Adapted from the Urantia Book original paper here
John didn’t grow up with the benefit of formal schooling, but rather was educated by his father, Zacharias, who had been educated as a priest. His mother, Elizabeth, was also better schooled than the average Judean woman, and was herself a member of the priesthood being a daughter of Aaron.
John Becomes a Nazarite
When John was fourteen years old, he didn’t have a school from which to graduate. Instead, Zacharias and Elizabeth took John to Engedi close to the Dead Sea, and had him formally inducted in the order of the Nazarite brotherhood. John went through the ceremonies, which included taking the required vows to not drink alcohol, to not cut his hair, and to not touch dead people.
The Jews offered a Nazarite almost the same respect as the high priest, and Nazarites who had enough time in the order were the only other people besides the high priest who could enter the holy of holies in the temple. In joining the Nazarite brotherhood, John was following a line of many great men, including Samson and the prophet Samuel.
After the initiation ceremonies, John returned home with his parents. He continued to tend his father’s flock of sheep, and in the process grew into a strong man over six feet tall while developing a noble character. When he was sixteen, John read about Elijah, the prophet of Mount Carmel. He was so impressed with the Prophet Elijah that he decided to dress like him, and from then on John always wore a hairy rawhide pullover for a tunic, with a girdle, or a wide leather belt with suspenders, cinched around his waist. Between his physical size and strength, his cloths remnant of ancient heroes, and his long flowing hair John was quite the site to see when he went forth to preach.
The Death of Zacharias
Zacharias died in July, A.D. 12. John was a little over eighteen years old at the time. A couple of months later, in September, John and his mom went to Nazareth to visit with Mary and Jesus. This was when Jesus and John discussed their futures, and Jesus advised him to return home, take care of his mother, and wait until the coming of the Father’s hour. Jesus was advising John to do as he himself was doing: meeting the needs of the day as he matured to enough for his coming mission. John accepted Jesus’ advice, and followed his example. When John and Elizabeth left to return home, it was the last time that Jesus saw John until the day he baptized Jesus in the Jordan river.
Within a couple of years, John and Elizabeth were broke so they took their sheep and headed south into Hebron, known as the wilderness of Judea, to live. They found a place along a stream going down to the Dead Sea at Engedi, and there joined other Nazarites tending their flocks in the countryside. John made frequent visits to Engedi to visit with the Nazarite brotherhood. He stood out from the others and developed few close friendships, except for becoming good friends with Abner, the leader of the Engedi colony.
The Life of a Shepherd
John lived a rugged life out in the wilderness safeguarding his flocks. He had a lad who helped him at times, and together they used stones to build a dozen or more shelters and corrals to guard his sheep. The two subsisted mostly on a diet of mutton, goat’s milk, wild honey, and edible locusts.
John had a lot of time to ponder over the many contradictions in his mind. His mother still insisted that Jesus was the coming Messiah. For her, this meant that Jesus was going to take the throne of David as his, and that John was going to be the one to announce the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. Then, after Jesus had assumed power, John would be his right-hand man as Jesus ruled over all of the kingdoms on Earth. But there was a problem. What John had read in the scriptures and what Jesus had told him during their talks, didn’t fit with what his mother believed.
Regardless of how he and Jesus were to engage their missions, John decided that from what he could see of the world and all of its vice, wickedness, and moral barrenness it looked like the end of an age was at hand. The world, John thought, was ripe for a new and divine era – the kingdom of heaven on Earth. The more he thought about this, the more convinced John became that he was supposed to be both the last of the prophets of the old age, and the first prophet of the new era. The excitement was building up in John as he roamed the wilderness of Judea, and he was feeling like he was about to burst with all of his pent-up desire to go forth into the world and tell all men to, “Repent! Get right with God! Get ready for the end; prepare yourselves for the appearance of the new and eternal order of earth affairs, the kingdom of heaven.”
The Death of Elizabeth
Elizabeth died suddenly on August 17, A.D. 22. John was twenty-eight years old. After the funeral, John returned to Engedi, gave is sheep to the Nazarite brotherhood, and went into seclusion for some time to fast and pray. He stayed at Engedi for two and a half years, and while he was there he convinced most of the Nazarite brotherhood that the end of the age was at hand, and that the kingdom of heaven was about to appear. John was eager to go forth into the world and proclaim the coming kingdom, but he held himself back for a couple of years because he believed, according to the scriptures, that it was the prophet Elijah that God was going to send to warn the people about the coming wrath of God. John got this idea about Elijah from reading the prophet Malachi, and it just added to his confusion about his future role in the coming kingdom of God.
The accounts of Elijah did, though, influence John’s approach to the people causing him to be direct and blunt in his assaults on the sins and vices of others. He was like the old prophet in many ways. He dressed like him, he was a tall strong man of the wilds, and he was just as fearless and daring when preaching the word of God. John was literate and well knew the scriptures, but he was hardly cultured or tactful.
