John, The Baptist
According to the Gospel of Luke, in the days of the birth of Jesus' (Luke 1:5), Judaea was described as being subjected to the rule of a foreign power, under the reign of Herod. Although Jesus' birth was by far the most significant of all time, his was not the only of note to take place during that same period in history. On one June 24th (year uncertain), another child, who was Jesus' cousin was born at Ain-Karim, to a temple priest in the order of Abia, named Zacharias and his elderly wife Elisabeth (Luke 1:57-79), who was one of the daughters of Aaron and kinswoman of Mary (Jesus' mother). This birth was predicted by the Angel Gabriel (Luke 1:5-25) and it was told that the child would be filled with the Holy Ghost, even while in his mother womb. Because his father (Zacharias) doubted the proclamation of the angel, he was struck dumb until the child's birth. The child born to the couple, who came to be named John, would play important part in Jesus' life and it was he that announced to the world that the Lamb of God had come. It would be John who would turn many of the children of Israel back to God and he gained a tremendous amount of influence in the region, but also drew the ire of some.
Herod Antipas (king), Tetrarch of Perea and Galilee, feared John's influence with the people as he was a witnessed for Christ, but had him cast into prison after he (John) denounced Herod's adulterous and incestuous relationship with his half-brother's wife, Herodias. John was not asked to deny Jesus, but to keep silent about the truth. He refused and proclaimed that he would not suppress the truth. Although John the Baptist is a relatively obscure figure in the Bible, his participation still play a significant role in the fulfillment of the prophesies of the coming of Christ. His identification of Jesus as the Messiah, like all of the inter-linking prophesies, is one of the keys that helps to substantiate Christ's divine mission here on earth. Interestingly and ironically, most people know very little about John the Baptist, but many have heard the unusual remark associated directly with the story of John, when someone's anger at another causes them to say, "I'll have his head presented on a silver platter". John appears in history and the scriptures as a boundary between the old and the new testaments, which was confirmed by the Lord Jesus when he spoke of "the law and the prophets up until John the Baptist", thus giving a separation of the two eras. John's personal lineage represents a division of these periods in that his parents were both aged and were his connection with the past and its traditions, but he was also the herald of the new era, when is declared as a prophet even while he was still in his mother's womb, as leapt at the arrival of Mary (his aunt and Jesus' mother). John the Baptist's ministry had several peculiarities when viewed critically and in context to the other events that are chronicled in the Bible. It was temporary (
Some common words found in the essay are:
John Baptist, Christ Jesus, John Baptist's, Machaerus Fortress, Holy Ghost, Herod Jesus', Abraham Matthew, Lamb God, Herodias John, Perea Galilee, john baptist, lamb god, river jordan, god john, john baptist's, jesus' mother, head john baptist, coming messiah, head john,
Approximate Word count = 1192
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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