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JOHN the Baptist lived thirty years in the
desert with the wild beasts; and after thirty years he came from the wilderness
to the habitations of men. From the day when his father made him flee to the
desert, when he was a child, until he came (again), he covered himself with the
same clothes both summer and winter, without changing his ascetic mode of life.
And he preached in the wilderness of Judaea, saying, 'Repent, the kingdom of God
draweth nigh;' and he baptised them with the baptism of repentance for the
remission of their sins. He said to them, 'Behold, there cometh after me a man
who is stronger than I, the latchets of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.
I baptise you with water for repentance, but He who cometh after me is stronger
than I; He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire:' thereby
referring to that which was about to be wrought on the apostles, who received
the Holy Spirit by tongues of fire, and this took the place of baptism to them,
and by this grace they were about to receive all those who were baptised in
Christ. Jesus came to John at the river Jordan to be baptised by him; but John
restrained Him, saying, 'I need to be baptised by Thee, and art Thou come to
me?' Jesus said to him, 'It is meet thus to fulfil the words of prophecy.' When
Jesus had been baptised, as soon as He had gone up from the water, He saw that
the heavens were rent, and the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him, and a
voice from heaven said, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' On
this day the Trinity was revealed to men; by the Father who cried out, and by
the Son who was baptised, and by the Holy Spirit which came down upon Him in the
corporeal form of a dove. Touching the voice which was heard from heaven,
saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him,' every
one heard the voice; but John only was worthy p. 90 to see
the vision of the Spirit by the mind. The day of our Lord's birth was the fourth
day of the week, but the day of His baptism was the fifth. When John rebuked
Herod, saying that it was not lawful for him to take his brother Philip's wife,
he seized John, and cast him into the prison called Machaerûs1.
And it came to pass on a certain day, when Herod on his birthday made a feast
for his nobles, that Bôzîyâ, the daughter of Herodias, came in and danced before
the guests; and she was pleasing in the sight of Herod and his nobles. And he
said to her, 'Ask of me whatsoever thou desirest and I will give it to thee;'
and he sware to her saying that whatever she asked he would give it to her, unto
the half of his kingdom. She then went in to Herodias her mother and said to
her, 'What shall I ask of him?' She said to her, 'The head of John the Baptist;'
for the wretched woman thought that when John should be slain, she and her
daughter would be free from the reprover, and would have an opportunity to
indulge their lust: for Herod committed adultery with the mother and with her
daughter. Then she went in to the king's presence and said to him, 'Give me now
the head of John the Baptist on a charger.' And the king shewed sorrow, as if,
forsooth, he was not delighted at the murder of the saint; but by reason of the
force and compulsion of the oath he was obliged to cut off John's head. If, O
wretched Herod, she had demanded of thee the half of thy kingdom, that she might
sit upon the throne beside thee and divide (it) with thee, wouldst thou have
acceded to her, and not have falsified thy oath, O crafty one? And the king
commanded an executioner, and he cut off the head of the blessed man, and he put
it in a charger and brought and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to
her mother. Then she went out to dance upon the ice, and it opened under her,
and she sank into the water up to her neck; and no one was able to deliver her.
And they brought the sword with which John's head had been cut off, and cut off
hers and carried it to Herodias her mother. When she saw her daughter's head and
that of the holy man, she became blind, and her right hand, with which she had
taken up John's head, dried up; and p. 91 her tongue dried
up, because she had reviled him, and Satan entered into her, and she was bound
with fetters. Some say that the daughter of Herodias was called Bôzîyâ, but
others say that she also was called by her mother's name Herodias. When John was
slain, his disciples came and took his body and laid him in a grave; and they
came and told Jesus. The two disciples whom John sent to our Lord, saying, 'Art
thou He that should come, or do we look for another,' were Stephen the martyr
and deacon, and Hananyah (Ananias) who baptised Paul. Some say that the wild
honey and locusts, which he fed upon in the wilderness, was manna,--which was
the food of the children of Israel, and of which Enoch and Elijah eat in
Paradise,--for its taste is like that of honey. Moses compares it to coriander
seed, and the anchorites in the mountains feed upon it. Others say that it was a
root like unto a carrot; it is called Kâmûs, and its taste is sweet like
honey-comb. Others say that the locusts were in reality some of those which
exist in the world, and that the honey-comb was that which is woven by the
little bees, and is found in small white cakes in desert places. |
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