Eventually, John came to a plan. He swept aside all doubts, and left Engedi in March of A.D. 25 to tell people the Messiah was coming and the Kingdom of God was upon us.
The Kingdom of God
John was the match that set Palestine ablaze with the message of the coming Messiah.
At the time of John and Jesus, the Jews were in a bit of a historical and religious predicament. On the one hand, they’d been ruled over by gentiles for the last hundred years, but on the other, their holy books said the situation should be otherwise. They were the Jews. They were supposed to be God’s chosen people, and he was supposed to have rewarded them with riches and power because they were the most righteous on Earth. But that obviously hadn’t happened, so what was going on?
About a hundred years before, a group of religious teachers called the apocalyptists explained the Jew’s situation by saying that the people were paying God for their nation’s sins. But, they added, never fear because the time was near for their debt to be paid, the current era of oppression to end, and the kingdom of heaven to be established on Earth. That was the time when God, the Messiah, was going to rule over all of the kingdoms of man in absolute perfection just like he did in heaven. In other words, the ancient hope, Your will be done on Earth as in heaven, was going to really happen.
Of course, the people were anxious for the coming kingdom. Many of them already believed that they were living in the end times. They thought that God was tired of the gentiles, and that their rule over the Jews was coming to an end. While the people had different ideas about what this new era would look like, they all pretty much agreed that there had to be a cleansing of all of the evil and wickedness on Earth before a new age could arise. And again, there were various ideas about how God was going to do this. What most of the people did agree on, though, was that God would probably appoint a ruler to represent him on Earth, and that that person would be the Messiah. And just to be clear, holy people who spoke of or predicted the coming new era were called prophets. The Messiah, though, was that person who would actually bring into existence the kingdom of heaven on Earth.
While most of the Jews agreed with the idea that God would appoint a Messiah to be in between him and them, there were many ideas on who that person would be. The elders held to the old beliefs that the Messiah would be the son of David, and many of the younger teachers believed that he’d be a divine personality. In other words, someone who had been with God in heaven before coming to Earth as our Messiah. This group was closest to the truth in their belief that the Messiah would be a heavenly prince, someone who was both the son of man and a Son of God.
This hodge-podge of ideas, all joined under a general expectancy that a new era was dawning, set the stage for John’s entrance on the scene. And enter he did. With sincerity, enthusiasm, and confidence and looking like a rough-and-tough mountain man, John went forth and boldly told his people to flee the wrath to come: To repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
John Begins to Preach
John began his mission early in March, A.D. 25, and set-up camp on the Jordan River near Jericho. There was a shallow place at this point in the river where most people crossed when going back and forth, called the Bethany ford. This was where the Jews had first entered the area in ancient times. The people who came and heard John speak knew there was something special about this mysterious man who just showed up out of the wilds looking like Elijah of old, and thundering forth their need to repent right now because the kingdom of heaven was here. Never before in their history had the Jewish people been so eager to hear and believe this message of their salvation and divine future.
John made his followers get baptized for the remission of their sins, which was something that the Jews had never before undergone. Up until then, baptism had only been used to cleanse the gentiles who wanted to be friends of the Jews. Over in the next fifteen months, John baptized over one hundred thousand people, or roughly two hundred twenty-five people a day.
Four months later, John started to head up the Jordan River. He preached the entire way, and as reports of this man who was more than a prophet spread across the land, tens of thousands of people from across Judea, Perea, and Samaria came and listened to his message,
When the priests and Levites sent messengers to ask John if he was the Messiah and who gave him the right to preach, John told them: “Go tell your masters that you’ve heard ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness,’ as spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘make ready the way of the Lord, make straight a highway for our God. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; the uneven ground shall become a plain, while the rough places shall become a smooth valley; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
As mentioned earlier, John was a bit rough around the edges. Tact, called the fulcrum of social leverage in another part of the Urantia revelation, just wasn’t in his tool box. One day when he was doing his thing in camp by the river, a group of Pharisees and Sadducees showed up and asked to be baptized. John told the group of religious leaders that he’d baptize them, but before he took them down to the river he lectured them, saying:
“Who warned you to flee, as vipers before the fire, from the wrath to come? I will baptize you, but I warn you to bring forth fruit worthy of sincere repentance if you would receive the remission of your sins. Tell me not that Abraham is your father. I declare that God is able of these twelve stones here before you to raise up worthy children for Abraham. And even now is the ax laid to the very roots of the trees. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is destined to be cut down and cast into the fire.”
In between baptizing people, John held classes for his followers. He told the rich to feed the poor; the tax gatherers to not extort more than they were allowed; to the soldiers, he said to be content with your wages instead of taking from the people; and, above all, he told everyone to make ready for the end of the age because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Okay, folks, that’s it for Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 14, part 1, “John the Baptist.”
Next week is part 2 of Chapter 14, “John the Baptist.”
Have a fantastic week out there.
Bob