The Former Disciples of John the Baptist Who Follow Jesus
The young Jesus, nine months old, must flee to Egypt because of the massacre by Herod. Upon his return, the holy Family settles in Galilee. The two cousins could have secretly met during their coming of age as "sons of the Law" (Bar-Mitzvah), but the Baptist’s parents left before Jesus’ arrived.
Then the Baptist goes to live in the desert as Luke reports.[1] Their first meeting therefore takes place at Jesus' Baptism, and the Baptist cannot recognize the Christ in the crowd without a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
The Baptist’s teaching reflects his life: radical. He who fed only on wild honey and locusts[2] calls his listeners to a total conversion. He spares no words, nor judgments.
The purpose of this conversion is to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, of whom he is not worthy to untie the straps of his sandals.[3] As a sign of this renewal, John immerses his followers in the Jordan River.
This teaching meets immediate success among an audience nurtured by the prophecy of Daniel's seventy weeks[4]: the Messiah will come. His arrival is all the more awaited because the Roman occupier humiliates Israel and the civil and religious rulers are often a negative example.
Flavius Josephus echoes this when he writes:Now, there were Jews who thought that, if Herod Antipas’ army perished, it was by divine will and just vengeance for John called the Baptist. Indeed, Herod had him killed, although he was a man of Good and exhorted the Jews to practice virtue, to be just towards one another and pious towards God to receive Baptism.[5]What the Zealots, from whom Simon, an apostle of Jesus, will emerge, do by the dagger against the occupier, John the Baptist asks to do in his own Heart against the unhealthy Tyranny of the sins that possess him.
The Baptist’s Disciples who join Jesus
One might have feared that such radicalism in conversion would generate vindictive, censorious, aggressive Disciples. On the contrary: the Baptist’s disciples who later followed Jesus are radical in their commitment but also in their love for God and for people. Three Apostles are former disciples of the Baptist:
Other disciples were recruited from the shepherds of the Nativity or their children. Some of them got hired at the fortress of Machaerus to be closest to the imprisoned Baptist. It is from them that we have the account of his beheading.
The Baptist’s disciples are not only drawn from the popular milieu. Among them is:
- Manaen, the foster brother of Herod Antipas. The latter, who ordered the murder of the Baptist, liked to hear him.
Others are less known:
And of course the population that defends the glory of their town: the inhabitants of Hebron.[6]
John the Baptist is assassinated twenty months before Jesus.[7]
Where is it mentioned in the work?
James and John: EMV 47
The inhabitants of Hebron support their compatriot: EMV 77
The shepherds: EMV 81
Solomon the ferry-man: EMV 111
Manaen: EMV 121
The shepherds: EMV 127
Anonymous disciples of the Baptist: "Why do your disciples not fast?": EMV 159
The inhabitants of Hebron recognize the Christ: EMV 211
Gamala the vinedresser: EMV 256
Anonymous disciples of the Baptist: "Are you the Messiah?": EMV 266
The shepherds announce the Baptist’s death: EMV 270