49 Fun Facts About John the Baptist

According to the Gospel of Luke, who were John the Baptist's parents?

Zechariah and Elizabeth both came from Aaron's priestly line and were too old to expect a child. Luke calls the mother a relative of Mary, which is why tradition makes John and Jesus cousins.

Which angel announced John the Baptist's birth to his father in the Temple?

Gabriel appeared beside the altar of incense while the old priest served alone in the sanctuary. Luke sends the same angel to Mary months later with news of her own son.

What happened to John the Baptist's father when he doubted the angel's message?

He was struck dumb until the baby's naming day, when he wrote 'His name is John' on a tablet. His speech returned at once, and his song of thanks is still sung as the Benedictus.

The Church fixed John the Baptist's birthday feast by counting back from which other feast?

Christmas sets the date: Luke says John's mother was six months pregnant when Mary conceived, so his birthday feast was placed six months ahead of Jesus's, on 24 June.

Christian tradition places John's birthplace at Ein Karem, a village on the outskirts of which city?

Jerusalem lies about five miles north-east of Ein Karem and has since absorbed it as a neighbourhood. Luke says only that John's parents lived in 'a city of Judah' in the hill country, so tradition supplied the village.

The Gospels describe John's clothing as made from the hair of which animal?

Camel hair made an austere garment, and that was the point: a hairy cloak with a leather belt was the traditional garb of a Hebrew prophet, so John's clothes announced his calling.

What did John the Baptist famously eat in the desert?

Locusts and wild honey became honey alone in the gospel of the Ebionite sect, which turned the Greek for locust, akris, into egkris, a cake. The bishop Epiphanius accused them of doctoring the text.

In Matthew's Gospel, John calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a 'brood of' what?

Vipers was his greeting for the religious elite who came out to his baptism: he asked who had warned them to flee the coming wrath. Descent from Abraham would not save them, he added, since God could raise Abraham's children from stones.

When priests asked who he was, John the Baptist described himself as what?

A voice crying in the wilderness is a line from Isaiah, and John borrowed it to say he was only the announcer. He had just denied being the Messiah, and all four Gospels pin the same verse on him.

In which river did John baptise Jesus?

The Jordan is where, in Matthew's telling, John at first refused, protesting that Jesus ought to be baptising him. Jesus insisted, and the baptism is generally counted as the start of his ministry.

Al-Maghtas, the traditional site of the baptism of Jesus, lies in which modern country?

Jordan could only open the site after its peace treaty with Israel: the riverbank had been a closed military frontier since the 1967 war, and once it was cleared archaeologists uncovered ancient churches and baptism pools.

At the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit is described as descending in the form of which bird?

A dove descends in all four Gospels, though only Luke says it came 'in bodily form'. A voice from the sky then calls Jesus 'my beloved Son'.

In Eastern Christianity, the baptism of Jesus is commemorated on 6 January under which feast name?

Theophany keeps 6 January for the baptism in the river, while Western churches call the day Epiphany and keep it mainly for the visit of the Magi. Both names mean a showing-forth of who Jesus was.

According to Matthew, Jesus explicitly identified John as the return of which Old Testament prophet?

Elijah was expected back before the day of the Lord, on Malachi's promise, and Jesus said John had filled the role. In John's Gospel the Baptist himself, asked the same thing, flatly answers 'I am not'.

In Eastern Orthodoxy, John is most commonly given which title?

The Forerunner often wears angel's wings in Orthodox icons, because Mark's Gospel applies to him the prophecy of a messenger sent ahead to prepare the way.

Which ruler ordered John's execution after John condemned his marriage?

Herod Antipas had divorced a Nabataean princess to marry his brother's wife. When her father, King Aretas, later destroyed his army, some Jews called it God's punishment for killing John.

What was the name of the woman whose marriage to the tetrarch John denounced, and who demanded his death?

Herodias had left the tetrarch's half-brother to marry him, and John's objection was a legal one: 'It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife', a ban that goes back to Leviticus.

Which historian supplies the name Salome for the unnamed girl who danced for Herod?

Josephus names Salome only in passing, while listing the dynasty's marriages. The Gospels tell the banquet story but leave the girl nameless, so the Salome of legend is stitched together from the two.

On what was John's severed head delivered to the dancing girl, at her request?

A plate carried the head into the banquet, and the girl passed it straight to her mother. The king was sorry, the Gospels say, but would not break an oath sworn before his guests.

John was executed at which hilltop fortress east of the Dead Sea?

Machaerus is never named in the Gospels, which say only that John died 'in the prison'. The location comes from the Antiquities of the Jews, which has him sent there as a prisoner and put to death.

In the Antiquities of the Jews, why does the tetrarch have John the Baptist killed?

Fear of a popular revolt: the crowds seemed ready to do anything John advised, the Antiquities says, so the tetrarch struck first. The Gospels instead blame a rash banquet oath and a wife's grudge.

The tetrarch who killed John was exiled to Gaul after being accused of conspiracy against which emperor?

Caligula heard the charge from the tetrarch's own nephew Agrippa, then handed Agrippa the exile's money and lands. The tetrarch had sailed to Rome, at his wife's urging, to ask for the title of king.

According to the historian who names her, what did Salome go on to be?

A queen in Armenia Minor: she married a cousin whom Nero set over the territory. Far from the doomed temptress of later legend, she is recorded as marrying twice and raising three sons.

How do Orthodox Christians traditionally keep the feast of John the Baptist's beheading?

With a strict fast: though it is a feast day, the Orthodox mark John's violent death with grief, not celebration. In some cultures the pious also refuse to use a knife or eat anything round that day.

Which building in Damascus claims to hold John the Baptist's head?

