{"id":97,"date":"2014-06-16T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=97"},"modified":"2014-05-22T23:29:25","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T23:29:25","slug":"matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Personality and Character Studies)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>John the Baptist was a notable figure who shows up in both Bible history and Roman historical records from the time of Jesus. Here\u2019s what we know about him:<\/p>\n<p>His father Zechariah was a temple priest, and his mother Elizabeth was a relative of Jesus\u2019 mother, Mary. In that sense, John and Jesus may have been cousins of some sort. He was miraculously born to elderly parents who had been previously unable to have kids, linking him symbolically to Old Testament heroes like Isaac, Samson, and Samuel. His impending birth was announced to Zechariah by the angel Gabriel, the same angel who announced Jesus\u2019 coming to Mary. He lived like a monk in the Judean desert along the Dead Sea, dressed in rough, camel-hair clothing, and ate mostly bugs (locusts similar to our grasshoppers) and honey from wild bees.<\/p>\n<p>John conducted himself in the mold of Old Testament prophets, preaching for people to repent of their sins. As a symbol of repentance, he urged people to be baptized\u2014a ritual he apparently adapted from the Jewish religious practice of a purifying bath before worship. Most importantly, he served as the prophesied \u201cforerunner\u201d who announced the coming of the Messiah to the world (see Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3). John was eventually executed by Herod Antipas, who ruled Galilee during the time of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/JohntheBaptist.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-289\" title=\"Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way\" alt=\"John the Baptist by Alexander Andrejewitsch Iwanow\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/JohntheBaptist.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"341\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\" target=\"_self\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[WWA, 216-218]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John the Baptist was a notable figure who shows up in both Bible history and Roman historical records from the time of Jesus. Here\u2019s what we know about him: His father Zechariah was a temple priest, and his mother Elizabeth was a relative of Jesus\u2019 mother, Mary. In that sense, John and Jesus may have&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[66,67,62,302,68,64,65],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-personalityandcharacter-studies","tag-elizabeth","tag-herod-antipas","tag-john-the-baptist","tag-matthew","tag-prophet","tag-roman","tag-zechariah"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Personality and Character Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Personality and Character Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John the Baptist was a notable figure who shows up in both Bible history and Roman historical records from the time of Jesus. Here\u2019s what we know about him: His father Zechariah was a temple priest, and his mother Elizabeth was a relative of Jesus\u2019 mother, Mary. In that sense, John and Jesus may have&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-16T12:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-22T23:29:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/JohntheBaptist.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Personality and Character Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Personality and Character Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"John the Baptist was a notable figure who shows up in both Bible history and Roman historical records from the time of Jesus. Here\u2019s what we know about him: His father Zechariah was a temple priest, and his mother Elizabeth was a relative of Jesus\u2019 mother, Mary. In that sense, John and Jesus may have&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-06-16T12:00:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-22T23:29:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/JohntheBaptist.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html","name":"Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Personality and Character Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/JohntheBaptist.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-16T12:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-22T23:29:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/JohntheBaptist.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/JohntheBaptist.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-31-12-john-the-baptist-prepares-the-way-personality-and-character-studies.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 3:1-12; John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Personality and Character Studies)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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