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John the Baptist (c. 6 BC – c. AD 30) was an itinerant Jewish preacher (Hebrew name Yochanan) who was active in the area of the Jordan River in the early 1st century AD. Sometimes referred to as John the Baptizer, he is known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Catholicism, and Oriental Orthodoxy, as Saint John the Immerser in the Baptist tradition, and as the prophet Yahya ibn Zakariya in Islam.
John the Baptist is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, the Druze faith, and Mandaeism; in the last of these he is considered to be the final and most vital prophet. He is regarded as a prophet of God by all of the aforementioned faiths, and is honoured as a saint in many Christian denominations.
According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself; in the Gospels, he is portrayed as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus himself identifies John as "Elijah who is to come", which is a direct reference to the Book of Malachi (Malachi 4:5), as confirmed by the angel Gabriel, who announced John's birth to his father Zechariah. According to the Gospel of Luke, John and Jesus were relatives.
Some scholars think that John belonged to the Essenes, a semi-ascetic Jewish sect who expected a messiah and practised ritual baptism. John used baptism as the central symbol or sacrament of his pre-messianic movement. The majority of biblical scholars agree that John baptized Jesus, and several New Testament accounts report that some of Jesus's early followers had previously been followers of John.
According to the New Testament, John the Baptist was sentenced to death by Herod Antipas and subsequently beheaded around AD 30, after John rebuked him for divorcing his wife and then unlawfully wedding Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip I. The Roman historian Josephus also mentions John in his Antiquities of the Jews, and states that he was executed by order of Herod Antipas in the fortress at Machaerus.
Followers of John persisted into the second century AD, and some proclaimed him to be the Messiah awaited by Jews. In modern times, the followers of John the Baptist are the Mandaeans, an ancient ethnoreligious group who believe that he is their greatest and final prophet. In Catholic martyrology, John is the only saint whose birth and death are both commemorated.
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