The Umayyad Mosque replaced a church dedicated to John and kept his shrine, where Muslims still pray. In 2001 John Paul II came to see it, the first time any pope had set foot in a mosque.

Which Picardy cathedral claims to hold John the Baptist's head, brought after the Fourth Crusade?

Amiens received the relic from a crusader home from the sack of Constantinople. Pilgrims poured in, and their offerings helped fund the great Gothic cathedral that rose soon afterwards.

The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul claims to hold which part of John the Baptist?

His forearm and hand are shown in a golden casing in the palace treasury. Islam, too, honours John as a prophet, so the relic sat comfortably among the sacred treasures the Ottoman sultans collected.

In Islam, John the Baptist is known by what name?

Yahya is promised to his aged father in the Quran, which adds that no one had been given the name before. Tradition says Muhammad later met him in the second heaven, beside his cousin Jesus.

Which ancient religious group in Iraq and Iran regards John the Baptist as its final prophet?

The Mandaeans baptise again and again in flowing water, not once in a lifetime. European missionaries mistook them for a lost church and called them 'Christians of Saint John', though they regard Jesus as a false prophet.

Which crusading order of knights, later rulers of Rhodes and Malta, took John the Baptist as its patron?

The Knights Hospitaller began by nursing sick pilgrims in a Holy Land hospice. Their armed escorts for travellers slowly grew into an army, and the brothers turned into a fighting order without ever giving up the wards.

John the Baptist is the patron saint of which Italian city, whose baptistery is dedicated to him?

Florence stamped him on its gold florin, with the city's lily on the other side. Accepted across Europe and copied by scores of other mints, the coin carried its patron far beyond Tuscany.

Which Yorkshire wool town puts John the Baptist's head on its coat of arms?

Halifax dedicated its parish church, now a minster, to John, the wool weavers' patron saint. His face on the shield plays on an old and probably mistaken reading of the town's name as 'holy face'.

St John's Eve on 23 June is traditionally marked across Europe with what?

Bonfires were lit that night to drive away the witches and evil spirits thought to be abroad. In many places young people still take a running jump over the flames.

Besides John the Baptist's, whose is the only other saint's feast marking an earthly birth?

The Virgin Mary's birthday is kept in September. Other saints are honoured on the day they died, but Catholic teaching holds that these two were freed from original sin before birth, John when he leapt in the womb.

'He must increase, but I must decrease' is read as matching what event around John's June feast?

The days beginning to shorten after midsummer were taken as the sun itself acting out John's words. Early churchmen called his season the 'lessening days', a fitting time for the man who stepped aside.

In Western art, John is often shown with a scroll or dish bearing which animal?

A lamb, because John pointed to Jesus and called him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His words passed into the Mass, where they are still said or sung before communion.

Which artist's Saint John the Baptist, now in the Louvre, is believed to be his final painting?

Leonardo da Vinci took the panel with him when he moved to France for the king, and was probably showing it to a visiting cardinal there in 1517. His John smiles out of the dark and points a finger to heaven.

Which Baroque painter, on the run after a killing in Rome, painted a vast Beheading of John the Baptist in Malta?

Caravaggio signed his name in the blood spilling from John's throat. The altarpiece is the largest picture he ever painted, and it still hangs in the oratory it was made for.

Which sculptor made the baptistery's south doors in John's patron city, before Ghiberti did the north and east?

The building also holds the first Renaissance funerary monument, by Donatello and Michelozzo.

Oscar Wilde's one-act tragedy Salome was originally written in which language?

French was the language Wilde chose for it. A London production was already in rehearsal when the censor stopped it, because biblical characters were not allowed on the British stage.

Which composer turned Wilde's Salome into a one-act opera in 1905?

Richard Strauss had his first operatic hit with it, even though some called it blasphemous and obscene. In Vienna the censor refused to let Gustav Mahler stage it.

Which notorious dance is the great set piece of the opera Salome?

The Dance of the Seven Veils was Oscar Wilde's invention. The Gospels say only that a girl danced at the king's birthday feast; they give her dance no name and mention no veils.

Baha'is regard which figure as the spiritual return of John the Baptist?

The Bab, a merchant's son from Shiraz, was shot by a firing squad in 1850. Baha'is see him as doing for their founder, Baha'u'llah, what John did for Jesus.

In Matthew 11:11, Jesus said no one greater than John the Baptist had risen among those born of whom?

Women: 'among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater'. The same verse then turns it around, adding that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

What is a slava, which many Serbs keep on John the Baptist's day?

A family's patron saint feast, the slava is handed down the generations. A candle is lit, wine is poured over a ritual bread, and the loaf is broken before relatives and neighbours sit down to eat.

From prison, John the Baptist sent followers to ask Jesus what?

Whether he was the one to come, 'or should we look for another?' The man who had announced Jesus now sent the question from a cell, and Jesus answered only by pointing to his works: the blind see, the lame walk.

Which German city's Residenz displays yet another claimed head of John the Baptist?

Munich's palace museum keeps one among its relics. The collection dates from the Counter-Reformation, when Duke Wilhelm V won the pope's permission to acquire relics, and his son Maximilian enlarged it.

John's 24 June feast is celebrated officially as the national holiday of which Canadian province?

Quebec owes the holiday to editor Ludger Duvernay, who saw Montreal's Irish celebrate St Patrick's Day and wanted the same for francophone Canadians. He held a patriotic banquet on 24 June 1834.

Columbus named which Caribbean island 'San Juan Bautista' in honour of John the Baptist?

Puerto Rico, 'rich port', was at first only the name of the island's harbour town. Over time traders and mapmakers swapped the two, so the island took the port's name and the capital kept the saint's.