St John the Baptist part 2: one marked with a special favour

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.[1]

.. for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.[2]

John was ‘filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb’ by Christ himself, whom the Virgin Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth thus became a visit from God to his people… In John, the precursor, the Holy Spirit completes the work of ‘[making] ready a people prepared for the Lord’…. with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of ‘the divine likeness’, prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John’s baptism was for repentance; baptism in water and the Spirit will be a new birth.[3]

It is possible to understand the coming of Christ as foreseen from the first moment of creation; and, in the same way, the part that the Virgin Mary was going to play in the mystery of the Incarnation can also be understood as foreseen from the first moment of creation. This is summarised in the images of Christ as the “new Adam” and the Virgin Mary as the “new Eve”; Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, Christ and the Virgin Mary in the New Testament. The story of the physical creation, the history of mankind and the history of God’s dealings with his people in the Old Testament can all then be understood as a “salvation history” focussed on and directed towards the coming of Christ. Within this vision, the part played by John the Baptist is also foreseen from the beginning of creation.

Pope Benedict XVI suggests that we should see in the event of the Baptism of Jesus by John an anticipation of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus going down into the water of the Jordan river is an anticipation of his death and descent into hell to liberate those held captive there[4]; the appearance of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father - “"Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased" - are an anticipation of his resurrection.[5] This is taken up by St Paul in his teaching on the sacrament of Baptism[6]. The reply of Jesus when the Baptist suggests that he should not baptise him - “"Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness"[7] - is an indicator of this anticipation, in much the same way that Jesus' observation recorded in the fourth Gospel - “"O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come"[8] - portrays the wedding feast at Cana as an anticipation of the moment of the passion.

In its turn the sign of the water of the river Jordan is anticipated throughout the Old Testament: the crossing of the river Jordan into the promised land, the water emerging from the rock when it was struck by Moses staff, the water of the Red Sea through which the Jews passed on their escape from Egypt, the water of the flood from which Noah was saved in the Ark. If the saving work of Christ and baptism are understood as a re-birth, as a new creation, it can be argued that the mission of John the Baptist is pre-figured in the water of the first verses of the Book of Genesis, water over which God’s spirit hovered. In this way, we can suggest the pivotal role of John the Baptist with respect to Jesus baptism is implicit from the first moment of creation.

Jesus’ Baptism, then, is understood as a repetition of the whole of history, which both recapitulates the past and anticipates the future … This struggle is the ‘conversion’ of being that brings it into a new condition, that prepares a new heaven and a new earth.[9]

It is this pre-destination of the vocation of John the Baptist from the beginning of creation, a pre-destination to be the end-point of the covenant of the Old Testament, that underpins the privileges attributed to him by the New Testament texts. He is greater than any other born of a woman and he is filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb. This particular dignity of the vocation of John the Baptist is reflected in the liturgical celebration, not only of his death on the 29th August, but of his nativity on 24th June[10].


[1] Mt 11:11; cf Lke 7:28
[2] Lke 1:14-15
[3] Catechism of the Catholic Church nn.717-720.
[4] Pope Benedict points out that Eastern iconography frequently represents the Jordan by a cave or tomb representative of Hades. In the Eastern Liturgy, hymns celebrating the feast of the Epiphany are also used in the last days of Holy Week. See Jesus of Nazareth p.19.
[5] cf Pope Benedict XVI Jesus of Nazareth p.19.
[6] cf Rom. 6:3-4: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
[7] Mt 3:15
[8] Jn 2:4, cf Jn 12:23 and Jn 13:1, Jn 17:1.
[9] Pope Benedict XVI Jesus of Nazareth p.20.
[10] Though it has not been defined by the teaching authority of the Church, and is not reflected in the liturgical texts for the solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, the moment of the visitation of Elizabeth by Mary - when John leaps in his mothers womb - is seen by some writers as the moment of his redemption; the Baptist is born immaculate though he is not conceived immaculate. This is based on understanding the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as incompatible with the presence of sin.