Authority of John The Baptist

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I’d like to learn more about John The Baptist.
For example, my simple knowledge tells me that he just came onto the scene and started to baptize people. I presume he didn’t baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - because he wouldn’t have known about the Trinity at this stage. Right?

So, what was he doing?
Was it some kind of Jewish Baptism?
By what authority did he have to baptize people; Who taught him to baptize?

If anybody has any literature (books, links, videos) on this subject, please share!
Thanks in advance.
 
One hint:
John 1:33
And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
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John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He is considered the last of the Old Testament prophets. Matthew 3 has a bit to say about him.
 
Indeed. A mysterious and extreme;y ascetic group. Fr. Mitch Pacwa teaches that the upper room was in the Essene portion of Jerusalem. For that reason, the Apostles were to meet “a man carrying a jug of water” when all other references, i.e. the woman at the well in John 8, women normally did that. The Essene normally were chaste and unmarried, so that was appropriate for our Lord.
 
Not to mention that Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins.
 
We don’t know much about him. It is possible that his parents hid them in the wilderness during the massacre of the Innocents and he stayed and grew up there. It is also possible that he was born without sin and stayed sinless. His skull is supposed to be at the Church of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome.
 
czeaiter said:
I’d like to learn more about John The Baptist.
For example, my simple knowledge tells me that he just came onto the scene and started to baptize people. I presume he didn’t baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - because he wouldn’t have known about the Trinity at this stage. Right?

So, what was he doing?
Was it some kind of Jewish Baptism?
By what authority did he have to baptize people; Who taught him to baptize?

If anybody has any literature (books, links, videos) on this subject, please share!
Thanks in advance.
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There’s a book titled, “Twelve Unlikely Heroes.” It is a written by a Protestant, but he has an entire chapter on John the Baptist. I think you’ll enjoy it, and learn a lot about him from it. It’s on Amazon.
BenjaminJ said:
Not to mention that Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins.
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Not necessarily. The Greek word used in Luke 1 to describe Elizabeth & Mary simply means “relatives” (possibly close relatives), but not necessarily cousins). It is possible, but it can also refer to other kinds of kinswomen. So, Jesus & John the Baptist were not necessarily cousins.
 
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Yeah ill take Fulton Sheens word for it. Wouldnt make much sense for Mary to make the difficult trip to visit Elizabeth during her pregnancy otherwise.
 
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czeaiter said:
So, what was he doing?
Was it some kind of Jewish Baptism?
By what authority did he have to baptize people; Who taught him to baptize?
Click to expand...
It was a ritual washing. They were common in the practice of Judaism. This one was meant “for repentance”.
 
These remarks below refer to the Web page I referenced above.

Being so humble John conceals his identity in his Gospel for the most part. He Could have referred to Salome as my mom, but he is just not going to do that.

Because of the close family relationship , it easy to see why Jesus entrusts Mary to John.

And it is also because of this close blood relationship between John, his Mother Salome, and Mary that John refers to his Mother Salome within that family bond as Mary’s sister.

The Greek word that is used here is The feminine version of the word ADELPHOS. This is the same Greek word used to describe the brothers of Jesus.

So here the blessed Virgin Mary and Salome are called sisters but we would refer to them as cousins in English.

John
 
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czeaiter said:
By what authority did he have to baptize people; Who taught him to baptize?
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If you read Luke 1 (John 1 also attests to this explicitly), John the Baptist was pre-ordained by God and equipped by the Holy Spirit to point the people toward the coming Christ. He is called the Elijah that is to come in other places. If you check out Malachi it says the following: Behold I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.

Furthermore Ezekiel tells us the following: Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness from your idols. Moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heat of flesh.

The idea of baptism and the coming of the prophet that will make straight the way of the Lord when he comes is well documented in the prophetic works of the OT and John certainly would have been aware of these references.
 
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JohnR77 said:
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RaisedCatholic:
Greek word used in Luke 1 to describe Elizabeth & Mary simply means “relatives”
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Nicephorus gives a genealogy showing that Mary, Elizabeth, and Salome are cousins.
Scroll down to the blue Box at the Web page below
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I have seen the blue box before. Again, the Greek word to describe Elizabeth’s relationship to Mary simply means relative, regardless of what the blue box shows, which is not inspired. Salome & Mary were sisters, not cousins. The confusion comes the misunderstanding from John’s gospel of who Mary’s sister was, which was not Mary of Clopas, but Salome.
 
czeaiter said:
By what authority did he have to baptize people; Who taught him to baptize?
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John the Baptist belonged to the tribe of Levi. His father, Zechariah was a priest (Luke 1:8) so John would also be of the line qualified to be priests.

You might say John’s authority was bestowed directly from heaven, for it was an angel from heaven who told Zechariah the following about his son (John):
"…he will be great before the Lord, … and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Eli′jah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:15-17)
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The Jews did (perhaps still do) have a baptismal rite. You can read about it here in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
 
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