Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/555

 JOHN

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JOHN

us regarding the Precursor's popularity, together with a few details of minor importance, are worth}' of the historian's attention. 'The same cannot be said of the apocrj'phal gospels, because the scant information they give of the Precursor is either copied from the canonical Gospels (and to these they can add no authority), or else is a mass of idle va- garies.

Zachary, the father of John the Baptist, was a priest of the course of Abia, the eighth of the twenty- four courses into which the priests were divided (I Par., xxiv, 7-19); Elizabeth, the Precursor's mother, " was of the daughters of Aaron ", according to St. Luke (i, 5); the same Evangelist, a few verses farther on (i, 26), calls her the "cousin" {(rvyyevls) of Mary. "These two statements appear to be con- flicting, for how, it will be asked, could a cousin of the Blessed Virgin be "of the daughters of .\aron"? The problem might be solved by adopting the read- ing given in an old Persian version, where we find "mother's sister" (iniTpaSe\0-Q) instead of "cousin". A somewhat analogous explanation, probably bor- rowed from some apocryphal writing, and perhaps correct, is given by St. Hippolj^us (in Nicephor., II, iii). According to him, Mathan had three daugh- ters: Mary, Soba, and Ann. Mary, the oldest, mar- ried a man of Bethlehem and was the mother of Salome; Soba married at Bethlehem also, but a "son of Levi", by whom she had Elizabeth; Ann wedded a Galilean (Joachim) and bore Mary, the Mother of God. Thus Salome, Elizabeth, and the Blessed Virgin were first cousins, and Elizabeth, "of the daughters of Aaron" on her father's side, was, on her mother's side, the cousin of Mary. Zach- ary's home is designated only in a vague manner by St. Luke: it was "a city of Juda", "in the hill- country" (i, 39). Reland, advocating the unwar- ranted assumption that Juda might be a misspelling of the name, proposed to read in its stead Jutta (Jos., XV, 55; xxi, 16; D.V.: Jota, Jeta), a priestly town south of Hebron. But priests did not always live in priestly towns (Mathathias's home was at Modin; Simon Machabeus's at Gaza). A tradition, which can be traced back to the time before the Crusades, points to the little town of Ain-Karim, five miles south-west of Jerusalem.

The birth of the Precursor was announced in a most striking manner. Zachary and Elizabeth, as we learn from St. Luke, " were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame; and they had no son, for that Elizabeth was barren" (i, 6-7). Long they had prayed that their union might be blessed with off- spring; but, now that "they were both advanced in years", the reproach of barrenness bore heavily upon them. "And it came to pass, when he executed the priestly function in the order of his course before God, according to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord. And all the multitude of the people was praj-ing without, at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zach- ary seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John: and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity. For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in tlic spirit anil power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people"

(i, 8-17). As Zachary was slow in believing this startling prediction, the angel, making himself known to him, announced that, in punishment of his in- creduhty, he should be stricken with dumbness imtil the promise was fulfilled. "And it came to pass, after the days of his office were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days, EUzabeth his wife conceived, and hid herself five months" (i, 23-24).

Now during the sixth month, the Annunciation had taken place, and, as Mary had heard from the angel the fact of her cousin's conceiving, she went "with haste" to congratulate her. "And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant" — filled, like the mother, with the Holy Ghost — "leaped for joy in her womb", as if to acknowledge the presence of his Lonl. Then was ac- complishetl the prophetic utterance of the angel that the chikl should " be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb ". Now as the presence of an}' sin whatever is incompatible with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul, it follows that at this moment John was cleansed from the stain of original sin. When "Elizabeth's full time of being dehvered was come, . . . she brought forth a son " (i, 57) ; and " on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they culled him by his father's name Zachary. And his mother answering, said : Not so, but he shall be called John. And they said to her: There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And demanding a writing table, he wrote, say- ing : John is his name. And they all wondered" (i, 59-63). They were not aware that no better name could be applied (John, Hebr.: Jehokanan, i. e. "Jahweh hath mercy") to him who, as his father prophesied, was to "go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways: to give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto remission of their sins: through the bowels of the mercy of our God" (i, 76-78). Moreover, all these events, to wit, a child born to an aged couple, Zachary's sudden dumbness, his equally sudden recovery of speech, his astounding utterance, might justly strike with wonderment the assembled neighbours; these could hardly help asking: "What an one, think ye, shall this child be?" (i, 66).

As to the date of the birth of John the Baptist, nothing can be said with certainty. The Gospel suggests that the Precursor was born about six months before Christ; but the year of Christ's na- tivity has not so far been ascertained. Nor is there anything certain about the season of Christ's birth, for it is well known that the assignment of the feast of Christmas to the twenty-fifth of December is not grounded on historical evidence, but is possibly sug- gested by merely astronomical considerations, also, perhaps, inferred from astronomico-theological rea- sonings. Besides, no calculations can be based upon the time of the year when the course of Abia was serving in the Temple, since each one of the twenty- four courses of priests had two turns a year. Of John's early life St. Luke tells us only that "the child grew, and was strengthened in spirit ; and was in the deserts, until the day of his manifestation to Israel" (i, 80). Should we ask just when the Precursor went into the wilderness, an old tradition echoed by Paul Warne- fried (Paul the Deacon), in the hymn, " L^t queant laxis", composed in honour of the saint, gives an answer hardly more definite than the statement of the Gospel: " .\ntra deserti teneris sub annis . . . petiit . . ." Other writers, however, thought they knew better. For instance, St. Peter of .-Mexandria believed St. John was taken into the desert to escape the wrath of Herod, who, if we may Ijelieve report, was impelled by fear of losing his kingdom to seek the life of the Precursor, just as he was, later on. to seek that of the new-born Saviour. It was added also