Was Jesus a CopyCat? The Role of John the Baptist in the Ministry of Jesus.

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Jesus is usually credited with starting the Christian movement, but were his ideas orignally his? It appears that John the Baptist preached a similar message and that Jesus was originally a follower of his. So who started Christianity? In this episode we consider what we can know about John, why he engaged in his ministry, and what influence he had on his follower Jesus. If John started the movement, why isn't there a religion in his name?

Megan asks Bart:

- Why is this important?

- What was John the Baptist’s movement?

- Was baptism a new thing?

- Was John using baptism in a different way?

- What books of the NT mention him, and what do they say?

- Do we have any other sources for him, or does he just appear in the NT?

- What kinds of things does Josephus say about John the Baptist?

- What purpose did the gospel writers have for including John the Baptist, and did it differ from Josephus?

- How does our understanding of his role and purpose in the NT inform how we reconstruct the historical John the Baptist?

- Do we know anything about John’s early life, or does he pop onto the scene as a full-fledged adult?

- How do historians separate out accounts intended to show John as Jesus’ precursor from the historical man “john the baptist”?

- What can historians say about the historical figure, rather than the mythologized character?