According to the Gospel of Luke, he was a relative of Jesus on his mother's side. He was born six months before Jesus, his father Zacharias was a Jewish high priest, and his mother Elizabeth.
Zacharias was punished by God with silence, because when an angel told him that a son would be born, he did not believe it, because he was already very old; he remained silent until the birth of János.
John lived as a hermit in the desert before he began to preach. Later he preached to the people about the coming of Christ and preached repentance. He baptized people in the water of the Jordan River. This is where the practice of baptism among Christians comes from. Jesus himself went to him to be baptized , which John - who then recognized Jesus as the Savior - did not want to do at first, but Jesus persuaded him: "Let me now, because this is how it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." (Matthew 3:15)
King Herod respected and feared him, because he considered him a holy man, [9] he still accepted John, because he condemned him for marrying his brother's widow, Herodias. As a result of the woman's manipulations, the king beheaded John (according to the Bible, when Herodias' daughter Salome danced in front of the king, and he promised to grant her any wish, and her mother instructed Salome to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a tray.)
Iosephus Flavius, he was martyred in the castle of Mahérusz, a fortress east of the Jordan.[10][11]
Jesus mentioned John the Baptist as the greatest man of his time.[12]
Source: Wikipedia
(Header image: Caravaggio: Beheading of St. John the Baptist)
