John St

John, St., "The Baptist," the son of Zachariah, a priest, and Elizabeth, kinswoman of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born in Judah six months before the birth of Christ. We hear little of his subsequent life, save that in his thirtieth year he began to preach in the wilderness east of Jerusalem and to "baptize" in Jordan. To this baptism Jesus himself submitted, and was at once acknowledged as a superior. John ended his ministry by imprisonment and decapitation in the prison of Macbaerus, his doom having been brought about by his denunciation of the marriage of Herod Antipas with Herodias, his brother's wife.