For the first time in nearly 50 years, a casual yet informative method to learn about John the Baptist… "Why did each of the four evangelists make John the gateway to the Gospel, the first preacher of Good News? What were the reasons for the early Church's intense interest in a desert hermit whose public ministry lasted two years or less? Why in early Christian tradition was John the Baptist accorded an exalted religious stature, almost equal to that of Mary? The irony is that most modern scholarship on John has missed the true sources of his religious significance…in his links to Christ and to the very earliest beginnings of the Christian religion."—from the Introduction Alexander Burke pieces together the mystery of this well-known disciple of Jesus one chapter at a time, covering John's preaching, arrest and execution, his role in Eastern and Western Christian Tradition, and the many paradoxes surrounding him. An excellent resource for group or individual study, John the Baptist offers questions for reflection at the end of each chapter. Discover a fresh perspective of John the Baptist. Let him rise to the top of the beadroll of Christian heroes where Jesus believed he belonged. Step back and see the beautiful mosaic of mysteries that made up this fascinating saint's life.

History and fiction merge beautifully in K. Ford K.'s vibrant, breathtaking novel about the mysterious man who became John the Baptist and the woman who loved him, his wife. Hessa, the daughter of a rich Greek trader, has an unusual talent, but in preparation for her marriage to a wealthy man, she is taught that she will have no real destiny of her own. Instead, she is to be the spinner of her husband's fate and share his fate to her death. But when Hessa meets a charismatic, young man named John, who is rumored to be a prophet, she falls in love and runs away to marry him. Thrown into the turmoil of Roman-occupied Judea, Hessa struggles to protect her husband, but what if her actions unwittingly lead to the destiny she fears most? The Wife of John the Baptist is a novel, rich with historical insight. It uncovers the mystery of a man who was greatly admired in his time, and who changed our way of thinking forever. A victory of the heart, this intimate portrayal of a marriage is a tribute to the timeless and unshakable love that triumphs when all else is lost.

America’s favorite inspirational novelist offers a fictional view of six of the family members of Jesus, all anchored by Scriptural truth, creating a life-changing and unprecedented emotional connection to the Bible.Through The Family of Jesus, readers will develop an emotional connection to the family members of Jesus, learning about their lives and falling in love with Scripture along the way. Bible studies and devotionals abound, and in churches everywhere people gather to seek a deeper understanding of God’s Word and its application to their lives. But too often these studies engage only the analytic approach to Bible learning. In The Family of Jesus Karen Kingsbury will make you laugh, cry, and ultimately care more deeply about the Bible by helping you grasp the truths in Scripture not just with your mind, but with your heart. The characters in these short stories were among those closest to Jesus – Mary, Joseph, Jesus’ brother James, John the Baptist, Zechariah and Elizabeth. Each has a compelling tale to tell. Kingsbury intersperses fictional, emotionally gripping details anchored in Scripture with historical and theological insights and questions that will guide soul-searching and reflection. The Family of Jesus not only provides a deeper understanding of the relatives of our Saviour, but also helps readers acquire tools that will draw them closer to Christ, to the Scriptures, and to each other.

Through this inspiring Bible-based novel, the author tells the story of John the Baptist. Sharing the ins and outs of John's daily life and the events surrounding the coming of Jesus, Yochanan shares an encouraging story of hope, faith, and the calling of God, while bringing fresh perspective to the story of Jesus. The author's character development, plot points, scene, and setting allow readers to put themselves in the shoes of one living during the time. Yochanan is eloquent and informative, through which the author weaves a tapestry of prose that excites, enthralls, and captivates the reader. Wonderful descriptions, brilliant interactions between characters, and story dialogue are realistic, emotive, and thoughtful, providing great flow and structure. With little narrative, the author allows character dialogue to reveal important information about the plot. Yochanan portrays a vivid realization of the struggle of the godly in an ungodly world, while masterfully balancing biblical teaching from the gospel story with an engaging storyline focusing on John, the man God used to usher forth His Son. The author is a retired law enforcement officer following a thirty-three-year career, eight of which he served as chief of police. He is a graduate of the Delinquency Control Institute from USC, the FBI National Academy from Quantico Virginia, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from National University in La Jolla, California. He is proud of his family: wife Robin for more than forty years, two sons and two grandsons.

This is the extended and annotated edition including * an extensive annotation of almost 10.000 words about the history and basics of Gnosticism, written by Wilhelm Bousset * an interactive table-of-contents * perfect formatting for electronic reading devices The main materials contained in these pages will certainly be new for the vast majority of readers. Moreover the Mandæan narratives, legends and discourses are not only interesting because of their own distinctive matter and manner, but they are also arresting; for they raise a number of problems, some of which are far-reaching and one is fraught with implications of immense importance. The definite solutions of these problems, however, lie in the future, and the most important of them will perhaps never be reached; for, in the absence of straightforward historical information, general agreement on any subject that concerns Christian origins immediately or even indirectly is now well-nigh a psychological impossibility.

Was John the Baptist the greatest man who ever lived and if so what does that mean for us today? John the Baptist was a relative and friend of Jesus' but also described by him as among the greatest people who have ever lived. This book examines the life and teaching of John, his interactions with Jesus and the influence he had on the early church.

An analysis that challenges the conventional Christian hierarchy of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth While the Christian tradition has subordinated John the Baptist to Jesus of Nazareth, John himself would likely have disagreed with that ranking. In this eye-opening new book, John the Baptist in History and Theology, Joel Marcus makes a powerful case that John saw himself, not Jesus, as the proclaimer and initiator of the kingdom of God and his own ministry as the center of God's saving action in history. Although the Fourth Gospel has the Baptist saying, "He must increase, but I must decrease," Marcus contends that this and other biblical and extrabiblical evidence reveal a continuing competition between the two men that early Christians sought to muffle. Like Jesus, John was an apocalyptic prophet who looked forward to the imminent end of the world and the establishment of God's rule on earth. Originally a member of the Dead Sea Sect, an apocalyptic community within Judaism, John broke with the group over his growing conviction that he himself was Elijah, the end-time prophet who would inaugurate God's kingdom on earth. Through his ministry of baptism, he ushered all who came to him—Jews and non-Jews alike—into this dawning new age. Jesus began his career as a follower of the Baptist, but, like other successor figures in religious history, he parted ways from his predecessor as he became convinced of his own centrality in God's purposes. Meanwhile John's mass following and apocalyptic message became political threats to Herod Antipas, who had John executed to abort any revolutionary movement. Based on close critical-historical readings of early texts—including the accounts of John in the Gospels and in Josephus's Antiquities—as well as parallels from later religious movements, John the Baptist in History and Theology situates the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism and compares him to other apocalyptic thinkers from ancient and modern times. It concludes with thoughtful reflections on how its revisionist interpretations might be incorporated into the Christian faith.