as a species of Gnosticism due to the amount of overlap. The aforementioned dualistic outlook, a tenuous relationship with the Hebrew Bible, some level of practicing self-denial involved, etc. When it comes to groups who play their cards so close to the chest like the ones in question, it can be hard to know for sure all their most important beliefs. A critical difference of course was that the Gnostics fully embraced the idea that Jesus is the Messiah while the Mandaeans regardless of wherever their origins lie reject him as a false prophet alongside Abraham and Moses.

3) And thus it is also notable that the Gnostics weren’t the only distinctive religious group outside mainline Christianity to accept Jesus as an honored figure. Newer full-blown ancient religions including Manichaeism, Islam and Druzism all adopted him into their story even if they had had different understandings of him than Christians. Specifically, the fact that they viewed him as a prophet rather than the divine son of God. The Mandaeans stand out as a faith connected to the Abrahamic religions many think came after Christianity that didn’t even accept Jesus on those terms. It can’t help but raise the question as to why that might have been the case despite the wider pattern. He was a popular and widely respected figure in their world many claimed as their own which could indicate an established loyalty to John’s movement which preceded the rise of Jesus’ own into what looks like a rival.

Naturally, that’s all just me speculating. It’s perhaps even downright fanciful and can have holes poked in it by those who know more about these subjects than I do. But these are the thoughts that came to me about the topic at hand based upon what I know now and I might as well leave them here. These lectures and the discussions alongside them are just great food for thought in general.

[stevenv]

Interesting new information on the Mandeans I hadn't heard anywhere else. I am also interested in how some Shia sects use John the Baptist and other more minor figures.